@joliztoyco,
Gift card/fake payment scam. Some of the sellers have confirmed it. Most are too embarrassed (or disappointed, or ashamed) to admit it though.
The "buyers" have no intention of actually paying. They try to trick the sellers into shipping without being paid, by sending fake payment info. Most of the time, they ask the seller to include a gift card for several hundred dollars, as an "extra gift" and say that they will pay extra for it (which is not possible to do with eBay payments). Then they tell the sellers that they need to provide the gift card number, and/or the tracking number, before the payment will be deposited into the seller's account. All lies.
They are actually just after the gift cards. The beanie babies are just the bait. There are fake blogs and online "articles" that talk up the value and interest in them, to create a false sense of value, and and try to hoodwink eager sellers who are desperate to believe that their old collectibles still have some value.
As well as beanie babies, they also do this with Corningware baking dishes, and old but common and inexpensive stamps or coins. Probably other things as well.
