The Beanie Babies, created in 1993, are causing a frenzy with collectors across North America. People are rushing out in the thousands to get their hands a wide selection of $9 - $10 bean-bag-like toys.

The demand for the babies has gotten so hig, that Ty Inc., the Illinois-based company that produces and markets them, has told U.S customs officials that no Beanie Baby can be imported without the company's permission. This was put in place to make sure the babies are not sold on the black market, or even counterfeited.

Collectors will go to their nearest craft store and buy the babies for the tag price, and then turn around and sell them for double sometimes even triple the cost.

For instance, Brownie the Brown Bear, who sells for ten dollars in stores, can be sold for an estimated $4,750 to Beanie Baby collectors.

Babies, like the Princess Di Bear, and the Maple Bear, a white bear with the Canadian flag on its chest (a special edition model only available in Canada) can be sold for up to $500. Some collectors say Maple Bear is worth more than an ounce of gold.

Recently at the U.S border in Houlton, Me., Peggy Botting, a Houlton resident was returning from a shopping trip in Woodstock. She says she was told to turn around at the border because her nine-year old daughter had a number of Beanie Babies in her possession.

"We had at least 15 babies with us," says Botting. "When we got to the port, my daughter had Ziggy the Zebra in her hands. I then handed over the reciepts for the babies to the U.S custom official."

She says the official looked at the slips and told her "the bad news." She says she was told if she didn't either hand them [the babies]over to customs or return them to the stores they were purchased at, the Beanie Babies would be "confiscated and destroyed."

United States customs supervisor Dennis Grenier said that this was all "just a big misunderstanding." There is a regulation that allows a single Beanie Baby into the U.S. per person a month. This doesn't neccessarily mean however that a person will get a baby through every time they travel across the border.

"That is up to our discretion," says Bruce Mullholland. Mullholland is a U.S customs supervisor between the borders of St. Stephen, New Brunswick and Calais, Me.. He says they [customs officials] are working under a law that has been part of customs regulations for "quite a while."

As proof, Mullholland sited section 148, subsection 55 of the regulations. "It is an internation copyright law that we have to follow. Once a company registers a copyright, we must enforce it."

Grenier says that when the babies are handed over, they are not destroyed. They are instead held under a general order that Grenier refers to as "Beanie Baby detention."

After a Beanie Baby is put on hold, customs officials provide the person the information needed to contact Ty Inc. Grenier points out it isn't up to customs, but rather Ty Inc., to establish why the babies are being brought across the border.

"We have no intentions of spending our time yanking Beanie Babies from crying children," says Grenier, adding that he has personally been in contact with Ty about the importation law. "Once contacted, the company decides whether or not the person was bringing the babies in for commercial or personal use. Then, they contact us and tell us which ones we can release." says Grenier.

Grenier says this "arrangement is being looked at by Ty Inc. and will likely be changed in the future.