Red Hot Collectibles Covered in Beckett's Plushie Pals

Webkinz, Beanies Selling for Thousands on Secondary Market

Dallas, TX, July 2, 2007—Collecting Webkinz, those cute stuffed animals with web tags you can activate online, has officially moved from a fun little toy to an all out collecting craze. Dallas-based Beckett Media has tracked the $75 million plushie collectibles market for the last 10 years covering the emergence of Pokemon, Beanie Babies, and now Webkinz in a number of its titles and through the Beckett website (www.beckett.com).

Beckett’s latest magazine covering this emerging group of collectors and kids is titled Plushie Pals and is on sale now. The magazine features the standard price guides for all the hottest plushies as well as games, decorating tips and a full-color poster.

“We’ve had our eyes on Webkinz for about eighteen months and since the 2007 releases, we’ve seen dramatic increases in value on the secondary market. Seeing a Webkinz like Cheeky Dog sell for over $1500 was incredible. The Webkinz craze has all the same feeling and buzz of Beanie Babies or Pokemon. This is the perfect time to launch Plushie Pals since the values of Webkinz and Shining Stars as well as Beanie Babies are seeing tremendous action on the secondary market,” said Doug Kale, Beckett Media plushie collectibles expert.

“Plushie Pals will offer a kid-friendly design and will focus on a wide variety of plushies. It will help steer collectors to the latest hot items as well as the previously released items. We have a tremendous network of dealers who will work with us to make sure that our pricing and cataloguing information continues to be the best in the industry,” added Kale.

Plushie Pals will be produced on a bi-monthly schedule with a cover price of $5.99. The demographics for plushie collecting shows a dominance among girls, 75% of readership, with an age range of 6-14. This group has a combined annual purchasing power of $40 billion.