CASHING IN
I found a rare teddy bear at a car boot sale – now I’ve sold it for an eye-watering price
A MUM who picked up a rare teddy bear at a car boot sale has been able to sell it on at an eye-watering price.
Jeanette Davies and her son Kyle Johns splashed £130 for two of the stuffed toys at a stall in Monmouth, Wales, but made more than twenty times that at auction.
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Jeanette, 60, convinced Kyle to buy the bear on a gut feeling that it was a rare toy made by Steiff.
With new examples retailing at £159 today, old Steiff bears can be valued in the thousands.
Even so, the pair were left stunned when their teddy, which turned out to be a Steiff from 1905, fetched a hammer price of £3,800 at an auction in Etwall, Derbyshire.
Jeanette said: "I just had a feeling - a gut feeling. I thought he looked like a Steiff bear, a make which can be valuable.
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"Sometimes you just take a gamble and I’m glad we did."
The bear boasts a mohair coat and original boot-button eyes.
It has undergone some minor repair work over the years, with one of the ears sewn back on, while the paw pads are believed to have been replaced in the 1920s.
Kyle, 29, added: "We’ve been going to the Monmouth car boot sale every Saturday for years but we’ve never found anything as valuable as this.
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";Mum was convinced the bear might be special but I wasn’t too sure. In fact, I was reluctant to spend £130 - she had to persuade me.
"Me and mum were really surprised when we received the valuation. We had no idea the bear could be worth so much.
"We would have been pleased if we’d doubled our money with a valuation of around £250."
Jane Rawnsley, teddy bear consultant for Hansons Auctioneers, said she was "delighted" for the family.
She went on: "I call him Mr Cinnamon because of the colour of his mohair coat.
"It’s time for him to begin a new life in a new home 118 years after he was manufactured in Germany.
"This is a great teddy bear of exceptional rarity for a serious Steiff collector."
Auction house chief Charles Hanson hailed it as a "tremendous find".
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It comes after a Doctor Who superfan revealed the huge hoard of memorabilia he has built up over 30 years.
Meanwhile, a rare Star Was toy fetched an eye-watering sum at auction in the US.
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