Fingerlings being sold on eBay for £600 as desperate shoppers snap up must-have £14.99 Christmas gift
Humiliated mums have been forced to tell shop workers they are 'desperate for a Fingerling' after stocks ran dry online
FINGERLINGS are this year's must-have Christmas gift and shoppers are going berserk for the miniature motion detecting monkeys.
The clinging toys - worth £14.99 - are selling out across the country and are now being flogged for nearly £700 on eBay.
The interactive pets - which come in 50 different characters - clutch snugly around your finger and respond to touch, voice and motion.
Mums 'desperate for a Fingerling' have bombarded social media site Mumsnet to tell of their embarrassment when asking for the toys in shops after they sold out on major retailing sites.
The eBay price hike is believed to be linked to so-called Grinch bots, which are plaguing parents this Christmas by snapping up entire batches of popular products in seconds.
Products purchased online by the bots later appear on used-goods websites like eBay and Amazon for more than ten times the retail price.
The interactive pets - which come in 50 different adorable characters - clutch snugly around your finger and respond to touch and voice.
One mum with username Isadora2007 posted to Mumsnet to express her embarrassment when asking for the toys in shops.
She said: “The name... it’s really awkward saying to the young male toy shop assistant that I’m desperate for a fingerling!”
Another, Lottie509 quipped: “Haha my daughter’s got one and his name (as they already come named) is willy. I said to my husband can u imagine her talking about her fingerling willy. How embarrassing to anyone who doesn’t have a clue.”
Demand has seen toy stores sell out and the internet has been flooded with knock offs with names like ‘finger monkey’. A load of fakes were seized at Heathrow airport last week.
Trading Standards officers are now urging Christmas shoppers to avoid buying products which are not genuine.
A spokesperson for Norfolk Trading Standards said: “Fingerlings are looking to be this years ‘must have toy’.
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“With demand outstripping supply this will lead to copy versions appearing in shops, markets, online stores and auction sites.
“These copies could be near copies, common names appearing include ‘Baby Monkey’, ‘Happy Monkey’ and ‘Finger Monkey’ or counterfeit versions presented as Fingerlings.
";These copy and counterfeit versions could have issues with the safety of the product and its use.”
Where can you by Fingerlings in the UK?
The Fingerlings are currently available from an array of online and high street retailers across the UK - though some of the characters may be harder to find than others.
The Christmas must-haves are currently on sale at the below outlets - but stock does sell-out quickly:
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