Welcome to the first weekly Beanie Baby market report. Every week our Market Tracker sweeps completed eBay sales for the toys we document, and every week we will pull out what actually changed: what sold big, what rose, what cooled, and what tried to fool everyone.
This week, something tried to fool everyone.
The $995,000 bear that wasn't
The week's most dramatic "sale" was a Princess Diana Beanie Baby recorded at $995,000. It was a best-offer listing, which means eBay reports the asking price and keeps the accepted offer private. Somebody paid an undisclosed amount for that bear, and the one number we can see is the fantasy the seller typed in. We excluded it from the data rather than let one wish inflate the whole market by a factor of six. Real Princess bears traded between $0.99 and $75 this week, and if yours is making you dream, read the Princess version guide before the listings do.
The week in numbers
For the week ending September 6, the tracker counted 929 completed sales worth $11,357, across the 532 toys with sales on record. The market median held at $7.98, still comfortably in pizza-money territory. The frenzy stays retired; the collecting is alive and well.
Top verified sales of the week
| Sale | Price | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Violet new-face Teddy, 2nd generation hang tag | $474.99 | September 3 |
| Blue Sapphire BBOM prototype bear | $405.00 | September 5 |
| Nip the Cat, 3rd generation no-star tag, PVC pellets | $320.00 | September 5 |
| German Trap the Mouse, 3rd gen hang, 1st gen tush, authenticated | $202.50 | September 3 |
| Old-face all-white Zip the Cat, 3rd gen hang, 1st gen tush, authenticated | $150.00 | September 4 |
| Chocolate the Moose, 1993, 2nd gen hang, 1st gen tush | $149.99 | September 1 |
The pattern in that table is the pattern every week: early tag generations and authentication carry the money. A 2nd generation hang tag turned an ordinary brown Teddy into the sale of the week. If you cannot tell your tag generations apart yet, the tag identification guide exists for exactly this reason.
Movers: up
| Toy | Last week | This week | Change | Sales on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ewey the Lamb | $5.00 | $6.73 | +34.6% | 23 |
| Morrie the Eel | $5.99 | $7.75 | +29.4% | 13 |
| Puffer the Puffin | $5.00 | $6.38 | +27.6% | 50 |
| Flaky the Bear | $7.16 | $8.95 | +25.0% | 9 |
| December birthday bears | $7.99 | $9.75 | +22.0% | 17 |
| Roam the Buffalo | $5.21 | $6.29 | +20.7% | 50 |
Movers: down
| Toy | Last week | This week | Change | Sales on record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teddy family | $9.94 | $7.84 | -21.1% | 51 |
| Fridge the Polar Bear | $10.97 | $8.99 | -18.0% | 10 |
| Bronty the Brontosaurus | $95.00 | $79.99 | -15.8% | 25 |
| Toothy the T-Rex | $12.68 | $10.86 | -14.4% | 13 |
| Bo the Dog | $15.89 | $13.90 | -12.5% | 13 |
Bronty is the one to watch there: a genuinely valuable dinosaur cooling from $95 to $80 on 25 sales is real market movement rather than noise. The Teddy family dip mostly reflects which versions happened to trade this week, since "Teddy" covers everything from common new-face bears to the old-face colors that anchor the top-sales table.
All figures are medians of completed eBay sales, never asking prices. Look up any toy on the Beanie Baby Market Tracker, and if you are pricing your own collection, start with how to value a Beanie Baby using completed sales.