Joanna Pitman

Bear market strategies

Joanna Pitman explains how wealth can be stored in your children’s toy cupboard

issue 07 October 2006

Ever thought of investing in teddy bears? Before you collapse in a fit of laughter, consider the fortunate person who found a large Steiff teddy bear abandoned in a skip and took it to Christie’s, where it sold for over £7,000. Or the person who sold a Steiff ‘teddy girl’ to the Yoshihiro Sekiguchi Museum in Japan for £110,000. Or the collector who succumbed to the fascination of a Steiff hot-water-bottle teddy bear made in 1907 and spent £33,000 on it.

A surprising number of people invest in teddy bears. The managing director of one UK auction house has bought a collectible teddy bear for each of his grandchildren. These are not things to be kicked around, left out in the garden or smeared with chocolate cake during make-believe tea parties. These are valuable pieces, to be looked at from a distance and handled with care. When the children are old enough they will have the option, if they are not too sentimental, to sell their bears and, with luck, raise the deposit for their first flat.

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