Tradee the Beanie Baby was introduced on June 26, 2001 and is only a available for purchase on the Ty.com website to U.S. Residents.  It is a bright yellow bear that has a pin on its chest that says, "Ty Trade," and wears an 8th generation heart tag.    But there are a few Tradee Beanie Babies that have a 6th generation heart tag and a slightly different poem than the one with an 8th generation heart tag.

Eleven days before Tradee was officially announced, Queenie-Beanie, a Power Seller on Ebay, had received several Tradee Beanie Babies from Ty employees and had put them up on auction on eBay.  However, her auctions were cancelled by Ty and she was forced to send the ones she had on auction back to Ty.  The Tradee Beanie Babies that Queenie-Beanie had received directly from Ty employees had a 6th generation heart tag.  Plus, a few lucky collectors discovered that they were accidentally shipped a Tradee Beanie Baby with a 6th generation heart tag from Ty! 

"I am so excited! I received a Tradee Bear with a 2000 hang tag! I did not notice it until I read the SmartCollecting newsletter! The rest of my Tradee bears have the regular 2001 hang tag. Thanks Jacqueline! If it were not for your newsletter I might never have found out!"  Marlene C. from Markham, Illinois. 

It appears that the majority of the bears now being shipping from Ty, bear an 8th generation heart tag making those with a 6th generation heart tag rare.  So make sure you check your Tradee Beanie Babies when they arrive!

Inside of heart tag.

6th Generation Heart Tag Poem
"Now that the trading has begun
Let's buy and sell, it's lots of fun
So come along and play with me
I have some things that you must see!"

8th Generation Heart Tag Poem
"Now that the trading has begun
Check it out, it's lots of fun
Come along and play with me
I have some things that you must see!

From left to right: Close-up of back of 8th and 6th generation heart tags.  
Notice the TyTrade logo on the back of the 6th generation heart tag.

Food for thought: A 6th generation heart tag has the number 2000 written across the front of the tag.  So how could a bear introduced in 2001 have such a tag?  The TyTrade.com website opened in the July of 2000 so it is quite possible that Ty had planned to sell this bear on TyTrade once the supply of Speckles Beanie Babies ran out. (Speckles was the first Beanie Baby available on TyTrade.)  But perhaps, they overestimated the demand for Speckles and once the TyTrade.com website closed, they decided to offer the Tradee Beanie Baby in addition to Speckles to help launch their new on-line Ty Store.