The end was almost upon us, as it was time for all beanies to be retired as per the August 31, 1999 announcement from the Ty Company. But Ty Warner is not about to let everyone just forget about beanies or let them die a natural death. In another great publicity ploy the Ty Company decided to "let" consumers decide on the fate of Beanie Baby. For only fifty cents per vote, you could help decide the beanie fate with a yes or no vote to the question:

Just think about it, Warner is a toy marketing genius! What other company would "let" their customers decide on the continuing of a line, besides the normal way of interest dying down in a product? And, more importantly, how many people are going to spend fifty cents to just say no?

There was no question about the Beanie Baby fad dying down. Bins of beanies can be found with many of them marked down to below the retail price. What better way to infuse a little life into a product than to make collectors think they would be no more?

When the poll to decide on the fate of Beanie Babies was announced, it was also announced that all proceeds would go to charity. That was greeted with enough derision to spur Warner to make an additional comment on the TY Talk Cyberboard concerning the poll proceeds.

His announcement read in part: "I will, therefore, present the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation with an amount that is TRIPLE the amount raised by your voting!"

Ty came through when the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation announced it received $1 million from Ty because of the world-wide beanie baby vote. Ty more than doubled its pledge to triple funds raised by the vote.