You should always buy Ty Beanie Babies from reputable
dealers or from sellers who you know how to contact. These
dealers and sellers should also have many references and/or
feedback from other people they have done business with.
Most counterfeit Beanie Babies are easy to spot if you know
what to look for. If you don't know what to look for then
you will probably have a hard time telling most counterfeit
Beanie Babies from authentic Ty Beanie Babies.
Beanie Baby shows are a good place to check out expensive
Beanie Babies. Try to handle them if you can. Get to know
the feel of the fabric and their overall appearance.
Some counterfeits are excellent reproductions, but
regardless of how good the counterfeits look, they usually
have many mistakes. It is never just one mistake.
If you are buying expensive Beanie Babies, then you should
educate yourself on the counterfeits or at least know where
to find the information when you need it.
Here are two web sites that have information on counterfeit
Beanie Babies along with photographs of many of them:
About Beanies Counterfeit Information:
http://www.aboutbeanies.com/fakes/index.html
Ms. Janie's Beanies Counterfeit Page:
http://www.msjanie.com/fakes/fake_page.html
Your other option is to have the Beanie Baby authenticated
which is inexpensive to do. You can get your Beanie Babies
authenticated at these web sites:
http://www.pbbags.com/
http://www.peggyg.com/
Most of the mistakes on the counterfeits can be found on the
tags. Become familiar with the different generation hang
tags and tush tags or know where to look to find this
information.
You can find information and photographs of all the
different generation hang tags Ty has produced here:
http://www.aboutbeanies.com/tags.html
Below are 17 ways to determine if a Beanie Baby is
counterfeit:
1. Many of the counterfeits have spelling errors on the
tags, but keep in mind that so do some of the authentic Ty
Beanie Babies. So you usually have to look for other
mistakes beside just this.
2. Check the tag dates and the addresses to make sure they
are correct. Many of the counterfeits have the wrong date on
the tush tag.
3. Compare the tags of the suspect Beanie Baby with the tags
of another Ty Beanie Baby that you know to be authentic.
4. Is the type on the tags too light or too dark? Is it the
right typeface?
5. Compare the tags to an authentic Ty Beanie Baby's tags
and determine if the tags are smaller or larger than the
authentic tags.
6. Compare the stock color inside the hang tag to another
hang tag. Is it too white? Authentic tags have an off-white
color.
7. Are the color of the hang tags identical? Or does the red
and yellow on the hang tag look muted or too light or too
dark? The hang tag should be blue red and not orange red.
8. The yellow star on the hang tag should be a bright
sunshine yellow, not a mustard color.
9. Some of the counterfeit Beanie Babies have a yellow star
on their hang tag that have points that are too "pointy."
The points of authentic hang tag stars are slightly rounded.
10. Check the gold edge on the hang tag. It should have a
nice clean line and be a light bright gold color. It
shouldn't be brassy.
11. Check the overall size and shape of the Beanie. Some of
the counterfeit Ty teddy bears have ears that are either too
small or too large or perhaps the legs or arms are too short
or are shaped strangely.
12. Is the teddy bear's head too large or overstuffed?
13. Check the eyes to see if they are too close together or
too big or too small.
14. Are the eyes a solid color? Some Beanie Baby eyes are a
solid color and some are not. Humphrey the camel has solid
black eyes but most of the counterfeit Humphrey have eyes
that are two-tone.
15. Check the fabric and see if it is rough or if the color
is too dark or too light.
16. Does the fabric nap look right? Is the fabric rough,
stiff or the wrong color?
17. Most authentic Beanies have nice plush fabric that
"flows" in all directions and doesn't get "wrinkly."
One place you should avoid buying expensive Beanie Babies
that are not authenticated is online auctions like eBay.
Odds are that if you buy enough of these expensive Beanie
Babies that are not authenticated, that you will eventually
end up buying some that are counterfeit.
Reference: Mary Beth's Counterfeit Update
About the Author:
Barry Stein has been a Beanie Baby dealer since 1997. You
can visit his web site at
http://BarrysBeanies.com, where he sells Beanie Babies
retail and wholesale.
You have permission to publish this article electronically,
in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of
charge, as long as the author bylines are included with an
active hyperlink to the BarrysBeanies.com web site.
Beanie Baby
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