Posted by The other day I popped into my neighborhood thrift store before heading to the post office. I wasn’t expecting to find much, but I hadn’t been in the store in days and was itching to see what new merch had hit the shelves. And I did find a few things!
First I picked up this Middle Eastern inlaid trinket box with bone and abalone bits. I love these kind of boxes. They are fairly common and this one has no age to it, but it does have exotic flair! This photo does not show the pretty flash to the shell. I bought this to keep for myself (at least for a while).
And I snatched up this signed Native American pottery wedding vase–an Acoma piece by Priscilla Jim. Love the graphic quality and Native American pieces tend to sell well for me.
With two things in my basket I was feeling pretty good. (Some days I don’t find anything at this little store!) And then I started perusing the Christmas aisle and found a small cache of teddy bears. Now I don’t normally even look at plushes, ever, but I picked up this charming little fellow and saw he was made in Scotland by Geraldine’s of Edinburgh.
Darn, he looked really good!
And then I started looking at all the bears and realized I was looking at some collector’s stash. They were all vintage and in good, unused condition! No kid had played with these, slept with them or drooled on them! Alas, I didn’t find any Steiff, but still in the end, I did buy five.
Here’s the Geraldine’s next to a Merrythought of England “Oliver Holmes” (#347 of 500). Both of these have a bit of value, though I’m not sure yet what I’ll list them for.
The two below are not valuable, but still quite nice and I thought worth buying as they would make sweet Christmas gifts. That’s a 1982 Ganz bear (on the left) and that’s a “Charlotte Beezley” Boyd’s Bear (on the right) with a three-piece outfit. (Shhh…one of these may be a Christmas present for my aunt along with a few other goodies…so don’t tell her.)
This small one is a 1982 Vanderbear Twin by the North American Bear Co. Again not super valuable, but still desirable…I think!
I am out of my element with teddy bears and plushes in general, but it was rather exciting to break out of my usual categories with a bit of cuddly cuteness! (If you have any teddy bear knowledge, please do share it in the comments.)
All the best,
Karen
Hunting for Vintage 
I don’t know a whole lot about bears but you are right about these being collectibles. Steiff is number one it seems when it comes to plush and popularity. I have noticed that bears that are made of mohair and are jointed hold the most value. Boyde’s has some limited editions that may hold value, like beanie babies, but I don’t know their value much. The shop I worked in used to sell collectible bears and the most popular were bears from Germany and England. There is an American bear company that put out bears called the Character bear company. They even had some mohair bears they sold. The ones I have are small and their heads are jointed but most Character bears I have come across are not jointed and most are made of synthetic materials, like the fair bears you win at games. So sad that bears aren’t as popular like they used to be. I still like the tiny artist bears though. Your aunt will love her bear.
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Many thanks for sharing about teddy bears. I’m trying to learn a bit more now. (Personally I like the smaller, jointed bears!) We’ll see if I make any $$ on these. All the best, Karen
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You’re welcome and so sorry it has taken awhile for me to get back, sometimes that happens. I love the tiny teddies too. I love miniatures in just about everything, take up less space. Have a great week and I hope you do well on your teddy sales too.
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