My Teddy Bear Story

Hey guys,

I just thought that I would share one of my more interesting "picks". A few months back there was an estate sale about 90min away from me that advertised, teddy bears. Steiff, Hermann, Clemens, all different German made teddy bears. Over 1000 bears / stuffed animals.

Now I had never bought, sold, or even researched a German teddy bear before. So I stayed up a little and started to get a general idea as to what they sell for. Of course, the Steiff were the most valuable brand, but they all were going for a pretty decent amount.

  I decided to take the trip and see if the prices were right in order make a few bucks. There was an entire room full of
them. Not to mention all the other ones scattered around the house. There were only a  few people looking at them. The prices were not all that bad, some were priced well enough to double up on. Most people who were looking at them, I think couldnt get past the thought of spending 50$ on a teddy bear. So not many were being sold.

I ended up buying 500$ worth of bears, animals, from her, went home and researched them all, and found I could get around 1200$ for them. 

So long story short. I went up there and saw that after I bought mine for 500$, very few other bears had been sold. there were probably 800-1000 bears / animals left. She asked if I wanted to make an offer on all of them. I was a little taken aback, but saw that there was money to be made.

At the time I was living in a 2 bedroom apartment in downtown Pittsburgh with my dad, and had no access to a garage or storage facility. I talked it over with my dad, and he said it was ok for me to make an offer.

Of course I started out low, offering 1500$, figuring there were 6k+ in bears. She really didn't want to take that offer, but her partner told her that they have no where to put it, and I was the only one interested in them. So she accepted the offer. And I was the new owner of 1000 teddy bears.

Needless to say it filled the apartment. But I priced them well, and they sold well. In all I brought in around 10k in teddy bear sales.

So not only did I make some money, I learned a lot about something that I never knew anything about.

One thing that I have learned in the past couple years, is that knowledge is everything. So I soak up as much as I can.

Just thought I would share my most interesting and unusual pick!

Nice find and nicely told story !  Sometimes those come along and you have to decide whether to go for it or not. You did well !

Good job. I am always a little nervous about investing money in items I have no experience in selling, but that is the only way to learn.