Blakesley Bear Collectors Notes

Downsizing or Thinning out your collection of Bears

10/6/2019

I was talking to one of our Teddy Bears clients this week about her collection and she told me a familiar story.

She said when she had one bear on display she was fine but as soon as she had two bears all the family and friends labelled her a collector with a capital "C" and as well as giving her bears for every one of her own events and celebrations she also got them given to her as mementoes from their holiday trips etc.

Then other distant family members and friends heard she was a Collector and a few started bringing round ominous black bags of all their old bears that they couldn't bear to throw out.

Being a true arctophile she made room for all these bears and since some of them were truly unattractive a lot ended up labelled in boxes in the attic. "I should think" she said, looking at our stand on Friday, "that I have more bears in my attic than all your stock put together!"

We talked about a possible plan of action which may help you too if you find yourself in a similar situation:

Step 1 : Bring all your Bears and Teddies and Soft toys together into a single place and have a good look at them. ( Don't forget to include all those stored away in boxes and hidden out of sight- as you need to appreciate the full scale of your "collection")

Step 2 : Divide and move them into three groups:

Group 1 The Bears you wanted so much that you bought them or loved immediately when you were given them.

Group 2 The Bears that remind you of personal/family events and give you pleasure to keep safely.

Group 3. The rest!

The Heart of your collection are the bears in Group 1, and these are the ones you will want to display and take care of .
(Now you have reminded yourself which ones you prefer you may even feel ready to buy a few more to fill gaps in your real collection)

The Group 2 Bears (and soft toys) are the ones that you may like to put away safely ready to pass on to other family members who shared the same memories with you.

The Group 3 Bears and Soft Toys are the prime candidates for downsizing or dispersal since they are neither favourites nor important family treasures.

This gets you back in control of your collection, but of course you now have a huge heap of unwanted bears to dispose of.

Step 3 : Ideally you can see for yourself which of the items in your Group 3 are likely to be valuable in their own right.
( e.g Old English vintage bears, Branded Bears such as Steiff,or Hermann, Artist Bears etc.,) which can be re-gifted or resold to other arctophiles, or offered to another interested family member for their own collection.

If you are unsure of values, any dealer will be happy to look through them or see a photograph and advise which ones might be resold or worth keeping.
The rule of thumb is that you can part successfully with any bears/toys made in China without losing sleep since these are mass produced and less likely to be considered rare for investment purposes in the short term at least.

Disposal of the rest is down to personal preference and condition of the bears -e.g. via charity shops, car boots or the tip!

Step 4: Now you have to broadcast to your family what (if any) preferences you have for accepting bears in the future. You can explain to them that you are downsizing, and you can ask them to give you only specific bears in the future.

In this day and age with so many things to choose from, we all like as much information about peoples preferences as possible to make sure we get it right!

So the tip is to make your Bear Collection truly your own and be ready and willing to clear out or swop any bears you are given that don't suit you. Putting your unwanted bears back into circulation is a kindness to other collectors and bear lovers everywhere!

Downsizing or Thinning out your collection of Bears

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