The Princess Diana Beanie Baby is a rare 1st edition.
The values shown in this table apply to a Princess with mint swing and tush tags.For souvenir purposes, a princess without a swing tag is worth only one or two dollars.
Inexperienced/amateur collectors are often confused by the Canadian customs tush tags and overpay for a Princess.The Indonesia, no-space swing tag, P.V.C. is the only Princess Beanie Baby that is worth a higher value if it has the Canadian customs tush tag.There is a tagush version.The Canadian customs tush tag only adds one or two dollars to the normal value of any other version of Princess.
There are three versions of Princess with an Indonesia "space" swing tag.Tag can be purchased on eBay from time to time.It is not known if this was an intentional production run or an odd combination of tags.This is a no-space/P.V.C.The original swing tag was lost and replaced with an incorrect one.
Princess swing tags are sometimes referred to as "space" or "no-space".There are four lines of text on the right inside of the swing tag.The no-space swing tag was attached to Princess bears produced in China during the first production period and also for some of the initial production in Indonesia.The "no-space" swing tag must be attached to a "first edition" Princess.
Ty introduced Princess.Retailers were only able to order 12 Princess Beanie Babies in December.Many people thought Princess would be a limited edition.
The cover story in the January 1998 edition of Collecting Figures magazine was an example of limited edition misinformation.The article made a statement that they should have made more if they were for charity.
The rumors of a limited edition Princess caused a buying frenzy.The announcement that Princess would be in plentiful supply in 1998 did not calm the buying frenzy.
The secondary market price for a Princess Beanie Baby was more than $200.Some retailers held back the Princess bears they received in the initial shipment, opting to auction them off or keep them for future sale when values were anticipated to be higher.Collectors were buying Princess Beanie Babies on the secondary market for prices over $300, according to various newspapers and magazines.
The production history of the Princess Beanie Baby is a mystery.The people who paid hundreds of dollars for Princess still think she is worth more than they paid.Children who received Princess as a gift from their parents think it's valuable today.There are sellers on eBay who attempt to sell or auction Princess for prices ranging from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Ty didn't think Princess would be a limited edition Beanie Baby.He wanted to have Princess in stores before Christmas, but had to wait until he got approval from the Princess Diana Fund managers.On October 29, 1997, Princess was introduced at the Ty Internet site.The total number of Princess bears that could be produced and shipped to stores in time for Christmas was held back by the time production began.There were limits on the number of Princess Beanie Babies that could be sold in December 1997.
The first shipment of Princess bears had a tush tag showing they were filled with P.V.C.There are pellets.Between January and March 1998 there were Princess bears that had tush tags showing they were filled with P.E.There are pellets.The P.E. appeared.The controversy of pellet tush tags continues to this day.Three questions appear to be the focus of the controversy.
The Princess Beanie Baby timeline is examined in this article.It is difficult to separate fact from fiction when it comes to Princess in printed media and the Internet.There may be a Princess mystery because Ty doesn't release production and inventory records to the public.The first shipments of Princess were received by authorized Ty retailers more than twenty years ago.
It seems odd that a Beanie Baby has a mediocre secondary market value.Princess Beanie Babies can be found on eBay for less than ten dollars a month.Even though many sellers are incorrect, there is no shortage of eBay sellers who claim theirs is a "first edition" Princess.It has become a common practice for new sellers on eBay to copy existing listings when they have something to sell.In some cases, the new seller's items do not match items in the existing listing that was copied, and the seller has no idea there are differences in types of swing and tush tags.It's a "buyer beware" environment.
Some sellers list Princess on eBay and other secondary markets with asking prices ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.One can only hope potential buyers understand that high prices are not realistic.The number of Princess Beanie Babies available for sale on eBay refutes the claim that Princess is rare.There were more than 5,000 Princess Beanie Babies listed for sale or auction on eBay when the Princess values were updated for this article.
Ty plush collectors want to be the first to have a Beanie Baby.It is believed that the most valuable version is the first one.There was a surprise appearance of a P.E.The dilemma was caused by the fact that some people were not sure which tush tag was the first.There are conflicting stories about the P.E.The tag appeared in the media.Many people tried to purchase two Princess bears with different versions of the tush tag.One of the bears had to be the first edition.
The P.E. was initially.The tag on Princess was thought to be an error.The media reported that Ty had announced the P.E.The Princess bears with P.E. was a mistake.The tags were filled with P.V.C.There are pellets.The media reported that a Princess was with the P.E.The tag was found to be filled with P.V.C. after being tested in a laboratory.There are pellets.There are no documented copies of the lab test results.
There is a presumption that the P.E.There was a rush to purchase Princess bears with the P.E. because of the tush tag.Ty Beanie Baby "errors" or "oddities" are what the tag refers to.
The Princess bears with the P.V.C. were thought to have been produced by Ty.P.E.Two different Chinese factories have tush tags on them.The theory held that a Princess with either of the tush tags could be considered a first edition.There is no publicly released proof of the "two factory" theory.By proof, I mean hard-copy Ty production records, stock inventories or other papers that would provide a Princess timeline detailing specifics of the first production run in China.The merchant who posted the two-factory theory challenged anyone to prove her wrong.That is suspicious because she didn't give any evidence to prove herself right.
The challenge has been to "prove them wrong" since the first "two factory" theory appeared.There are no "prove me wrong" theories that can be substantiated.
I've spoken with people who say their version of the Princess history has to be true because they heard it from a Ty employee or a corporate executive.The accounts are never backed up by hard copy documents, so they should be discounted.Ty Warner's strict corporate rules that prohibit company employees from publicly disclosing any information about the company or the production of its products make these stories unlikely.
When all is said and done, the value of a Princess Beanie Baby bear is an average of the amounts willing buyers have paid to willing sellers in completed transactions over a three - six month period, with no incorrect or fabricated information about the items having been provided.
The first version of Princess has a swing tag.There is no line space above the text on the right side of the swing tag."Handmade in China" is on the left side of the tag.This swing tag is referred to as ST #1.
Princess swing tags are sometimes referred to as "space" or "no-space".There are four lines of text on the right inside of the swing tag.The "no-space" swing tag was attached to Princess bears produced in China during the first production period and also for some of the production in Indonesia.The "no-space" swing tag must be attached to a "first edition" Princess.
The tush tag of a Princess with the "no-space" swing tag can show it is made from either P.V.C.Or P.E.There are pellets.All of the Beanie Babies were filled with P.V.C.There are pellets.Professional authenticators from that time studied every Ty product release and corroborated that fact.The first version of a Princess Beanie Baby must have a P.V.C.Tag whether it is made in China or Indonesia.
Ty moved to P.E.During the time Princess was being produced, he had pellets for all of his Beanie Babies.Ty might have had P.E.The tags were prepared for the change to P.E.There are pellets.There is a chance that Chinese factory workers accidentally used up the remaining P.V.C.They had started using the new P.E.Until the supply of P.V.C.The pellets were exhausted.That could explain the "rumors" of the P.E.There are tags on Beanie Babies.There are pellets.There is no hard evidence for this scenario.
In Indonesia, Princess was also produced.The exact dates for production in Indonesia and China are not known.
Why is an Indonesian Princess valued higher than a Princess from the first production period in China?There is a "mystique" surrounding all of the Beanie Babies produced in Indonesia.Indonesian Beanie Babies are said to have softer fabrics.It is more difficult to find Princess bears from the first period of production in China on the secondary market than it is in Indonesia.
The bears were destined for the Canadian and European markets.It is possible that Princess production began in Indonesia on the same day as production in China.The Princess bears made in Indonesia have no-space swing tags and P.V.C.Tsu is in contention for "first edition" status.
"Handmade in Indonesia" is printed on the inside bottom left of the tag, so the Princess bears can have a follow-on ST #3.There is a line space above the text on the right side.
The tush tag on the Princess can show it is filled with either P.V.C. or not.Or P.E.There are pellets.P.V.C.P.E.The Indonesian Princess was matched with the no-space tags.P.E.There were two tags with the same name.Although a few have been reported, it is not currently known if the ST #3 has a P.V.C.It was a normal production run or an intentional tag replacement.The tag combination timelines are not logically fit.From time to time, we've seen this version for sale on eBay.This is a no-space/P.V.C.A princess with a lost original swing tag was replaced with an incorrect one.
Problems with quality caused Ty to stop production of Princess in Indonesia.The production was moved to Chinese facilities.There are obvious questions about a shift of production from one country to another.Princess versions and values could be affected by the answers to these questions.These questions may never be answered because of the lack of credible information or the release of official documents from Ty.
2.When Ty stopped production in Indonesia, were the unused fabrics, pellets and tags sent to the Chinese factories?
5.At what point in the Princess timeline did Ty begin placing the Chinese factory stamps?
6.After production in Indonesia was halted, how many Princess bears were actually made in China during the first production period?
The Princess bears made in China may or may not have a Chinese factory stamp inside the tush tag.The last production runs of the tush tags are worth the least of all the swing tag combinations.There was a new version of the swing tag that said "Handmade in China" and a line above "DIANA, Princess of Wales"
There are tush tags on the Princess bears made during the second period of production in China.The Chinese factory of origin is depicted on most of the tush tags from this production period.There are different numbered stamps for Princess.We can confirm the existence of these numbers.We can't confirm that number is 487.It's easy to see why the last number might be interpreted to be "7" instead of "1."
The Beanie Baby produced with Chinese factory stamps is not the only one.Several other Beanie Babies have the same type of stamps with different numbers inside their tush tags.
Princess bears from the second period of production in China with factory marks in the tush tags are sold on eBay.The value of Princess bears from this period is the lowest of all the swing tag/tush tag combinations, but novice buyers get confused by the Chinese factory markings and think the number is a limited or special production run.Extra emphasis is placed on the "number" by some sellers.
Many sellers try to draw attention to their listing by stating that the tush tag on their Princess has a red star next to the heart.All of the Princess Beanie Baby bears have the same red star.
Canada requires a special tag to be attached to plush products imported from other countries.The extra Canadian tush tags were attached to Princess bears produced in Indonesia and then in China during the second production period.Retailers in Canada were going to sell Princess Beanie Babies with these tags.The Princess Beanie Babies were produced in Indonesia with a P.V.C.The Canadian customs tag shows sales at higher values on eBay than any of the other Princess versions.The Canada tush tag adds only one or two dollars to the Beanie Baby's value.
The UK Daily Mail and The Sun provided misleading information about Princess Beanie Baby values.The website tycollector.com was flooded with emails from people in the UK and Ireland asking about the best way to sell their Beanie Baby and if it was worth a lot of money.
The writer of the original article used "listing" prices on eBay, as opposed to the prices buyers have actually paid for Princess over the past 90 - 180 days, to support the premise that Princess is valuable.
Many people's hopes were mistakenly raised by reading a fraudulent article that suggested they might own a rare and valuable Princess Beanie Baby.We feel bad for amateur speculators who were tricked into paying high prices for Princess on eBay for weeks after the misleading articles were published.The incorrect newspaper articles caused the prices to rise for almost all versions.After the articles were published, the number of Princess Beanie Babies listed on eBay increased by more than 40 percent.
Values declined 30 - 50 percent after the previous surge in Princess values were based on incorrect media releases.Any time a "Princess is valuable" article appears in the media, that same cycle appears to repeat.
For a short period of time, the prices paid by buyers on eBay for the Princess Beanie Baby increase dramatically.This happens when a person claims that Princess is valuable because it is being sold for a high price on eBay.
It is a misrepresentation or an intentional deception designed to scam potential collectors who do not understand how eBay works.
The one dollar bill is new by Joe Gotcha.He created an eBay listing for his dollar with a starting bid of $300,000.He says it's a "buy it now" item for $300,000.
Joe can ask for any price he wants on eBay.He claims in the listing that the one dollar bill is a one of a kind item.There is only one dollar bill with that serial number.
The value of one dollar bills is out of sight because some of them are being sold on eBay for $300,000.
Is anyone going to bid on that one dollar bill?Absolutely not.There are desperate speculators out there who might very well purchase some other one dollar bills at eBay for $50 or $75, just in case the "rumors" are true.Joe listed those at the lower prices in order to get a few buyers who think they are getting a good deal.
In January of last year, that happened with Princess.An online news reporter said Princess could be worth $300,000 because of the price it was selling for on eBay.Tycollector was flooded with emails from Princess owners who wanted to know if it was true and where they could sell the Princess they owned.Hope is eternal.
Several inexperienced collectors and speculators bought Princess Beanie Babies on eBay in January of last year for prices well in excess of the bear's worth, apparently after reading or hearing about the news reporters incorrect value assertions.
When we see spikes in the value of Princess Beanie Babies due to events like this, we don't use the outrageously high prices paid for Princess at eBay in our value computations.The secondary market has settled enough to resume using all of the prices paid at eBay in our value formulas.We focus more on the prices being charged and received by known "honest" collectors and dealers during the temporary periods of artificial value hype.
A Princess Beanie found in an abandoned storage room was suggested to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars by an "appraiser" on a popular television show.The assessment was based on what Princess was being listed for on eBay instead of the true indicator, which was the prices buyers actually paid for Princess in completed transactions.
People beware.If there was an increase in the value of a Princess Beanie Baby, we would immediately notify the collector.It would have to be something like a P.V.C.-eating virus that is destroying all of the Princess Beanies in the world that were not protected in sealed plastic containers, but it isn't likely the true value.
The Chinese and Indonesian versions of Princess are slightly different because of the different fabrics used in production.There are claims that there are more versions of Princess than previously thought.Princess can be found in various sizes from 8.25 inches to 9.25 inches.We have not seen a consistent difference between the different sizes of purple fabric and the production timelines or country of manufacture.Beanie Babies are hand-sewn by large groups of factory workers.There are some minor style differences in Princess and all other Beanie Babies.
Minor variations in color consistency are likely to be the reason for the differences in shades of Princess fabrics.Depending on the conditions under which Princess is displayed or stored, color variations can be created.
There are fake versions of Princess.Before purchasing a Beanie Baby, check out the following indicators.
2.The fabric on a fake Princess can be lighter or darker than an authentic Princess, which makes it difficult to identify a counterfeit solely based on fabric color.
3.The fabric on many counterfeit Princess Beanie Babies looks a lot like flannel.
4.It feels rougher than an authentic Beanie Baby when you run your finger against the nap of the fabric on a counterfeit Princess.The fabric of an authentic Beanie Baby is smooth and easy to brush across.
5.The neck ribbon of a fake Princess is finished on one side.The other side is dull.The authentic Princess has a ribbon on both sides.The fake Princess Beanies have a slightly wider ribbon than the real one.
6.The stem of the rose embroidered on the chest of a counterfeit Princess may be larger than the stem on an authentic Princess.
7.There are flaws in the swing tag on a fake Princess, such as a gold border around the tag, incorrect red color, or off-center spacing of the writing inside the yellow star.
It is possible for a Princess to be authentic if she has a fake ribbon or swing tag.Since the value of a Beanie Baby decreases when it has no swing tag, counterfeiters have been known to acquire authentic Princess Beanie Babies without their swing tags and/or ribbons and then add the fakes to bring it back up.
Some eBay sellers estimate Princess values in their listings.There is no credible basis for these value estimates.If you're naive to the fact that sellers will estimate values on items they themselves are selling, you shouldn't buy on eBay.There is a conflict of interest with the estimates of value.These estimates tend to be highly inflated.
Values for Princess are based on recorded and legitimate sales.We do not buy or sell Princess Beanie Babies.We don't have any interest in the value of Princess and we provide the valuations as a service to people who need unbiased and credible information on which to base their purchases.This value service is not provided for any other Beanie Babies.We can focus on the Princess values.
The process for determining the approximate value of a Ty collectible is based on a periodic average of the amount willing buyers actually pay for the item.Due to the new online secondary markets like eBay, printed value guides are a thing of the past.
The values for Princess are determined by taking all of the available "sold listings" values (completed transactions) for each category of Princess during the previous 30-90 day period and average those prices paid.
When an eBay sale is registered at a high price so far out of the normal range for a particular variety of Princess, it is totally uncharacteristic and in our opinion should not be used to determine average values.An example would be a Princess that sells for $500 when several of them sell for under $50 in the days preceding a high value sale.