– 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.
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!
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.
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:
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.
Another example shows the seller with zero feedback.
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.
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.
