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Ty had started off the BBOC Trading Cards phenomenon with Series I,
which was released in October, 1998 and sold out in three months. Today,
these cards are no longer in circulation and very hard to find.
There are 149 cards available in this set: 9 Original Nine cards, 15
Retired cards, 25 Birthday/Rookie cards, and 100 Common cards. In a pack
of Series I Trading Cards, you will find 8 trading cards, 1 puzzle card,
and a checklist of the cards in Series I. In Series I, the hardest type
of card to find is an Original Nine card (odds 1 in 117 packs).
If you happen to buy a case of these cards, and are lucky enough to,
you will get 24 packs of the cards plus a bonus Slider card. Slider
cards are 5 X 7 cards with a black and white scene that turns color when
you remove the tab at the bottom.
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Common cards are designed with a Beanie against a scenic background
on the front. The name appears in large, white letters and has the style
number listed, reading "Series I, 1998." On the back of the card is the
Beanie's birthday, introduction date, card number, poem, and "little
known facts" written by Ty, the National Wildlife Federation and Ranger
Rick magazine.
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Each Birthday/Rookie card can be found in the odds of 1 in 2 packs.
However, don't think it is the easiest "chaser" card to find in Series
I. There are four foil colors identifying its degree of difficulty: red
(hard to find), blue (very hard to find), silver (rare), and gold (very
rare). The front of the cards each show a Beanie against a scenic
background. Its birthday is shown, but Ants, Clubby, Erin, Fetch,
Fortune, Glory, Princess, and Stinger cards all have a stamp each
reading "Rookie" on it, as they were new releases at the time of the
release of Series I. The back of the card reads the birthday,
introduction date, card number and poem. To determine the degree of
difficulty of your card, it is determined by the colour of foil used for
the Beanie's name and animal type. For example, if you had a Valentino
card, and the phrase "Valentino the bear" was in gold, your card would
be very rare and could be tough to find on the market.
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Harder to find than common or Birthday/Rookie cards are retired
cards. Retired cards spotlight retired Beanie Babies, especially rare
ones, like the ones showcased in Series I. The odds are 1 in 7 packs.
The Beanie is placed on a holographic background. The back of each card
shows introduction dates, retirement dates, poem, and little known
facts, like so with Common cards. Once again, this card is a "chaser,"
meaning hard to find card, and feature red, blue, silver and gold
holofoil identifying their difficulty. The stamp reading "Retired
__-__-__" has a foil colour, also determining the difficulty of that
card to find.
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Finally, the Original Nine cards are the most difficult Series I
cards to find in packs. These cards feature the Beanie printed on
transparent acetate. The stamp on the front reading "Original Nine"
determines the degree of difficulty: red (rare), blue (very rare),
silver (extremely rare), gold (almost impossible), and clear (almost
rare). Odds of finding one are 1 in 117 packs, making these cards very
hard to find collectibles. The Original Nine are the nine Beanie Babies
which were first ever introduced, released in stores in 1994. They are
Chocolate, Cubbie, Flash, Legs, Patti, Pinchers, Splash, Spot, and
Squealer.
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The rarest cards to ever obtain in Series I are the autographed
cards. These cards are specially autographed by Ty Warner, creator and
CEO of Ty Inc. Ty signed one of each trading card. He signed one of ever
colour level within the Original 9, Retireds, and Birthday cards.
Altogether, there is 296 autographed cards in existence! To also prevent
someone to just fraudulently signing Ty's name on the card, there is
also a gold emboissing on the bottom right of each cards saying 1/1.
This shows that the card is in fact real. Not all cards have been
announced yet, which leads to a possibility of more cards being in
existence!
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Placed inside every single pack of the trading cards is a puzzle
card, which depicts one of eight scenes. The different scenes include;
"The Original Nine", "Born To Be Wild", "It's a Dog's Life", "Different
Faces of Teddy", "Star Spangled Beanies", "Tropical Heat Wave", "Winter
Wonderland", and an unnamed scene which features a chair with Ty's dog,
Cleo, sitting on it. Among Cleo, is twelve Beanie Baby dogs. On the
other side of the card, is a tropical theme.
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Included inside every box of Series I BBOC Collectors Cards are
slider cards. Slider cards measure at about 5" by 7". There is eight
different puzzle cards altogether. Two of the cards represent the
Original Nine, then the same themes as on the puzzle cards; "Born To Be
Wild", "It's a Dog's Life", "Different Faces of Teddy", "Star Spangled
Beanies", "Tropical Heat Wave", and "Winter Wonderland".
Series I Trading Cards are very rare and collectible, and will go
down in history as the future of trading cards as we know it!
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