TY Beanie Babies & Plush Flip Fails

Reader Lisa asked if I had a list of Beanie Babies to look out for. I’ve written today’s post addressing Beanie Babies and their value. I do not search out Beanie Babies and the couple that I've sold were ones that I owned from childhood. In fact sometimes I feel a little sick of Beanie Babies. That being said I like anything you can flip for a pretty penny...I browse the eBay community message boards regularly, and have seen similar questions about Beanies, their value, etc, and often users tell the askers that Beanies are not worth listing. This is a huge generalization, and while I wouldn’t go buy all the Beanie Babies I see at thrift stores, there are certainly a couple worth looking out for if you can get them for a dollar or two.

When I was in elementary school Beanie Babies were the hot toy. I had some of the first generation Beanie Babies, not because they were collectible, but because they were fun and cool. My favorite was this guy: Grey Hippo, and in fact I remember actually playing with him quite a bit.

 

Photo cred eBay seller mother244 (I can't find my hippo right now)

A couple years later Beanie Babies became highly collectible. So whenever I got a new baby, I wasn’t allowed to take the tag off (not conducive for playing). Then the Beanie Babies Craze hit and my Mom took my Beanie Babies and put them in Ziploc bags and into a Tupperware container. What a bummer! I couldn’t even enjoy them anymore.

I am not a plush, or Beanie Baby collector, and therefore really not an expert on their values. I often see on other blogs people making great profits off plush, but the truth is, the few times I’ve tried to thrift and flip plush, its been a bust. Here is one of my fails:

 

Build-A-Bear  Dragon Plush

I generally skip over the plush bins, but this guy was right on top and spoke to me.

Truthfully he had "quality" written all over him, and it stuck out to me.

Bought for $1.60, sold for $4.99

:(

I made the classic, “Its name brand, and I think it is cool, so someone else will want it too” mistake. I didn’t even comp him I just threw him in my cart. When I got home I saw that he is very abundant on eBay.

 

Ah, so many dragons! In researching this post I saw that the week after

I sold my guy at auction for $4.99, someone else sold him BIN for $15.00!

What I would strongly advise against with Beanie Babies, is this “throw it in the cart, look it up later” method. There are hundreds of styles of them and they are all over every thrift store in America and chances are they are not valuable.

Also because of the Beanie Babies craze of the nineties, many people think their Beanies are worth more than they actually are. Therefore they are often overpriced.

 

First Beanie Babies Tag

I would only buy a Beanie to resell if it had a 1993 tag on it and I could get it for a couple dollars or so. Since I am not the expert, I’ll guide you to them, and if you’re interested in Beanies you can learn more about the tags here. Keep in mind that out of these early Beanies, some are more valuable than others. Beanies are an item that I would study up, before spending on. You will not make the thousands of dollars off them, that some were in the nineties, but you may make $20, $50, or even more if you know what to look for.

The important thing to remember that as with everything, Beanie Babies are “worth what someone else is willing to pay for it," and therefore, always check the comps.

Have you had success with plush? Did you have Beanie Babies in the nineties? Or are you totally sick of Beanie Babies even though its been 20 years since the craze?