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[Curler]

(Turns out that the link is from a banned GAF site, which makes complete sense. A couple huge typos in the article I bolded too, because wow).

A couple bought a Beanie Baby for £10 at a car boot sale - and later realised it was worth £62,500.

Leah Rogers and Ryan Flanaghan were selling a range of toys at the boot sale in Bude, Cornwall, when they spotted the purple teddy at another seller's stall.

As a former collector, Mr Flanaghan, 22, recognised the bear as a limited edition Princess Diana Di Beanie Baby - one of the most sought after in the collection which can be worth thousands of pounds.

While online, they read up about a Princess Diana Di Beanie Baby, which can sell for huge amounts.

The range was created in December 1997 - the year the princess died - to raise money for the Princess of Wales Memorial Trust. It includes a poem on the tag which refers to Diana as an 'angel'.

But even when he spotted the bear at another seller's stall, Mr Flanaghan had no idea whether it was a 'first edition' bear - which are incredibly rare - or a second edition, which sells for just £20.

They later discovered the bear was handmade in Indonesia in December 2007 with special PE pellets and wording on the tag, which refers to the Princess Of Wales Memorial Fund - all of which make it a first edition bear.

Miss Rogers said: 'Ryan and his sister used to collect Beanie Babies so before we sold a load we just wanted check that they weren't worth anything.

'As we were looking, we saw that this purple bear was the rarest bear and it was going for around £20,000. We didn't think anything of it.

'But when we went to the car boot sale the next day, Ryan went off for a walk and came back clutching this bag. He said: "It's that bear that we saw on the internet last night".'

The couple put it up for auction last night, with a starting bid of £20,000.

A spokesman for Beanie fan club Ty Collector said only a handful of people know how many Process Bears were produced.

So this popped up as the biggest thing being passed around on Facebook and what a terrible report it is! I know some of those UK newspapers aren't too reliable, but I never remember which ones. So much wrong though.... as a former collector, they DID make a rarer version but it's definitely not worth that much now, and definitely not "the rarest Beanie". I'm glad I saw some Facebook comments as rational, with perceived value and true value on eBay items. There seem to be a lot of hopefuls adding their Princess Dis at that price now.


An actual Beanie pricing website also says otherwise to this claim:
http://www.tycollector.com/the-scoop/princess-bear.htm?hc_location=ufi

Fraud Alert (January 14, 2015)

From time to time, prices paid by buyers on eBay for the Princess Beanie Baby increase dramatically for a short period of time. This generally happens when a blogger, a personality on a TV show or a news reporter claims Princess is valuable because it is selling for an extremely high price on eBay.

Fraud Alert (April 18, 2015) - Daily Mail, UK and The Sun, UK

In an irresponsible and non-professionally researched newspaper article on April 18, 2015, the UK Daily Mail and The Sun (UK) provided misleading information about Princess Beanie Baby values. Once again, tycollector.com was inundated with emails from people in the UK and Ireland hopeful that their Princess Beanie Baby was worth a lot of money and asking for the best way to sell theirs.

The writer of the original article (as is usual with these types of articles) used "listing" prices on eBay, as opposed to the prices buyers have actually paid for Princess over the past 30 - 60 days, to support the premise that Princess is valuable. One cannot avoid speculation about the credibility of ANY article in the UK Daily Mail or The Sun, when those online magazines/newspapers permit such a misleading article as the one about the Princess Beanie Baby to be published.

We are truly sad so many peoples' hopes were mistakenly raised by reading a fraudulent article that suggested they might own a rare and valuable Princess Beanie Baby.

So many hopefuls. I just really can't see a demand of Beanies start back up any time soon.

 

[Teggy]

It wound up selling for 53 pounds lol

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-P...-featured-in-National-News-PVC-/171762259040?

It was initially up for 25K and got no bids. I kind of feel bad for those kids but I kind of don't at all.