u/imaginarion

In the 90s and early 00s, Ty partnered with numerous sports leagues to give away promotional Beanie Babies at specific sporting events and games, most notably with MLB. These were usually limited to the first 10,000 fans in attendance, and always came with a commemorative card marking the occasion. Today, most of these Beanie Babies sell for $15-30 if both the card and the ticket stub to the game in question are included. The beanies themselves are identical to their retail release counterparts.

The one exception, however, is a very special Daisy the cow given out to those in attendance at Wrigley Field on May 3, 1998. The Chicago Cubs played the St. Louis Cardinals that afternoon, and with the recent passing of legendary broadcaster Harry Caray, the game was dedicated to his memory. Caray spent many years calling games for the Cardinals before he became a Cubs announcer.

This Daisy sports an entirely-unique 5th Generation swing tag, accompanied by a standard 6th Generation tush tag. The left interior of the swing tag bears a cartoon caricature of Harry Caray’s likeness, and the right side a poem describing the man and his baseball legacy. This swing tag is not found on any other Daisy (or any other Beanie Baby, for that matter). In mint condition with both commemorative card and ticket, a Harry Caray Daisy is worth $100+.

Pictured above are both the special Harry Caray version, as well as a common 5th gen Daisy for comparison.

Snowball the snowman was released in October 1997, and retired only two months later at the end of December 1997. It was promoted as a “limited edition” holiday release at the time. Nonetheless, millions of them were still made. Therefore, this Beanie Baby can easily be had for $3-5 today. It always sports a 4th Generation swing tag and a 5th Generation tush tag.

There is, however, one very special, VERY rare version of Snowball. In the first shipments to stores from Ty, some Snowballs contained within mistakenly had string fringe on the end of their red scarves — in lieu of the intended yarn material. This oddity is little-known, and INCREDIBLY scarce. In fact, it is almost impossible to assign a true value to a string scarf Snowball like this, because 1) it really is near-impossible to find, and 2) so few collectors even know of its existence in the first place.

I searched and searched through over 10,000 Snowball listings on eBay and Mercari before finding the one you see in photos above. It took me over two years to track it down. This Snowball is one of the crown jewels of my collection, despite not being nearly as famous as, say, a royal blue Peanut.

Olé the black bull was a Spain exclusive that is very difficult to find. His poem is written in Spanish, and translates to the following:

“My name is Olé!
I’m brave and strong
I have a heart of gold
Even though I’m just a little bull!”

He always bears a 12th Generation (U.K.) swing tag and a 13th Generation tush tag. Expect to pay $40-80 for him in mint condition.