All about…Beanies

All about…Valentino the Bear

Wednesday, February 9th, 2022

Valentino Beanie Baby

– VALENTINO’S BEANIEPEDIA PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE –

In this article, I want to talk about the infamous “brown nose” bear that has been subject to an astronomical amount of misinformation.

Valentino has unfortunately been targeted by some media outlets as being a “rare” Beanie Baby. Sadly, you are not going to make thousands of dollars from selling him.

Not to say that there aren’t any rare Valentino bears, as there certainly are. However, the vast majority are very common bears.

I will go into more details shortly, but first a little more about this Valentine’s Day bear.

A little about Valentino…

Valentino’s style number is 4058.

He is a brilliant white colour with black button eyes and a larger, dark brown nose. Tied around his neck is a red satin ribbon. On his chest is an embroidered, bright red heart.

Valentino Beanie Baby embroidered heart

Tag generation

Valentino was released with either a 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th generation hang tag (see my swing tag guide for identifying hang tags) and a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th generation tush tag (check out my tush tag guide).

Below is an example of a Valentino bear with a 4th generation hang tag and a late 4th generation tush tag.

 

Birthday

Valentino’s Birthday is on 14th February 1994. He is a Valentine’s Day bear after all.

Poem

Valentino’s poem is shown below:

His heart is red and full of love
He cares for you so give him a hug
Keep him close when feeling blue
Feel the love he has for you!

Valentino Beanie Baby poem

 

Variations

Valentino was also released as a large Beanie Buddy. This Beanie Buddy version features a red mesh ribbon instead of the satin ribbon of the Beanie Baby. The Beanie Buddy also has a red nose.

Valentino Beanie Buddy

So what is Valentino REALLY worth?

The best way to figure out the value to any Beanie Baby, including Valentino is by using the guide in the link below.

What Are My Beanie Babies Worth?

As I mentioned further up the page, Valentino has made his way on to several clickbait articles claiming that he is worth thousands of dollars. The only purpose for these news articles is to drive traffic to their website by making you think that you have a rare Beanie.

The claim is that Valentino is worth more if you have certain “tag errors” or if he has a brown nose. Sadly, both of these claims are untrue. ALL Valentino bears have a brown nose. Every single one of them. Also, 99% of the time tag errors are not true errors, especially on Valentino.

However, there are definitely Valentino bears that are rare, just not for the reasons listed in the clickbait articles.

A Valentino with a 2nd generation hang tag is certainly worth a good amount money, anywhere between $150-700 depending on condition and whether it’s authenticated. Even a 3rd generation tag can fetch up to $70 authenticated and in mint condition.

For a 4th or 5th generation bear however, the value is drastically reduced as this was when Valentino became mass produced. Its value is around $1-15 dependent on condition.

What about the high sold values on eBay?

If you have found several high sold prices on eBay, there are several reasons for this, which I will explain below.

Fake sales: A seller sets up another eBay account, they list the Beanie at a high price, they then “buy” their own Beanie and it shows up in the sold listings, even though they have never paid for that Beanie. It drives interest to that Beanie, making people think that it must be worth something if someone has paid so much for it

Money Laundering: Criminals can move money by using selling a low value item at a very high price. It looks like the money went on a real sale.

Vigilante “buyers”: When sellers list Beanies for a high amount, vigilante bidders  teach them a harsh lesson by “buying” the Beanie, but never paying for it. It wastes the time of the seller, but this also makes the sale show up in the sold listings.

Take a look at the sold prices of Valentino on eBay in the links below:

The links below are affiliate links. If you purchase something by clicking through one of the links below, we may receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything additional and helps to fund this site.

SEE VALENTINO SOLD PRICES ON EBAY UK

SEE VALENTINO SOLD PRICES ON EBAY US

As you can see from the sold listings, those who have “bought” these high value Valentino bears have suspiciously had no feedback, have been bought by a low/zero feedback buyer or been re-listed. In other words, they never actually sold for that price.

Some examples…

Here is one example below, which shows that the seller had zero feedback. You can also see that the sale never went through as the seller re-listed the item.

What is Valentino Beanie Baby worth

Another example shows the seller with zero feedback.

Valentino Beanie Baby value

Here is another “high value” Valentino “sold” to a low feedback bidder who is no longer a registered user, which indicates the account may have been banned/deactivated.

Valentino Beanie Baby value

There are countless similar examples, but here are just a selection to give you the general idea of the problems around the false information surrounding Valentino and how clickbait articles that circulate these rumours just create disappointment to genuine people.

Hopefully this article has been useful in shedding a little light on the rumours surrounding Valentino.

– VALENTINO’S BEANIEPEDIA PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE –

All about…Claude the Crab

Monday, October 18th, 2021

the truth about claude the crab beanie baby

– CLAUDE’S BEANIEPEDIA PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE –

If you are reading this article, there’s a good chance that you’ve heard all the rumours on the internet that Claude is a “rare Beanie”, made even rarer if it has so-called “tag errors”.

Sadly, those rumours aren’t true. Claude is one of the most common Beanie Babies available and those tag errors we keep hearing about are either not errors at all or were so mass produced that the “errors” are as common as a correctly spelled tag.

So what’s the TRUTH about Claude?

Before we go into that, here’s a little more information on the infamous crustacean.

A little about Claude…

Claude’s style number is 4083.

His body, legs and pincers are tie-dyed a beautiful blue and brown colour, with the exception of his white underside. He has little black eyes and black thread antennae that are knotted at the end.

claude beanie baby close up

Tag Generation

Claude came with either a 4th or 5th generation hang tag (see our swing tag guide for more information) and a 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th generation tush tag (see our tush tag guide).

The picture below is an example of Claude with a 5th generation hang tag and 6th generation tush tag.

Claude the Crab Beanie Baby with 5th generation hang tag and 6th generation tush tag

Birthday

Claude’s Birthday is on 3rd September 1996.

Poem

Claude’s poem is as follows:

Claude the crab paints by the sea
A famous artist he hopes to be
But the tide came in and his paints fell
Now his art is on his shell!

Variations

Claude also has an adorable McDonald’s Teenie Beanie Baby counterpart who was released back in May 1999!

Claude doesn’t have a matching Beanie Buddy. However, the tie-dyed version of the Digger Beanie Buddy bears a similar resemblance!

So what is Claude REALLY worth?

After hearing the truth that he isn’t really worth thousands of dollars, I’m sure you’re wanting to know what Claude is REALLY worth?

I have written a handy guide on how to figure out the answer to that question (and the value of other Beanie Babies), which you can find in the link below.

What Are My Beanie Babies Really Worth?

As stated in the guide, the easiest way to find out how much he is worth, is to see what Claude actually SOLD for on eBay. After all, a Beanie Baby is only worth what someone is willing to pay.

The links below are affiliate links. If you purchase something by clicking through one of the links below, we may receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything additional and helps to fund this site.

SEE CLAUDE SOLD PRICES ON EBAY UK

SEE CLAUDE SOLD PRICES ON EBAY US

By using this guide, we can see that Claude sold for $5.50 in August 2021 and $3.25 in September 2021 which would create an average of around $1-5.

How much is Claude beanie baby worth?

There is another version of Claude who had a 4th generation hang tag with his name all in capital letters, like the example shown below.

This version is worth slightly more as it is slightly less common, fetching up to around $10.

What about the high sold values on eBay?

If you look down the sold listings, you may find sold prices that are also on the high side. There are various reasons for this.

Fake sales: A seller can “buy” their own Beanie using a different account, or get a friend to buy it for them. This creates a false high value, making it seem like there is a lot of interest in the particular Beanie. A buyer never has to pay for the item for it to show up in the sold listings. These sales will normally have only one bidder with zero/very little feedback.

Money Laundering: When criminals are trying to move money around, what better way than to hide it through a legitimate-looking sale on eBay.

Vigilante “buyers”: The bidder is on a mission to take down sellers who are trying to sell their Beanie for way too much money. They bid on the item, taking it off the market and never pay for the item. It teaches the seller a valuable lesson…not to overcharge for Beanies. Unfortunately, this also ends up in the sold listings, making things more confusing.

I hope this article was helpful to you in figuring out the true value of Claude, as well as giving you a little more information on him.

The links below are affiliate links. If you purchase something by clicking through one of the links below, we may receive a small commission. This doesn’t cost you anything additional and helps to fund this site.

–  CLAUDE’S BEANIEPEDIA PAGE CAN BE FOUND HERE –