Twenty years ago, it wasn’t unusual for someone to refer to his or her Beanie Baby collection as an ‘investment’.
After all, there were several books published in the late ’90s that claimed the toys would appreciate in value over time, and in 20 or 30 years would be worth several times as much as what they were bought for. Some Beanie ‘authorities’ even estimated that ‘rarer items could be worth thousands (and even tens of thousands) of dollars some day.
So what happened to all of those collectors who socked away Beanie after Beanie, hoping that one day they’d bring a major windfall? Well, they’ve turned to eBay — and they seem to be having just about as much luck as one would imagine.
Popular plush: At the height of the Beanie Babies fad in the ’90s, the toys typically sold for $5 to $7 each
That’s rich! Now, many collectors are trying to unload the toys on eBay and are asking for exorbitant sums
For real: Claiming that their wares are ‘rare’ or contain errors, they’re trying to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars
Not a game: Some are sticking the major price tags on lots of more than one toy, but they’re still expensive
Not so rare, huh? The Princess Diana bear in particular is all over the site
Several sellers certainly seem to have high hopes. When one searches for ‘Beanie Babies’ on eBay, there are over 100,000 results.
Some are realistic. They start the bidding low and take whatever they can get, which in many cases is 99 cents per toy.
The plush bears, iguanas, ducks, and kangaroos sell for maybe a few bucks each — a clear depreciation in value, since most of them sold for around $5 to $7 back in the ’90s.
And not every beanie gets a bite. A few get no bids and have to be relisted. Others get two or three, with the price edging up to $1.34 for Halo the Bear or $1.76 for Echo the Dolphin.
Remember the rush? In addition to the large bears are the miniature ones offered with McDonald’s Happy Meals
Oh, honey… There are thousands of results for Beanie Babies with huge ‘Buy it Now’ prices
Nice try! However, most actually sell for only a dollar or two
A little trick? The large price tag seems to draw customers in, but they can make an offer lower than that
Not so fast: The ones that sell seem to be for much less than the published asking price
Gotta see this! Many eBay users also elect to ‘watch’ a sale — like this one, which has 230 people watching — likely because they are curious to see if they’ll go
Then, there are the sellers who set their sights high — very high. On eBay right now, there are over 1,400 listing for Beanies with ‘Buy it Now’ prices of $5,000 or more, with some edging into the tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Many of these sellers proclaim their wares to be special. They write that the Beanies in question are ‘rare’ and contain ‘errors’ — misprints on the tags, irregularities, typos.
Several are even attempting to sell the toys for hundreds of thousands of dollars. One lot — a 15″ Princess Diana bear, a 9″version, and stamps — is currently being offered for $660,000. Another set of two Princess Di bears has a price of $652,000. Another single Princess Di bear is $500,000.
Those, of course, are the ‘Buy it Now’ prices, though most of these sellers also give the option for potential buyers to make an offer.
The Princess Di bear in particular is one of the most frequently-listed Beanie Babies. When it first sold in 1997, it went for $5 to $7, with proceeds benefiting the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. In the year and a half that it was manufactured, the bear raised $21,880,000 for the fund.
Feeding it: In the ’90s, several books were published that predicted the future value of the toys
See how well this worked out? Most projected that the toys would all be worth much more 20 years down the line
Ethan Volungis, the manager of the Las Vegas collectibles shop Rogue Toys, said they’re worth a lot less than that these days.
‘Honestly, it’s the Princess Diana Beanie Baby, everyone brings it in because they think it’s worth a quarter of a million dollars,’ he told Vanity Fair in August.. ‘There’s a lot of people that come in with them trying to sell them. No one’s ever trying to buy them, only sell them.’
Some sellers on eBay have claimed to have sold Beanies, though not necessarily for the Buy it Now price — and the offer price that was finally accepted is not listed.
While it doesn’t seem that anyone is up for shelling out the big bucks these sellers are asking for, many are certainly curious
Several sales have hundreds of eBay users ‘watching’ them, keeping track to see if anyone else bids or snags it.