This page is designed to implement a holistic rarity ranking system to stratify all production pieces (anything issued with production hang/tush tags/NOT a prototype or sample piece) into a single rarity ranking system. These include pieces retailers could order, pieces sent out by Ty, pieces given to employees/sales reps/executives, and pieces made for special events/individuals. This EXCLUDES any piece not classified as its own separate style, or with any difference to the beanie/its hang tag. For example – sports exclusives with separate commemorative card, Japanese commemoratives (with beanie adorned in outfits post original release, etc.), one-off signed personal pieces. Exceptions made for some Ty pieces officially signed/numbered by Ty/Ty Inc. for special promotions or contests. Particularly if that signed piece is classified by graders/Ty Inc. as a specific ‘version’. Example that this site will cover – The Memorial Princess. Something we likely would not cover – a piece someone had signed by Ty at a public function.
Most of the “rare” pieces a majority of the beanie community hold as the pinnacle of the hobby are certainly rare, but the most exclusive pieces are mostly unknown to the mainstream community because they exchange hands so infrequently. This guide is designed to shed some light on many of the rarest unknown gems in the hobby.
The ranks here do generally correlate with value, but not always (you can have an “extremely rare” piece that is actually worth less than an “ultra rare” piece). The primary driver here is based on the total surviving quantity of a piece, followed by both how difficult it is to replace/locate a piece, and how often one comes up for sale.
To be sure, Ty never shared production numbers for any pieces he released to the general public. So for most pieces, we will be estimating based on how many we have seen on Ebay/hit the market/the intel we have gathered from retailers/ty employees, as well as the speculative number of surviving pieces we still believe are out there and could surface. For rarer promotional pieces, oftentimes exact numbers have been given. And for exclusives (such as billionaires), hangtags are numbered.
NOTES: 1.) Specific categories (1st gens, 2nd gen embroiders, etc.) will have separate pages that rank rarities within just their own categories (ie. The rarest 1st generation piece (QuackER) compared to a more common 1st generation piece like Legs). 2.) Some pieces may have only a fraction of “surviving” or “surfaced” examples (german royal blue peanut) that would push them into a more elite rarity category (especially in mint condition). But there is still a chance more could surface from collectors etc. Assigning rarity on these pieces is trickier and will be discussed in their specific posts. Categories below on their surface are based on the max quantity that could be out there for a specific piece.
UNIQUE Rare: A piece that ty only made one example of. These tend to be personal gifts he made for special occasions. This excludes prototypes.
ELITE GHOST Rare: A piece that has been confirmed to have fewer than six (6) pieces made/distributed. These tend to typically be special pieces made for organizations or specific individuals that are integral to a special campaign Ty is a part of.
GHOST Rare: A piece that has been confirmed to have 6-12 pieces made/distributed.
ELITE Rare: +12-50 examples made/released.
Extremely Rare: Fewer than ~200 made.
ULTRA Rares: Fewer than 1000 made.
RARES: Fewer than 10,000 made.
To be sure, Ty Inc. has never released official production numbers for any regular release pieces. It is quite possible Ty shipped more than 10,000 US Royal Blue Peanuts. It is also possible fewer than 10,000 peanuts were made, but if most retailers at the time received a single shipment of 12-36 pieces (300-800 national retailers), that would take us to the 10,000 estimate. Numbers for rares reviewed in this blog will primarily focus on surviving examples in good condition that have reached the collecting community. Certainly there are not 10,000 royal blue peanuts in mint condition remaining today…perhaps 1,000?
The (US) Royal Blue Peanut. Ironically, Ty did make thousands of this piece. Perhaps far fewer have survived in mint condition, but this piece, while rare, is certainly dwarfed by other items. This is typically the North Star rarity for intermediate collectors. In the wider Ty rarity world, there are many pieces MUCH more scarce, but with less demand.
Note: The production rankings created on the RarestBeans blog do not line up with comments used by graders on their grading certificates. A piece may be graded by True Blue Beans as “Ultra Rare” or “Extremely Rare”, but that does not mean those pieces necessarily fall into the respective Rarestbeans rarity categories. E.g. the graded Coral Casino example above has been called “extremely rare” by TBB. But with our rarestbeans ranking system, we would put this piece into the “ultra rare” category. The superlatives used by TBB and other services add a very nice touch, but are generally not universally applied or consistent, or meant to put a graded piece into a category. Sometimes a piece, say Coral Casino, is graded as “Ultra Rare” or “Extremely Rare”, causing some confusion. The goal here is place pieces into rarity categories based on population numbers for that piece.
Rarest Beans 