Collecting teddy bears and other toys

One of the first Teddy bears ever made was sold by a store in New York City at the beginning of the 20th century and called Teddy Bear. The reason behind this name was that Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt at the time president of the United States was on a hunting trip when he failed to catch anything. His hunting companions caught  a live bear for him to kill.  Roosevelt refused to kill a trapped animal.  More or less at the same time in Germany Margarete Steiff created a soft toy shaped as a bear which very quickly became a sensation and sold millions. 100 years later Steiff still makes high quality and collectible teddy bears, there is a also a good market for older Steiff bears which can be extremely valuable.These days  most teddy bears are made in the far East and are a very affordable toy, in a large varieties of styles and shapes  you will find customizable teddy bears or very big teddy bears.

Like other types of simple toys such for instance the Raggedy Ann doll, what was a simple kids toy 70 years ago can now be worth over $1000. Most high quality toys manufacturers will release collectors items and packages that, although very nice, they are unlikely to be worth a lot of money very quickly. The reason is that for anything to increase in value it has to be rare, when toys like these are released their only purpose is to be collected and therefore people will keep them in pristine conditions. Therefore even 20 or 30 years time there will still be too many copies in very good conditions to be really valuable. If you want to invest in toys then old and ordinary toys are probably a better investment. Obviously any collection requires a lot of research and networking all things that are easier to do now on the internet than ever before.