Halo 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.

Halo 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 Halo 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:

• All Ty Halo Beanie Babies have a brown nose.  They NEVER came with a black nose.
• The errors quoted online are absurd and do NOT add value.
• KR on the tush tag does not mean it was made in Korea, 1965(KR) does not mean it was for the Korean market. Halo Beanie babies were never made in Korea and there is no Korean market. The “KR” is part of the patent info.
• 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 will always stay the same on all Beanies with that name. The swing tag date is a made-up birthdate, could be of a secretary, friend, event, etc.
• Tush tag breakdown of trademark™ and registered® symbols:

— The Beanie Babies Collection® – R means this phrase is registered
— The Ty RED Heart® logo – R means the logo is registered
— Halo™ – TM means the name is trademarked
— This is how ALL Halo tush tags were produced, so they are NOT considered errors

• There are punctuation & spacing issues. These were printed in the millions and do NOT add any value.
• Ty intentionally put a space before the exclamation point.
• Oakbrook is always written as one word by Ty, it never has a space between Oak and Brook on the tush tag.

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 $12,000 with a best offer.

Let’s look inside:

0 feedback seller and best offer accepted.

0 feedback buyer.  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:

0 feedback seller and it’s been relisted. Best offer accepted.

The listing history shows the buyer has 0 feedback and is “Not a registered user”. No feedback has been exchanged. Fake sale.

Next:

0 feedback seller, best offer accepted – but it’s been relisted. The listing history shows it was set up as a private listing so we can’t even check the buyer.  No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Next set of sold/completed listings:

The first one shows $7,500 with a strike-through the price, which mean a best offer was accepted.

Let’s look inside:

0 feedback seller and best offer accepted. The listing history shows it was set up as a private listing so we can’t even check the buyer. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Next:

At first glance this one looks better than most.  Decent feedback seller.  Then you notice it’s been relisted. The listing history shows it was set up as a private listing so we can’t even check the buyer. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Next:

0 feedback seller,  best offer accepted and it’s been relisted.

The buyer does have some feedback, but is “Not a registered user”. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Next:

Again, 0 feedback seller, best offer accepted and it’s been relisted.

The buyer has 1 feedback, but is “Not a registered user”. No feedback has been exchanged. No sale.

Next:

This Halo was sold on an auction listing vs being sold with a best offer. However, if you look further into it – you’ll see the same pattern as the others.

0 feedback seller,  and then you’ll notice it’s been relisted.

The buyer has 0 feedback, and is “Not a registered user”. 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 Halo, Curly, Valentino, Peace, Jake, Gobbles, 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 Halo 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 Halo’s 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.