I ran to pay when I saw the £3 charity shop Beanie Baby was listed for £37k on eBay – but how much is it REALLY worth?
A MOTHER has revealed that she rushed to the till when she spotted a £3 Beanie Baby that was listed for £37,000 on eBay.
But Amy Fuller, who is known online as ‘The Hustle Mumma’, was left disappointed when she did a thorough search on her purse-friendly charity shop buy.
Amy, a 37-year-old nurse who earns an additional income through ‘hustling’ and ‘reselling’ and is now teaching others how they can rake in extra money too, took to social media to show off her plush toy, which she believed could have been potentially worth £24,000.
Posting online, the content creator, who has 65,300 followers on TikTok, filmed herself in her local charity shop, as she said: “Come and find out if the bear that I found in the charity shop was worth £24,000.”
The mum-of-three who previously sold a 25p car boot buy for £45, gave her followers a close-up look at the Halo Ty Beanie - a small, white Angel bear with a pink ribbon around its neck and halo above its head.
Showing off the Beanie Baby which is believed to be rare due to its “tag errors”, Amy, who is from Hastings, continued: “Here is the little Halo Ty Beanie - I found it sitting on the shelf of the charity shop, with another little one, for £3.”
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Just days ago, Brits were urged to look in their lofts as six popular 90s toys could make them serious money this year.
Back in 2015, a couple bought a £10 Beanie Baby at a car boot sale – only to discover they’d managed to get their hands on the world’s rarest version.
The toy, worth up to £62,500, was one of the 100 Princess Diana memorial bears.
According to This Is Money, original toys – like Flash the Dolphin or Legs the Frog – could earn a couple of hundred pounds.
And after looking online to see how much ger Halo Beanie Baby was being sold for, the savvy woman who picks up bargains for pennies from charity shops, car boot sales and Facebook Marketplace and 'flips' them to make a profit by selling them on Vinted and eBay, added: “Quick eBay search showed that they were up for £700, £22,000, there was a £24,000 one, I even saw a £37,000 one.
“So obviously I ran to the till and bought it as quickly as I could and could not believe my luck, I was over the moon.”
After buying the Beanie Baby, Amy explained: “Anyway, we did a bit more research, it has all of the tag errors that people talk about and the rarities that people talk about.”
As well as spotting a star on the Ty tag, which is said to be a sign of a rare Beanie Baby, Amy additionally acknowledged: “It's got the brown nose, it's got the spelling error, it's got the exclamation mark error on the tag, it has all of that.”
Can anyone shed any light onto this because I do think that this bear is worthless, I've seen about three more since
Amy Fuller
Despite this, Amy, who has used cash from reselling online to pay for luxuries including family holidays and a garage conversion, sighed: “But they just don't sell for £24,000 - the ones I've seen are selling for a few quid, even with the tag errors.”
Confused by the numerous hefty listings, Amy asked: “Is this all just a big scam? Are they all just fake listings? What is going on?
Amy's top three tips on how to find a bargain
- Look at every tag on the teddy bears - you can find some real gems there
- Go to the £1 rails and search everything
- At boot sales look in the bags and boxes of clothes as people often just look at the top few items - you have to rummage!
“We've got all of the rarities that they talk about and I still can't work out why some of those listings are up for £24,000.
“Can anyone shed any light onto this because I do think that this bear is worthless, I've seen about three more since.
“But why are they up for so much?”
Amy then shared a short clip shaking her head and covering her face, as she acknowledged: “This is me coming to the realisation that I probably wasn't gonna get £24,000 for the bear and in fact, I probably just wasted £3 on the b****y thing.”
How much is it really worth?
The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @thehustlemumma, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as it has quickly amassed 114,600 views, 550 likes and 108 comments.
But social media users eagerly flocked to the comments, keen to share their thoughts on Amy’s cheap bear - with some saying it's worth no more than a fiver.
People can post stuff for whatever price they want on eBay, it doesn’t mean it’s worth that or will sell for it
TikTok user
One person said: “Average sold price is £5.”
Another laughed: “You fell for it!”
A third commented: “Not a scam. People just put that price but it doesn't mean anyone is buying it for that.”
Top tips for selling on eBay
NEW to eBay? It's head of secondhand, Emma Grant, reveals how to optimise your listings:
- Use key words - eBay automatically filters listing titles for key words, so it's crucial to use the terminology people search for - especially brand and product names.
- Choose the right category for your product - It might sound obvious but it’s important to always choose the most specific category to sell in.
- Pictures are important - Most users will not bid on items they cannot see. For best results, take photos in natural light against a neutral background and be honest about any scratches or damage to the item.
- Be as detailed as possible - Be honest about the condition of the product and be sure to note any wear and tear.
- Look at past sold items- eBay has a function that allows you to search for the item you want to sell and then filter the results by sold items. Here, you can view the price the item has sold for and get insight into how others have listed it.
- Selling Sundays - Get the timing right. The busiest time for buyers is Sunday evenings, so schedule your listings to end around that time. Opt for seven-day auctions to ensure the max number of bids. The longer your item is listed, the more chance of people seeing it, so unless it's time-sensitive, pick seven days. December is the busiest month on eBay.
- Be realistic with pricing - Try searching for similar items on eBay, to make sure you’re going for the right price and always ask yourself "would I pay this price for this item?"
- Donate to charity - When listing your item, consider donating a percentage of the sale to a cause of your choice – from 10% to 100% - you can donate the funds raised from your item straight from the platform.
At the same time, someone else claimed: “99% of Beanie Babies are probably worth the same as they were new. There are some exceptions (1st - 3rd gen tags) but we’re unlikely to find any in the UK as those were before they were popular here.”
Not only this, but another chimed in: “People can post stuff for whatever price they want on eBay, it doesn’t mean it’s worth that or will sell for it.”
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To this, Amy replied and confirmed: “Yeah I’ve learnt this the hard way!!”
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