Princess Di Beanie Baby

[virgo3056]

I noticed a lot of Princess Di Beanie Babies sell for really high prices. One such beanie was listed at 9,700 and best offer was taken. I have the exact same tags and year of this beanie that sold. Are they really worth that much????

[mam98031]

Check with the seller that sold one.

If they are selling for that price, it stands to reason that someone thinks they are.

[monica-sells]

Must be some sort of gold dust sprinkled on it...kind of like the stanley starbucks stuff.....

...but, since I am not familiar with the genre...who knows?

[kensgiftshop]

They might be selling for those high prices, but are they getting paid?

[gb58]

short answer...no they aren't.

Since ebay doesn't show us what the offer price accepted was on a best offer sale, perhaps the best offer accepted was $5. Who knows. 

Do a search on sold/completed listings, that will show you what they are actually selling for.

Remember anyone can ask any price they like for an item from 1 cent to one Millon dollars or more. It doesn't mean an item is worth that price, so it is always important to search the completed listings to see the actual selling prices.

[a_c_green]

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@virgo3056 wrote:

One such beanie was listed at 9,700 and best offer was taken. I have the exact same tags and year of this beanie that sold. Are they really worth that much????

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Doubtful.

What you may also be seeing is one of the recommended practices for a prearranged sale set up for one particular buyer: You set some preposterous price that no one would actually pay (don't forget to set the Immediate Payment Required option so that no one else hits the BuyItNow just for yucks), and also add Make Offer. You then wait for your buyer to Make an Offer of the agreed-upon price, and accept that. The actual sale price will not show.

[maxine*j]

eBay shows the SOLD price, but not the PAID price.  Ask the sellers if they ever got paid. 

The seller whose "sale" for $45K that started the whole Princess Di Beanie Baby nonsense, with world-wide press coverage, came to these boards at the time to tell everyone the buyer cancelled. Of course, the news media didn't bother with that, because that's not sexy.

But the buyer had what he wanted:  An "auction record" that made headlines.  With that done, he doubtless sold one or two for $10K or $15 each to people who thought they were getting a real steal from someone desperate or stupid.   

It's a type of market manipulation that is as old as the hills in the antiques, antiquities, and art markets.

[isaiah53-57]

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@gb58 wrote:

short answer...no they aren't.

Since ebay doesn't show us what the offer price accepted was on a best offer sale, perhaps the best offer accepted was $5. Who knows. 

Do a search on sold/completed listings, that will show you what they are actually selling for.

Remember anyone can ask any price they like for an item from 1 cent to one Millon dollars or more. It doesn't mean an item is worth that price, so it is always important to search the completed listings to see the actual selling prices.

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Though you dont see the exact price of the offer, its possible to get a general idea of the sold/offer price by searching the item in the SOLD ITEMS PAGES - Search by lowest or highest first and the offer-price item will sort in between two items that you can see the price of, helping you get a price range that the offer-price item sold for(of course, granted that it is not the lowest price, the highest price, and that there are several other similar sold items)

[ed8108]

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@virgo3056 wrote:

One such beanie was listed at 9,700 

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Is it safe for a buyer to offer 90% of the asking price to avoid being blocked for making a lowball offer ?

[luckythewinner]

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@ed8108 wrote:

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@virgo3056 wrote:

One such beanie was listed at 9,700

Is it safe for a buyer to offer 90% of the asking price to avoid being blocked for making a lowball offer ?

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IMHO if a seller blocks a buyer for making a "lowball" offer, the seller is doing the buyer a favor by revealing his pettiness.

[brightlightbookseller]

Good way to check is if you have access to Terapeak, my understanding is only completed sales (i.e. paid) show up there.  I could be wrong, but I've found it a generally more helpful guide to price stuff than searching solds on the regular eBay search, and I think that's part of why.

[ed8108]

I would suggest use auto decline 

[dbfolks166mt]

    Others have already provided some good responses the only thing I would add is this could possibly be a case of money laundering. 

[monster-deals]

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@virgo3056 wrote:

Are they really worth that much????

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Nope. 

They are basically worthless and have been for a decade or more.

They will never go up in value either.

[thelongball]

Like anything collectable. Its only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.