This article claims that Beanie Babies were never sold in Toys R Us. Is this true?
Yes
True. You could only buy them in smaller specialty shops. It created a mystique and helped drive up the price on the “hard to find” animals.
Of course, you can still buy beanie babies. They just aren’t as popular as they were in the 90’s. They are perfect for what they were originally intended: little stuffed friends for kids to play with and fall asleep with. We have nearly a dozen of the suckers around here, most purchased for $1 at the flea market. A couple of them I did buy brand new. They are cute after all.
We have one. It’s a little elephant that keeps the Ogreling company in the car.
We thought it was perfect. He has no use for it, and throws it away when we hand it to him. 
I’ve only ever seen 'em at McDonalds, the pulga, or in my great-aunt’s spare bedroom. She was pretty sure they’d be worth many thousands of dollars by now.
Hallmark stores sold them. That and places at the mall(stands and stuff).
I’m wondering why this doesn’t count as a major chain store for the article. Is it because they’re privately owned? According to their website they average a net income of around $4 billion and have over 40,000 stores.
Hallmark is definitely a large retailer. I guess you get to write what you want when you’re the author and the facts be damned.
It’s not really a place that you’d think of as a toy-seller, though. Chain department/big box stores are.
Similarly, McDonald’s is a huge chain but Ty only had occasional Beanie Baby promos.
Actually, my point was that Hallmark(the stores) is not a large toy chain. They sell gift stuff and I guess Beanie Babies were available at gift shops.
The word toy was important there.
I remember seeing them sold in Nordstrom. It’s not a toy retailer, but being carried in a place like that would not make it hard to obtain, as the writer suggests.
At the height of BeanieMania, my nephew had a bunch of them and a collector guide. He would tell us how much they were “worth” while we explained they were only worth what someone would pay him for them. He never understood that point and continued to hoard the things.
I think he’s somewhat disappointed he’s had to take out loans for his college tuition and instead of a fortune, he just has a collection of stuffed toys that might bring him a buck each at a flea market…
They were also at Walgreens. Ty just kept them out of Toys R Us/Target/Walmart (and I’m not even convinced they did that).
At the height of the craze, you could get them anywhere BUT Big Toy Retailers.