Being a toy fan, I have met my share of toy collectors. It doesn't matter what the collection is, toy collectors are all similar. They get this obsession about finding every piece to their collection and displaying everything in a particular manner.

I have been collecting toys since I was young. I remember my mother telling me that I wouldn't want these items once I got older. I guess she was wrong, because I still love to collect toys.

Just recently, my children returned home from school with a new stuffed animal called a webkinz. I had never heard of them before, but once I found out more about them I began to develop the desire to collect all of them. I now spend hours with my children online in webkinz world which makes collecting the stuffed, plush animals even more desirable to me. The funny thing about getting involved in starting a collection is how you become so fanatical about completing your collection. It is not uncommon when you are on an internet forum to have people stating just how many stuffed pets that they currently own.

My children and I got a bit of a late start with our collection, so there were already several webkinz stuffed animals that the Ganz company had stopped making. Some of these retired stuffed toys were even selling on ebay for up to a thousand dollars like the cheeky cat and cheeky dog. I can't believe how in demand these toys are. When they first arrived, the few stores that sold them were unable to keep their shelves stocked. They have become one of the most sought after toys on the market today.

Now that the new year has rolled in, so have the new webkinz 2008 stuffed animals. Ganz has out done themselves with their new plush toy additions. The quality of the toys is increasing as well as their popularity. Some of the new animals in the 2008 line up include the Himalayan Cat, Schnauzer, Kangaroo, Black and White Cheeky Dog, and Pink and White Cat just to name a few. With toys like these it has become difficult not to want to collect them all.

Anthony Enriquez has worked in the parenting industry for years giving parenting advice. He spends his free time with his two wonderful children. Together they created a website about Webkinz and another about Webkinz stuffed animals and parenting tips.

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Does your local gift store still seem to have the same old Webkinz sitting on the shelf? You just may want to take a closer look once you've read this story.

Retired Webkinz Cheap: I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is an avid ebay seller and she told me the most incredible account of a recent Webkinz purchase she had made. A few months back she walked into a local store and noticed the shopkeeper marking down a bunch Webkinz toys. The strange thing was that most of them were identical and the shopkeeper was marking everything down to get rid of them as they had these in back of the store for quite some time.

The shopkeeper commented that they just weren't selling many (although the store wasn't even advertising that they carried Webkinz) and they wanted to just get rid of them. What the shopkeeper didn't realize was that these were the retired Webkinz Cheeky Cat and Cheeky Dog!

In fact, there were nine of them total, and being an astute shopper my friend generously offered to by all of them for an additional bulk discount and take them off the shopkeepers hands. Flash forward a few months that $80 purchase turned into over $2,000 in sales on ebay! And after sharing this story with a few close friends, I'm finding that this scenario commonly replays itself around the country every day, so make sure to keep you eyes open for what's hot and you just may find yourself at the right place at the right time.

Here's the List of Retired (and Rare) Webkinz to Watch for:

• Basset Hound

• Brown Horse

• Cheeky Cat

• Cheeky Dog

• Gold & White Cat

• Gorilla

• Gray & White Cat

• Love Puppy

• Pegasus

• Sherbet Bunny

• Unicorn

Tip: It's important to make sure that the code for the Webkinz you are buying has NOT been used. A Webkinz with a used tag code is not worth nearly as much! Plus, you need to be careful of flea market knock-off products too. Best bet is to buy from a legitimate trusted retailer, and if buying on ebay, someone with a solid level of good feedback selling Webkinz.

So next time you are at that little shop around the corner and you see that a bin full Webkinz, keep this list in mind, you just may find a diamond in the rough.

For more information check out Retired Webkinz for Sale or look them up on ebay.

Copyright Goldman Stone 2008. Please feel free to publish or redistribute this article as long as it is not modified and all URL's stay intact.

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