Beanie Babies stink (literally)

OK, folks, this is going to sound pretty bizarre, but my co-worker can corroborate the whole thing ...

I work at a toy store. This week we got a new shipment of Beanie babies. Well, we started opening the bags and slapping price tags on them; after a while I noticed that something smelled funny, but couldn't place it. Tried sniffing one of the Beanies (it was Goochie the jellyfish) and almost gagged: the thing smelled exactly like old fish. All the jellyfish smelled like that. The other Beanie babies from this shipment, and the jellyfish from the previous shipment, don't smell like anything in particular. Well, we put the jellyfish in the back room, hoping they'd air out so we could sell them (my boss would not be cool with throwing them away or sending them back), but I'm having second thoughts. What could possibly be causing this, and is it dangerous?

Some (possibly) relevant facts: Beanie babies don't actually contain beans; they're stuffed with some mysterious material called (I think) PC pellets. Goochie the jellyfish is made of different material from the other animals (some kind of soft shimmery stuff) but, as I said, the Goochies from the previous shipment seemed OK. I live in North Carolina, and in this climate anything that can possibly spoil WILL.

Any ideas, folks?

Maybe your boss would be cool with using Febreeze on them if they don't air out?

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"I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it," Jack Handy

Gr8Kat --

Yeah, that might help, but the real problem is that young kids play with these things, so I don't want to expose them to a possible biological hazard or anything ...

According to the manufacturers of Fabreeze, it's perfectly safe for humans and animals.

I understand your concern for the young'uns, but, honestly, how many of those Beanies actually end up belonging to children? Most of 'em are hoarded by the moms. At McDonald's, I saw a mother slap her child across the face when the little girl tried to open the packet the Beanie Baby was in. She then snatched the toy from the squalling child and stuffed it in her purse to keep it safe.

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Lissa*

* Name has been changed to protect the guilty.

I think she meant that something in the toy itself was emmitting the odor and she was afraid that simply covering the smell via Febreeze was covering a potentially dangerous problem.

Not everything that smells bad for you is biological, either. Smell melting plastic sometime. It could of been something residual during manufacturing or packaging. My suggestion is simple. Call the folks at Ty or whoever your distributor is and tell them you have a bunch of stinky jellyfish and want them exchanged for either non-stinky jellyfish or else some other non-stinky beanie baby.

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

I just read the above about your boss not being cool ons ending them back. Nevertheless, his choices here are either to put a bunch of Beanie Baby jellyfish on the shelf that reek like real jellyfish sitting on a shelf (and watch how well those sell), waste a bunch of money and man-hours buying an extra chemical to clean the product which shouldn't reek in the first place or else tell Ty to take the things back and ship you some decent ones. I don't own a toy store, but I'd take Door #3.

Also, I'd write this up into an email, mention that it made you sick and mail to everyone you know with the warning to mail it to everyone they know. This sounds like a UL in the making and I want in on the ground floor ;)

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"I guess it is possible for one person to make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn't."

I'd call Ty and tell them to replace those suckers. Then I'd send the shipment back less 3 or 4 of them (of course demanding replacement or payment only for the balance) and hype them as "the famous stench-laden Goochie the Jellyfish own this extremely rare discontinued issue for only $2,000.00 bucks!"

Those nuts will buy anything as long as its discontinued.

Or, better yet, mark the price up a few hundred percent and advertise them as "rare jellyfish scented Beanie jellyfish". They'll fly off the shelves and will be on eBay by next week.

FYI. They are filled with PVC (poly-vinyl carbonate) pellets.

I think PVC stands for polyvinyl chloride.

Actually, I was wrong about the PC pellets -- they're filled with *PE* pellets. They seem to be airing out pretty well, anyway, so I guess they'll sell. (Pity; I liked Nickrz' idea.)