Here are the 5 top ways to ruin your teddy bears:

1.  Leave Your Bears on Display and Never Dust Them!

We all love to decorate with our teddy bears and it's so tempting to place them all over the house.  It's perfectly fine to leave them out on display, but if you let them just sit and gather dust, you will be sorry.  Dust will dull and damage the mohair and any costuming your bears are wearing and can, over time, ruin the value of your bears.  If you do display them outside of closed cabinets, be sure to dust them regularly.

2.  Display Your Bears in a Bright, Sunny Window

What's even worse than leaving them out to collect dust is to display your teddy bears in a nice, sunny window.  Nothing can be more damaging to teddy's fur than bright light.  Not just bright sunlight either, bright incandescent and florescent light is also harmful.  It will definitely fade the mohair color and any costuming and over time will eventually damage the fabric underneath.  This is a definite NO!

3.  Store Your Bears in an Attic or Basement

Once you begin collecting lots of bears (and we all do eventually), storage space becomes a problem.  Or, perhaps you have become the proud owner of an antique or vintage collection through an inheritance.  Don't be tempted to stick them away in a nice dark corner of your basement or attic.  Unless it is a temperature controlled area, these types of storage places tend to experience extremes of hot or cold and this can quickly cause serious havoc with the condition of your bears.

4.  Keep Your Teddy Bears in Plastic Containers

Keeping your bears in plastic containers can definitely protect them from dust, pests and other hazards.  But it causes another problem.  Air tight plastic can hold moisture, which creates mold or mildew over time.  Mold and mildew is impossible to remove and it causes terrible odor problems with mohair which is difficult if not impossible to remove.  A bad smelling bear, even if in otherwise perfect condition, will reduce its value significantly.

5.  Let Your Dog Play With Your Bears or Let Your Cat Eat the Mohair.

I have some personal experience with this one and had to learn the hard way.  Cats absolutely love mohair - I don't know why.  My cats are attracted to it like catnip!  One of my favorite cats took a liking to one of my beautiful, very large and expensive Steiff bears.  This bear was too large to fit in my cabinets, so he was proudly sitting in the middle of my guestroom bed.  I didn't notice the damage at first, but apparently she kept working at him and when I finally realized what was happening, the Steiff was ruined!  When I tell this story, everyone asks if I still have the cat?  Of course!  I love cats too!  And when it came right down to it, I knew I loved her more than I loved the Steiff.  But I learned a very difficult and expensive lesson!  If you have dogs, be careful too.  Dogs have been known to think teddy is a new squeaky chew toy and they especially like to chew on those suede or ultra-suede foot pads.  If you have pets, display your bears in separate rooms where your pets don't have access or in enclosed cabinets where they are protected.