eBay

mydealtime · ‎10-13-2021

A friend recently asked me to help them sell some of their "rare" Beanie Babies. We looked at completed/sold items to gage the prices. There were some as high as $40,000 that didn't sell but some that sold with Best Offer Accepted that were listed at $10,000. I assume the best offer could have been $1 but no way to tell.

Is this some kind of scam? I can't figure out the motive. Sure, they could just be fishing for someone to pay a very high price but it doesn't seem like anyone is buying at those prices. For instance, there is one listed for $900,000 and the same exact one has sold for $100. The overpriced ones typically have no description and even have sideways pictures.

Is it a way of creating false value and selling them somewhere else? "Hey, these sell on eBay for thousands of dollars. I'll sell them to you for less and you can eBay them." Maybe they say they don't have the time or eBay ability.

I listed some for 7 day auctions at $0.99 with good pictures and thorough descriptions. Only one sold and it was for the 99 cent price. No watchers on any either. Usually, you pick up some watchers on 7 day listings.

I'm just curious if anyone has an answer for what is going on with those crazily high priced listings.

Thanks

collectfest · ‎10-13-2021

@mydealtime wrote:
A friend recently asked me to help them sell some of their "rare" Beanie Baby's. We looked at completed/sold items to gage the prices. There were some as high as $40,000 that didn't sell but some that sold with Best Offer Accepted that were listed at $10,000. I assume the best offer could have been $1 but no way to tell.

Is this some kind of scam? I can't figure out the motive. Sure, they could just be fishing for someone to pay a very high price but it doesn't seem like anyone is buying at those prices. For instance, there is one listed for $900,000 and the same exact one has sold for $100. The overpriced one typically have no description and even have sideways pictures.

Is it a way of creating false value and selling them somewhere else? "Hey, these sell on eBay for thousands of dollars. I'll sell them to you for less and you can eBay them." Maybe they say they don't have the time or eBay ability.

I listed some for 7 day auctions at $0.99 with good pictures and thorough descriptions. Only one sold and it was for the 99 cent price. No watchers on any either. Usually, you pick up some watchers on 7 day listings.

I'm just curious if anyone has an answer for what is going on with those crazily high priced listings.

Thanks

You can tell what the crazy priced beanie for 10000 went for. Search ended sold beanies, then click sold highest to lowest, you'll have to scroll down to find that 10000 listing. Also, search ended sold auctions only.

mydealtime · ‎10-13-2021

Oh, cool. Thanks. I didn't realize you could see the offer they accepted. The ones in the completed/sold show the original price with a line through it.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎10-13-2021

The crazy high priced listings just don't get paid for. If you check the completed listing, you will often see the link for "Relisted" at the top. Or if you go to the seller's current active listings, you'll see the item relisted again.

collectfest · ‎10-13-2021

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
The crazy high priced listings just don't get paid for. If you check the completed listing, you will often see the link for "Relisted" at the top. Or if you go to the seller's current active listings, you'll see the item relisted again.

great point...

mtgraves7984 · ‎10-13-2021

Your friend may find that their "rare" Beanie Babies aren't really worth much here. It's a crazy phenomenon for sure.

glasser · ‎10-13-2021

So here's some results from Terapeak. Some kind of mischief going on. Could be fun could be nefarious. You be the judge. Since they are older than 90 days can't see details

orangehound · ‎10-13-2021

Boxes of Kelloggs Corn Flakes sell for 60 dollars ... a fairly ordinary $100 bill sells for $150, or a non-rare coin sells for $400 ... a $30 auto part sells for $300.

Why? either buyers are dumb, sellers are getting scammed, or eBay is sometimes used for .... well ... Ozark on Netflix comes to mind. 🙂

lacemaker3 · ‎10-13-2021

@mydealtime ,

Here's the backstory for one of those over-priced beanie baby auctions, as told by the seller who was victimized by a scammer or sport bidder.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Toys-Hobbies/PSA-on-quot-sold-quot-45K-Princess-Diana-Beanie-Baby-From...

It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it appears that the high bids are either people bidding for fun and games, to mess with the sellers and no intention of buying OR they are trying to manipulate the apparent value for their own purposes. Possibly to set sellers up for scams. They target sellers with high unrealistic expectations, for scams where they try to trick the sellers into shipping without being paid, and usually to include gift cards (which is where the scammers actually make money, because the items aren't' really worth much at all).

The bottom line is: the beanie baby market collapsed a couple of decades ago, and they are only worth a few dollars each, no matter how rare they are.

a_c_green · ‎10-13-2021

@mydealtime wrote:
Oh, cool. Thanks. I didn't realize you could see the offer they accepted. The ones in the completed/sold show the original price with a line through it.

I'm not sure that you can see the accepted offer price directly, but sorting the results from highest to lowest will position it by its actual sale price rather than the struck-out asking price, so you can see its approximate price by the range within which it's located.

femmefan1946 · ‎10-13-2021

Why? eBay is sometimes used for money laundering.

And some people are stupid.

And some people believe the more you pay for the Thing, the better it is.

mydealtime · ‎10-13-2021

Yes, true. Just wondering if there is some sort of scam I'm not aware of. The money laundering theory makes sense. It seems like they would an item that was actually worth the amount they're charging though.

mydealtime · ‎10-13-2021

Nice one with Ozarks. 😉

Anonymous · ‎10-13-2021

Yes, there are shenanigans going on with those prices, because Beanie Babies aren't worth anything these days. that market played out a long time ago.

Anyone who thinks any of them have any value hasn't checked the trade on them in many, many years.

Back in the day they were a very hot reselling commodity, and you would grab any second-hand ones you could find.

These days they are being used for their original purpose before they became collector's items.....the kids are playing with them.