U.S. Customs officials now routinely conduct Beanie Baby searches of luggage coming off Beijing flights. White said from his Chicago office. All legal Beanie Babies are first shipped to Oakbrook, Illinois, he said. The United States is the main market, although Beanie Babies are sold in many other countries. There are no legal Beanie Baby sales in China.
Some fakes are glaringly obvious.
Smoochy the frog was spotted recently in a Beijing stall missing one eye and wearing Snip the cat's tag. The writing on the tags of some fakes is too dark, washed out or smudged. Michaud was carrying a four-page list of requests from his extended family. While most of their tags say handmade in China, little is known about the manufacturing of the wildly popular collectible toy. Ty officials have not commented.