On Saturday, around one hundred Steiff fans came together at the Stadthalle in Bad Godesberg for an auction which is held every spring and autumn. Bidders have a chance to buy a rare Steiff piece for their collections.

“One changes quickly from a collector to a hunter,” quips a 60-year-old visitor from southern Germany. He has been following the activities of Carsten and Marianne Eßer of Wachtberg for almost ten years now. The two operate the auction house Teddy-Dorado, which is well known among collectors worldwide and specializes in Steiff products. Marianne Eßer explains that her husband received the stuffed animals as gifts from his grandmother when he was a child, and this ignited his passion for the Steiff animals.

The 46-year-old Carsten Eßer collected Steiff animals and began early on using the Ebay platform to auction off Steiff products. Because he saw quite a variation in the offerings of Steiff items, he had the idea to standardize the presentation and description, making it easier to compare the various products on offer. After completing his economics studies, he founded the auction house Teddy-Dorado.

Around 800 pieces were chosen for the auction and the Steiff animals were projected on a screen behind auctioneer Eßer as he tirelessly called the auction numbers. First, there were a number of bears, cats, forest and field animals, all for well under a hundred euros in the auction directory.

Later in the day, there were six rare little hedgehogs in an original box from 1970, finding a new owner with a bid of 950 euros. A dark brown teddy bear stuffed with wooden wool and produced in the years 1935 to 1941, went for 700 euros. A rare cat from the year 1905, only 12 centimeters tall, began with a starting bid of 400 euros and sold for the lofty sum of 2,400 euros.

Orig. text: Stefan Hermes

Translation: ckloep