05/17/2024

Gobbles Ty Beanie Baby in the Spotlight

Gobbles is another Beanie Baby currently making the rounds on the internet “rarest beanies” lists. How it made that list in the first place is puzzling, other than a lack of research and just looking at the highest prices Beanies are being listed at, and everyone copying everyone else.

Gobbles is one of the most common Beanies ever made. It was manufactured during the height of the craze when Ty was making millions of them.Many believe that Gobbles has “error tags”. While there are some errors on some tags, they were mass produced and are NOT considered rare by collectors. It’s pure internet hoax.

FACTS:

  • Gobbles had several types of wattles (some say waddles), including single and double felt.
  • KR on the tush tag does not mean it was made in Korea, KR1965 does not mean it was for the Korean market. Gobbles Beanie babies were never made in Korea and there is no Korean market. The “KR” is part of the patent info.
  • There are punctuation & spacing issues. These were printed in the millions and do NOT add any value.
  • The year on the tush tag vs inside the swing tag may be different – this is normal. The tush tag gives the year Ty copyrighted the Beanie name and the swing tag date is a made-up birthdate, could be of a secretary, friend, event, etc.
  • Gobbles actually does have 2 copyright dates, but one isn’t more valuable than the other.
  • PVC Pellets is what was used in all Beanies during that time of production
  • PE Pellets is what was used in all Beanies during that time of production
  • All 4th gen Gobbles swing tags will have the birthdate like this: 11 – 27 – 96.
  • All 5th gen Gobbles swing tags will have the birthdate spelled out: November 27, 1996.
  • Oakbrook was intentionally spelled as one word with no space, and is like that on all Gobbles swing and tush tags
  • Missing UK next to Fareham, Hants P015 5TX – these were printed in the millions and do NOT add any value.

You’ve seen high sales? So have we, but they’re fake. Sometimes it’s a seller trying to keep the rumors going. They set up a listing and have a friend buy it. Sometimes it’s a vigilante buyer trying to hurt a seller. Money laundering also happens but not as often as a few years ago.

Where is all of this misinformation coming from? In 2014 (some say 2013) a list of rare beanies appeared on a click bait “news” site.  The information spread like wildfire amongst resellers who do not know the hobby. Every few months a new list comes out from some website trying to get easy click bait traffic. They change a few details, change out a few Beanies and get it 99% wrong.

Why do we see alleged high dollar “sales” on eBay? First, we have to separate what looks sold from what sellers are asking. Sellers can ask whatever they want.  The high dollar asking prices are from people who believe what they read on the internet. You know, because everything you read on it is true. The alleged “sold” prices are a different matter. They usually fall into 5 different categories.

  • Seller sets up a “fake” sale and has someone “buy” it to keep the rumors going. Remember, payment does not have to be made for it to show sold.
  • Vigilante bidders trying to teach the seller a lesson. This can only happen if the seller has “make an offer” or doesn’t have instant payment required. The buyer never pays. Our understanding of this is two-fold.  One, to get the the item off the market. Two, hoping that the seller has to pay final value fees before filing non paying bidder.
  • Money laundering – yes, it happens. Don’t understand it?  Watch Breaking Bad.
  • Black market items – this is a new one that has been passed around from collectors of other items. We have no idea how that works or if it’s been proven.
  • Buyer scams

So, let’s take a look at some high prices and dig into the details.

The first one shows $9,500 with 1 bid.

Let’s look inside:

0 feedback seller and the item has been relisted.

The buyer does have some feedback, but is “Not a registered user”. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale. What does this tell us?  It wasn’t paid for.  More than likely this was a fake sale. No one is going to spend this type of cash from a newbie seller when it’s available for much, much less from many well established sellers.

Next:

When we clicked on the listing that shows $9,500 with a strike-through it, this page “We looked everywhere” page is displayed. eBay knows it was a fake sale and removed the listing.

Next:

The same thing happened when we clicked on the listing that shows $8,000 with a strike-through it – The “We looked everywhere” page is displayed. eBay knows it was a fake sale and removed the listing.

Next set of sold/completed listings:


The first one shows $8,000 with best offer was accepted.

Let’s look inside:

AGAIN – the same thing happened when we clicked on the listing – The “We looked everywhere” page is displayed. eBay seems to be cracking down on these fake sales and is removing the listings.

Next:

0 feedback seller, with best offer accepted.

At first glance this one looks better than most.  Decent feedback seller.  No feedback has been exchanged. No sale. More than likely this was a fake sale. No one is going to spend this type of cash from a newbie seller.

Next:

Another 0 feedback seller.

The buyer has 0 feedback, but is “Not a registered user”. It appears he was bidding up his own price, then another Buyer with Private feedback & “Not a registered user” came in to bid, and then the 0 feedbacker bid again. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Seeing the pattern yet? We’ll leave this here because we could show you the same thing over and over and over.

The rumors regarding Gobbles, Curly, Valentino, Peace, Jake, Halo, Millennium, Glory, Boxed McDonald’s Teenie Beanies, error tags, etc., is purely click bait. If everyone is highlighting the same errors and the same Beanies then just how rare could they possibly be? There ARE rare beanies. It’s just that these are NOT the rare ones.

So what should Gobbles sell for?  Recent TRUE sales show this: 

As you can clearly see, these prices are a far cry from the thousands of dollars claimed by these articles.

We like to say this.  If these lists were accurate every expert in the hobby would be rich and we wouldn’t be answering questions.

Check out Gobbles Beanie Fact page.

For your convenience 3 Beanie experts research and update the Beanie Babies Price Guide.  They also run a very large Beanie Babies Collectors Facebook Group to buy/sell/ask questions that aren’t covered in our many articles.

BeanieBabiesPriceGuide is a participant in eBay Inc., and Amazon Services LLC, associate programs that are Affiliate Programs designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by links to eBay.com and Amazon.com that help fund the work involved on the site.

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