How Hang Tags and Tush Tags Affect Beanie Baby Value

As with all Rediscover 90s Toys guides, we use the most varied, verifiable sources possible for our information. If you have corrections or suggestions for us, please reach out to us on the Community Forums. Your input will help us to create the most accurate, up-to-date guides possible.

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What are hang tags and tush tags?

If you’re new to Beanie Baby collecting, welcome! There’s a lot to learn, but this is a great place to start.

To kick things off, here’s a little explanation for the different types of tags you’ll find on any Beanie Baby worth its fluff.

Hang Tags: These are the heart-shaped card stock tags you’ll find dangling off of most Beanie Babies – mostly from their ears, sometimes from a wing, but the actual hang tag location can vary from Beanie to Beanie. We’re going to talk more about various details of these in just a bit, but for now, all you need to understand is that if you find a Beanie without a hang tag, its value will be dramatically decreased. We’re talking about a 75% drop in value in some cases. Also, you might see these tags referred to as “Swing Tags” in some places.

Tush Tags: These are the rectangular fabric tags that you’ll find sewn into a Beanie’s… well… tush, hindquarters, bum, whatever you want to call it. Non-collectors and the uninformed will make the mistake of assuming tush tags are not as important due to their location and lack of decoration, but there’s a lot you can learn from a tush tag, and sometimes the right tush tag can bump up the value of just about any Beanie – even those without a hang tag. Don’t write off (or on) tush tags!

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How to identify tag generation

Whether you’ve taken a glance at our previous comprehensive Beanie Baby guides or not, you probably understand one of the core tenets of Beanie value: the older it is, the more valuable it is – at least for the most part. There are other things to consider, like the length of manufacturing (which helps to gauge the number of that particular Beanie hiding out in toy chests around the world), but a good rule of thumb to follow is that the older a Beanie is, the more likely it is to be worth something. 

Now, how can you identify how old a Beanie is? Aside from a few discrepancies in materials and finish some Beanies have, the best way to tell is through proper identification of their tags and the generation they represent.

There are lots of fantastic resources that can help you identify and keep track of tag generations, but we’re going to provide a rundown of the earliest generations for you right here, which are the ones we find tend to be the most valuable.

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The information and some of the images in the following section were sourced from posts on the Beanie Collectors subreddit created by the forum’s moderator, Skrumpei, AKA Josh Giadrosich. As a longtime Beanie collector and fighter of Beanie misinformation across the internet, Josh was kind enough to allow us to feature resources and a wealth of knowledge we wouldn’t have had access to otherwise. For more of Josh’s thoughts and Beanie knowledge, you can also check out his Beanie Baby-centric videos on YouTube.

Hang tag generations, errors and quirks

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Tush tag generations, errors and quirks

This information covers just about every Beanie produced up until the year 2000, which – as you can probably imagine – is outside this website’s purview anyway. We have ensured everything here is as accurate as possible, but there are a few notable discrepancies regarding errors and other mishaps that will come up in a later section.

Before we move on though, here’s a spreadsheet created by Skrumpei that outlines the tag generations mentioned above in great detail, right down to the individual Beanies and the generations they belong to.

Note: While it is extremely helpful and thorough, this spreadsheet is based on a single person’s knowledge and should only be used as a reference. Reach out to us in the community forums if you have any data to add or issues to address.

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Regarding tag condition

The other side of the coin when it comes to evaluating a Beanie’s tags is the condition.

Are they creased, ripped, or faded? Have they been written on or defiled by barcode stickers? Are they there at all? These are all things to consider, and most Beanie collectors have a moment where they kick themselves for doing things with tags when they were younger and… less wise.

Everyone obviously wants mint condition hang and tush tags, and Beanies that have both tags in pristine condition will fetch the best price. Thankfully, condition is something that’s easy to determine at a glance.

Condition terms

When checking out Beanies in online auctions, listings or our price charts, there are a handful of terms that will be used to describe their condition. They are:

MINT – Tag is flawless – crisp, flat, glossy, with no creases, bends, or marks. Appears untouched.

Excellent – Tag is fully intact with only minor signs of handling – slight edge wear or soft bend. No deep creases.

WORN – Visible wear such as noticeable creases, folds, light fading, or sticker residue. Still attached.

DAMAGED – More serious, covers things like tears, writing, water damage, etc.

MISSING – IT’S GONE!

*Clear Stickers* – This signifies the early Gen 4 tush tags that had clear stickers applied during their manufacturing. Completely normal, and should not be removed.

Yes, these terms seem self-explanatory, but here comes the fun stuff: combined condition terms for Beanies and their hang tags!

MWMT – Mint Beanie with Mint Tag

MWMT MQ – Mint Beanie with Mint Tag, Museum Quality. This is the best of the best, and a term you’ll only find with authenticated Beanies or outright liars and rapscallions. It’s usually pretty easy to tell the difference between them.

MWNMT – Mint Beanie with Non-Mint Tag.

MWNT – Mint Beanie with No Tag.

Overall effect of condition on value

Generally speaking, “non-mint” and creased hang tags can cause a Beanie’s value to take a pretty significant hit – as much as 50% in most cases. However, it’s better to have a damaged hang tag than none at all. The total absence of a hang tag can result in a Beanie being worth being cut by 75% or more compared to its full “mint” value.

As for tush tags, these can also cause a Beanie’s value to decrease if they are damaged, but not as much as a damaged or absent hang tag. However, don’t count tush tags out just yet. The presence of an older or specialty tush tag can bump up the value of a hang tagless Beanie hundreds of dollars! Some tush tags capable of this are the 1st and no-name 2nd gen tags, and specialty tags like the “Handmade in Korea” 4-line and 5-line tush tags from Gen 1.

All in all, the condition of a Beanie’s tags is every bit as important as the condition of its fur or fluff. With that in mind, it’s in the best interest of every Beanie collector to preserve their tags as much as possible.

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How to preserve tags

Most Beanies worth anything will come with some kind of protector if they’re being bought from a collector, but on the off-chance that they don’t, you have tons of options to protect your tags. Well, your hang tags at least. More on that later.

When you’re looking for hang tag protectors, you’re going to want a plastic casing that includes space for the plastic end of the tag holder. That’s going to look something like this: the highly regarded BTP brand tag protectors. Having this extra space means that there won’t be any creasing in that area.

There are also more complex hang tag protectors, which preserve the double tags’ functionality. Here’s a video of what those look like in action. They’re pretty cool.

For maximum protection, there are products like LOCK-ITS, which are heart-shaped tag holders made of hard plastic and are deep enough to accommodate the tag and the plastic tag holder without issue. You can buy those here.

Lastly, there are slip-on hang tag protectors made of thin plastic. However, these aren’t recommended by anybody in the community for a number of reasons – the worst being that the presence of any liquid or humidity can cause the outer print to stick to the inside of the protector. Try to remove the stuck protector, and the whole face of the hang tag peels off like that one scene in The Witches. *Shudder* you know the one.

When it comes to protector options for tush tags, your options are unfortunately more limited.

We found these on eBay, and these on Etsy, though we can’t speak to their efficiency. Again, tush tags do tend to be overlooked, but we would say having a protector on them is better than not if we’re talking about an early generation tush tag.

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A note on errors

Blogs across the internet and eBay listings will all try to convince you that there are a myriad of Beanie Baby production errors that can cause a Beanie’s value to shoot up thousands of dollars.

This is not the case.

While there are a number of errors that can affect a Beanie’s value, they’re actually few and far between. We wanted to bring this up since so many errors are tied to misspellings and such on the tags – many of which have been mentioned in this guide – but we’re working on another guide that will go in-depth on errors that exist and what they might be worth.

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