Rare Beabie babies are worth a fortune – one sold for £300,000 | Bizarre | News

Britons are being urged to rummage through their attics and dust off their old toys because they could be sitting on a goldmine.

A selection of rare Beanie Babies are currently selling for tens of thousands of pounds on eBay as collectors scramble to complete their collections.

The plush toys, first introduced in 1993 by TY Warner and initially sold in Chicago, Illinois, for about $5, have since become highly sought-after collectibles. The original nine animals — Legs the Frog, Squealer the Pig, Spot the Dog, Flash the Dolphin, Splash the Whale, Chocolate the Moose, Patti the Platypus, Brownie the Bear (later renamed Cubbie) and Pinchers the Lobster — have been joined by 822 other animal models over the years.

However, it’s the rarer toys and those with manufacturing errors, like Pinchers the lobster mislabelled as Punchers, that fetch the highest prices online. So if you’ve got a stash of old Beanie Babies gathering dust, it might be time to dig them out and see if you’re sitting on a fortune.

Here are some of the ones that are currently making big money – and what to watch out for.

princess diana

Princess Diana’s Beanie Babies, also known as the ‘Ghost Version’, are considered the most elusive toy in the collection. Made in Indonesia, it is up for sale on eBay for a staggering £300,000 in mint condition.

However, other sellers have estimated it at between £24,000 and £275,000, with its value depending on its condition and whether or not it has its original packaging and labels.

Loop

An “original and rare” Curly teddy bear is up for grabs in mint condition for £29,782.88 due to numerous errors around the tags and the bear. These include the word “original” being misspelled as “original”, a semicolon instead of a colon in the date of birth on the hang tag and the word “surface” being misspelled as “suface” on the hang tag, among others.

Cheerful

Jolly the Walrus, a first edition released in 1996 with a Father’s Day theme, is being offered for £25,000 on eBay in mint condition. It is now considered “rare” when sold in this pristine condition.

Hope

Hope, a praying Beanie Baby, is also available online for £25,000. Many of these toys were marketed with spelling mistakes and other errors on their labels.

However, according to the Beanie Babies price guide, this should not increase the value of the item.

A statement on their website warns: “Hope is another Beanie Babies that is currently making the rounds on the “rarest beanie” lists on the internet. How it got on this list is baffling, other than lack of research and simply looking at the highest prices the beanies are listed for, and everyone is copying everyone else.

“Hope is one of the most common beanies ever made. It was made at the height of the craze when Ty was making millions of them. Many believe that Hope has “error labels”. While there are errors on some of the labels, they were mass produced and are not considered rare by collectors. This is a complete internet hoax.

Halo

A white Beanie Babies with a halo and wings is selling for £24,000 on eBay, with the seller claiming it is a “rare” find. The advert states: “For sale is a rare white Ty Beanie Babies bear named Halo. This bear was made in China and is no longer available in retail stores.

“He is from the retired TY Beanie Babies collection and is highly sought after by collectors and fans of the brand. The bear is in very good condition and has been kept in a smoke-free and pet-free environment. He would make a great addition to any collection or a perfect gift for anyone who loves TY Beanie Babies.”

Gluttons

The Gobbles turkey hat is making waves on the collectibles market. An online listing has a high price of £15,000 due to typos on its labels. The seller is billing it as an “extremely rare collectible.”

“Rare with errors – misspelling on label Gasport rather than Gosport – apparently this was not corrected until three months after first manufacture. The label is a little bent but the hat is in very good condition as it was only brought out at Christmas as a tree decoration so stored away for the rest of the years.

“I had no idea it was so rare and special! However, the Beanie Babies Price Guide issues a stern warning about Gobbles’ supposed rarity: “Gobbles are another Beanie Babies currently making the rounds on the Internet’s ‘rarest beanie’ lists. Gobbles are one of the most common beanies ever made. They were made at the height of the craze, when TY was making them in the millions.”

Before selling or buying Beanie Babies online, people are encouraged to do their own research on prices and should remain vigilant for scams.

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