What is the rarest BK, well the answer will surprise even the most ardent BK collector. To help answer this question one must again set some parameters to define “what is a BK”. Some people may define a BK as generally as something that Skansen manufactured, (e.g. Proto-types etc) to very specific as the BK’s that are in the Official Beanie Kids Collectors Guides, or something in between. I am going to use the same definition as the last article.

To determine if a particular Beanie Kid is eligible to be collected;

1. There has to be more than one produced with the exception of one off Special editions.
2. It must be deliberately produced even if it has an error, i.e. someone made the decision to do something that made the Beanie Kid that way, rightly or wrongly.
3. And that more than one collector can collect it so that collectors can compare collections and corroborate authenticity.

So what are some rare BK’s? Well there are the Classics. Jade and Goldie, 2 of the first BK’s released and still very hard to get in Mint condition. They are worth around $400 each. They are rare because most collectors want them for the historical value and age as much as their rarity so a lot of people strive to get them. Also there was only about 3000 made and most were played with so are not mint. Then there are all the Limited Editions (LE). These are rare, but were still made in the Thousands. There are quite common relative to Jade and Goldie and more of them exist because BK’s had become popular and so more were kept in mint condition. They are still quite valuable and sought after but are not the rarest. Most LE are worth about $20 to $80. Along with LE are Retail Exclusives (RE) that were released through one retail outlet or chain. They are worth about $25 to $120.

There are the production variations and mutations. One of these is the smiling and frowning pairs. Prince, Princess and others that were made both smiling and frowning. With Prince and Princess the Smiling variation was the first (bigger) batch but many, many Frowning batches were made making the Smiling the rarest. However for some like Rodger the Rock Star, Billy the Cowboy and Snoozy there was the first (bigger) Smiling batch and only one second (smaller) batch of the Frowning made. So the Frowning variation of rarer. Tag variations and versions were also made whole batches and quite common, for example the Batch of Crackle the Fluoro Pink that was made with the BK number and Barcode printed upside down. How common these tag errors are, depends on if they occurred on the initial bigger batch or on smaller top-up batches. But none of these are really that rare, but they are fun to hunt for. They are worth about 50% more than the common versions. The reason they don’t attract greater values is because most collectors are happy if they get Billy and don’t care if they have a different tag or are different when made.

Mutations are a bit more rare. They are a small number of units made, usually, at the same time as the normal units. The ratio varies but is typically 1 in 6 to 1 in 12. So they are rare but still in the high Hundreds to the low Thousands. Again the rarity comes from collectors wanting them and most were originally played with and so are no longer rare. Most of the early Mutations range in value from $50 to $250.

There are a couple of special releases that were made in a batch of about 400-500 units only. These were given as a special gift. The first is Grateful the Thank You Bear given as a gift, one each, to each of the Premier Stockist Stores. The second is Ooki the Brave. A bear made as a prize for the design a bear for your school competition and won by the teachers and students of the Oak Park Primary School in Victoria. Of these two, Ooki, in mint condition, is the rarest as many were damaged before they even left the school, by children who played with them and creased the tag. But even so I estimate that 100-150 are still in mint condition. These range in value from $200 to $600. The first Ooki sold on eBay went for $801.

We are getting down in numbers and closer to the rarest BK. There are a special batch of Production Variations that are even rarer than Grateful and Ooki. A few times a batch has been started and something was done wrong, I know of three.

1. When the Tush tags for Marion were being printed, some were printed with the name “Maid” as in Maid Marion. When this was noticed, the correct name “Marion” was inserted. About $150
2. The same thing happened to Rock Chic. Some tush tags were printed with “Rock Chick” and then corrected after a small number were printed. $150 up as it’s a really hard to spot error so may even be worth more. As it’s so hard to spot most will never be found and so have none have even made it to eBay yet.
3. The third is a small batch of Meow that were made with a Black nose rather then the normal Pink. The probably occurred when the factory run out of Pink or a particular work station was given a box of the wrong colour. About $50

Of these variations, I estimate that 100 to 300 of these were made. Funny that I should tell you of Meow the Black Cat last. We all know Black Cats are unlucky. Well it seems Meow is also unlucky, as it is closely linked to rarest BK of all. The story as told to me by Beanie Master follows shortly:-
In the last article I mentioned I was chasing one of 2 special gold nose mutations. So far most mutation Beanie Kids have been released in 2 forms and several in the last few years in “Chippy Bags” to give more people a chance of finding a mutation without many being horded by a few. Well on two occasions Skansen has released in very limited numbers (50 across Australia, 5 across NZ and 10 more as second chance draws) special Gold Nosed versions.

There are only 65 of each of the Gold nosed Patty and Jet and they are very rare but still not the rarest. The Gold nose mutations are the rarest (Commonly) known about BK’s. They range from $600 to $1000 in value. The next one is the rarest and most collectors don’t even know it exists.

In March/April 2002 the factory was making 2 BK’s The Black Cat Bear and Bunyip the Bear. However the tags for the Cat Bear were made but not the actual Bear. The factory was making Bunyip the Bear but accidentally put all the Cat Bear’s tags on the Bunyip. As the original name for the Cat Bear was Whisker the Cat Bear (BK270) suddenly all the Bunyip the Bear’s were wrong.
When the batch arrived and Skansen found the error, they decided that it was too expensive to remove the Tush Tags that said Whiskers as they are sewn into a seam. They could get new Swing tags made and rename Bunyip the Bear to Whiskers the Bunyip Bear and give it a new BK number (BK281) and rename Whiskers the Cat Bear to Meow the Cat Bear also with a new number (BK280). This having been decided, the Factory made new Swing tags for both BK’s and a new Tush tag for Meow. As Meow had not been made this was easy at the factory end. They just made Meow and shipped it as normal a month later.

The factory also made the new Whiskers swing tags and sent them to Australia. Skansen then sent all the Bunyips to a Sheltered Workshop to have the old tag removed and the new tag attached. They then released both designs in AUG/2002 as BK280 and BK281. Over the last few years I have logged the existence of several Whiskers that still have the original BK270 Swing Tags that say WHISKERS THE CAT BEAR.

I have one, only the second one found as far as I know. Beanie Master told me of the first one that some fellow had found and cut the tag off the Bunyip and attached to Meow. (That devalued that one a lot). Another collector in Pakenham has one won on eBay as does the good friend I mentioned earlier. An owner of a gift store in Stud Park shopping centre has one, but I lost track of that one when she sold the shop, but I have seen it. There was another one sold on eBay to a Malaysian couple in Western Australia, but again I have lost contact with them and it may have returned to Malaysia. After I told a collector in Olinda, Victoria, about the mix up, the collector in Olinda found one in her spares but it may be one of the ones I have lost track of.

As far as I can tell there is less than 10 and maybe as few as 5 Whiskers the Cat Bear (BK270) in existence. That is the rarest BK, at least that I know about. As it is so rare the value is hard to determine but the first on listed on eBay easily made $325 but if Skansen were to acknowledge it then it would be worth well over $1000. In support of this there are 3 Sammy the Punk BK signed by Samantha the first BK designer that come with letters of Authenticity and they sell for $2000-$2500. (Note Sammy is a Girl BK but 99.9% of people call it a him but Sam doesn’t mind)
Just to finish off, there are some other rare products from Skansen, that are not BK’s but are BK designs. There are few special productions of Cuddly Kids, Great Big Kids and a Single Giant Kid that are also rare and I’ll list the ones I know about, with the numbers made (where known ), below.

Cuddly Kids.

1. Store Exclusives; given as prizes, ranging in production runs of 20-200;
   Magic, Dreamy, Spotty, Bumble Beanie, Hope, Joy, Baa-Bara, Ram-Baue, Pink, G’day, Gummy. These were given to stores to give away as prizes at BK parties. $200-$600
2. Competition Prizes; ranging in production runs of 10-30
   Windsor, Pokey-Nose, See-More. These were given by Skansen as prizes to competitions they ran. $500-$1200
3. Tag error; Numbers unknown but expected to be in the range 50-100
   Star with a number of 8733C instead of BIGB037, Sleepy with Pokey-Nose swing tags (This is a genuine error as no one would remove a Pokey-Nose tag off the real Pokey-Nose CK as the real Pokey Nose CK is worth nearly $1000). Value Unknown as it is so small most don’t know about it.

Great Big Kids.

1. Fund Raiser Bears; One off’s made to auction for charity;
   Believe (For Make a wish Foundation), Celebrate (for Camp Quality), Bamboo (for WWF Australia) and See-More (for SEDA). These raised between $2,400.00 and $4,500.00
2. Ooki; (Two made);
   Given to the school (Oak Park) that won the “Design an BK for your school” competition. Value Unknown as the school has one and hates it as they get annoyed by all the call looking for one.
3. Aloha; (Ten made);
   A Prize for the write a travel story competition. $700
4. Alina, (Three made);
   Two were given as prizes one year at the trade fairs in Melbourne and Sydney and won by visitors who left a Business Card when they visited the Skansen stand. The third (the display model) I understand was given to a staff member called Alina. Unknow as none have ever been sold.
5. Dreamy; Low hundreds made:
   A special loyalty program run by What’s New stores. $100

Giant Kids.

1. A Special one off Giant kid of Snappy the Croc was made and auctioned on eBay to raise money for Steve Erwin’s Wildlife Warriors. It raised $9,000.00