Ok, this is the story.
My Mommie Dearest bought a lot of Beanie Babies from a wholesaler. Real cheap. MD knows nada about BB’s. She prices some on eBay and finds that Libearty is bringing a pretty penny. She auctions some off. She also has a Zip the cat with black paws. She sends it off to be “authenticated.” It comes back marked “unable to be authenticated.” So do the two others she sent off with it.
She’s stopped selling the Beanies because she’s not sure they’re authentic, but we’re both very confused.
Why would anyone bother to make counterfeit Beanies and then sell them wholesale really cheap? Not all of these were high-ticket BB’s, either. I don’t get it, and neather does MD.
Just wondering if any Dopers have any thoughts on the subject.
You said it yourself-- they can bring in a pretty penny. A dishonest person could profit nicely by counterfeiting valuable BBs and selling them at market value. Even if they’re being sold cheaply, the sheer number of them being sold could still make for a hefty profit.
The low-ticket ones could still generate profit. Also, someone unfamiliar with BBs but assumes they’re all valuable could be fooled into buying them.
But why bother counterfeiting the ones that don’t sell? I mean, does it take more effort to produce a counterfeit “Expensive Beanie” than a “Cheapo?”
And why not sell the BB’s directly to the public, why sell them wholesale?
Because a wholesaler is likely to be more focused on how he is going to unload them on the public, and not to ask too many questions.
And sometimes it’s better to counterfeit a lesser model than a popular “hot” collectible model, because a prospective buyer is more likely to know exactly how many Princess Diana Galactic SuperBear[sup]R[/sup] Beanies there are in the world, and to be pickier about the provenance of the one on the counter in front of her, but as for the YetAnotherBearBeanie[sup]R[/sup], well, she’s not likely to know or to care that much. It’s a Beanie, it’s got the magic red tag, eh…
My brother-in-law was formerly General Counsel for The Gap, and he spent a good deal of his time dealing with counterfeit Gap apparel. It seems the most common origin for the counterfeit clothing was outsource contractors who produced clothing for The Gap.
When The Gap rejected a batch, usually for a quality control issue, the producer was left with items that were produced to (almost, but not quite) Gap spec, in current Gap styles, with Gap materials. It’s not difficult to envision how these batches could get “scrapped” out to someone willing to market them as Gap products. I’d not be surprised if this mechanism describes how many of the fakes in retail come into being.
And this would also possibly explain why someone would be trafficking in the “off” models - it’s what was produced (before the counterfeit retailer had any say in things) to near-spec and is what they managed to get their hands on.
People are nuts about Beanie Babies and I am astounded at the prices these little stuffed toys (that no kids play with) command. I took a quick look at some retired & rare Beanies… Manny the Manatee costs 75.00 and Flash the dolphin costs 50.00.
I bet either of these could be produced for about $1.50 overseas and then marketed as the real thing. Even if they were sold at a discount the profit would be astounding. I would suspect that there are hordes of fake beanies out there passing as genuine.
In my own business there is a problem with counterfeit pens; Mont Blanc is one of the companies that suffers from a large quantity of fake pens on the market, so much so that many associates are leary about buying them from anyone else but Mont Blanc. getting a Mont Blanc at half price is only a good deal if it’s the real thing… actually… since I’m not a fan of MB’s half price wouldn’t be good enough for me.
There are people who are so good at making copies of vintage pens they have to stamp “replica” on their productions so that dishonest buyers won’t resell them as the real deal. When some vintage pens command in excess of four or five figures this is a serious problem for buyers.
