The easy way to tell on this one is the shape of the head. Notice it has a very long sloped head. A real one is more defined and not as long in the mouth. This is actually one of the better fakes because the coloring is not too far off. It's everything else that gives it away.

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Thanks SO MUCH! I told this person that I doubted the authenticity of some of her beanies and she went BALLISTIC! Said she reported me to eBay, ha ha! ALL I did was ask, and when she replied "WHY WOULD I SELL FAKES...?" I explained to her that there are more counterfeits out there than actual Beanies (which she chose not to make viewed to the public) and she had a conniption! I KNOW there is more to these auctions from this seller than meets the eye! If a seller gets THAT defensive then there is definitely something wrong! PLUS, with higher end Beanies, why NOT authenticate to get a better price if auctioning them off? I will never understand these people! (I get their motives, just can't fathom the idea of ripping someone off!) I'd sooner bury myself alive than hurt another person like that (and I'm speaking as someone who has purchased counterfeits in the distant past and had my heart broken!)

Sold for 26.00.

Funny how the "buyer" had no feedback at all! And... I guess... Hallmark made a bundle selling fake beanies through their stores. Ha ha! :sarcasm:

Some Hallmarks did sell some fakes. Individual store owners bought them from the secondary market.

Another way some Hallmarks ended up with fakes is that people bought authentic ones and returned fakes. I don't know how widely that happened but at least one Hallmark owner said he got fakes as returns. That's one reason many Hallmark owners made a no return policy on Beanies.

...is the fact that they may have sold counterfeits and, yet, counterfeits were not made until after the craze hit hardcore. By that time, the more "rare" beanies had been out of production for quite some time. Oh well, I guess anything is possible... if they had a 2-3 year return policy. Sorry, I just don't buy it.

Let me explain more.

On the real rare oldies some Hallmarks bought from secondary markets and sold them as rare collectibles, not at retail price. Happened a lot in 96-97-98 etc. The store owners that bought fakes did not know it (mostly).

The Beanies that were purchased retail and returned were 96-97-98 styles like Radar, Libearty, Coral, 97 Teddy, Zip etc. These styles (and more) are HIGHLY counterfeited.

Remember most Hallmarks are individually owned. Besides the Hallmark branded line they are free buy from other vendors. I know a guy who owns 28 Hallmark stores. Believe me in 96-97-98 he was offered plenty of retired Beanies from the secondary market. He never bought them but plenty of Hallmarks (and other gift stores) did.

...extremely unfortunate. I know most of the rarer Beanies we bought were from a vender set up at (if you can believe it) a Barbeque place. She sold only authentic Beanies (as evidenced by the ones I sold for college money which were later authenticated in escrow by TBB and splendid and sold for top dollar by the purchaser) and, when the counterfeits rolled around, she got out of them altogether for fear that the fakes from China might make their way to her. I cannot fathom any Hallmark stores in my nick of the woods selling counterfeit Beanies, but I think that they were wise to them (thanks, in part, to the aforementioned seller and the fact that the initial counterfeits were very poorly produced). I had no idea that they were able to re-sell Beanies as I was always told that the Hallmark owners would be reprimanded if they sold Beanes for above the retail price (by not one, but several stores). All Hallmark owners explained to me that they would get in tremendous trouble if this occured and this is the reason why I was able to pay the standard 5.00 for my Righty and some other rare (at the time) Beanies. I'm not sure when the "fad" rolled around in other parts of the US, but in GA it was mostly '97. I know we were one of the first few states to catch on so I never ended up with any counterfeits in my initual collecting but purchased several from auctions when I was older, and none-the-wiser, which I destroyed. I still don't believe that this person is not privy to the fact that her Beanies are not authentic. I have contacted her several times only to be slagged down as someone who "bugged" her and she apparently reported me to eBay, though I have not gotten any notice from from them. Hopefully she'll realize the truth of the matter and pull the remaining auctions.