It’s a Bullish Bear Market for the Nation’s Retailers : Toys: Collectors account for a large share of the teddy bear market. And the prices of some varieties are soaring.
One of the hottest toys this Christmas is one of the oldest.
The teddy bear--from shrink-wrapped $2.95 dime-store miniatures to dress-up society models with hundreds of dollars worth of accessories--will have no trouble finding a friendly home.
Consider this:
* By the end of 1994, shoppers in the United States alone will have spent more than $93 million on stuffed plush animals, a huge chunk of that being bears of all shapes and attitudes.
* Harrod’s, London’s famed department store, reported in early December it had already sold out of Christmas teddy bears. About 22,000 of them at $31.25 each had been purchased at the up-market retailer.
* A small brown teddy bear recently went for $171,500 at Christie’s in London. Made in 1904 and bought by a Japanese manufacturer, the toy brought a record price, nearly double the old mark.
The market is growing “by leaps and bounds,” said Chris Revi, editor at large of Teddy Bear Review, a bimonthly magazine with a circulation of more than 45,000.
“We had a convention in Virginia earlier this year that drew 6,000 people,” he said.
His readers are collectors, and they account for a sizable slice of this bullish bear market. But there’s also the little girl or little boy living with CD-ROMs and virtual reality who still needs a cuddly companion.
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The intensity of the demand energizes the eighth floor of an old loft building just south of downtown Chicago where, high above a railroad switching yard and a snow-banked Chicago River, bears are being turned out by the hundreds.
North American Bear Co., a relatively small but prominent player in the bear business, is the home of Muffy VanderBear and her companions. Ten years old this year, Muffy is the star on this production line, a tiny dress-up bear who gets--and answers--fan mail scrawled and printed by tiny hands from all over the country.
Barbara Isenberg of New York and her brother Paul Levy of Chicago jumped on the bear wagon in 1978 with Albert the Running Bear, followed by a long line of tongue-in-cheek costumed creations with names like Chef Bearnaise, Scarlett O’Beara, Queen Elizabear, Albeart Einstein, Dr. Kilbear and Elvis Bearsley.
Most of them are produced for only a few years or less and then “retired,” entering an active after-market where prices immediately start to climb, Levy said.
Of the celebrities whose names have been borrowed over the years, he said, only one created a problem. Kareen Abdul Jabear was retired after about 18 months following indications that the basketball star might object, Levy said.
Ironically, that only made the bear in question all the more pricey and sought-after among collectors.
However, the real success story may be Muffy, a small, champagne-colored bear reissued periodically in designer duds. The collector’s edition this year features Muffy in a Eskimo-style fur-lined white parka with blue trim and a companion baby seal. The price tag is in excess of $50.
There is a Muffy travel trunk, dresses, a sled, tea set, furniture and other accessories that can cost almost as much as the bear. They, too, are retired from production after a time to titillate collectors further.
Revi of Teddy Bear Review said nostalgia gets a lot of collectors into bear mania. He says the original teddy bear is thought to have been made by Steiff Co. of Germany in 1903 or 1904. The same company made the record-priced bear sold recently at Christie’s.
It was inspired by a nephew of one of the founders of that company who sketched trained bears, he said.
