|
June 2010
Members
Newsletter
Hi Bear Club Members,
It hardly seems possible that it was 7 years ago next month when we completed construction on our huge new teddy bear showroom and started what is now arguably the largest teddy bear speciality shop in the Southern Hemisphere.
If interested you can read more about how the new showroom came together in the “About Us” section of our website.
 Some members will remember our humble beginnings in the back corner of our Sleep Doctor bedding shop in Penrith where we had about 500 teddies for sale right amongst the bed linen displays.
We decided in mid 2001 to retire from the hectic life that is the furniture and bedding industry and to open a little dedicated teddy bear shop.
So much for little, the shop we ended up building is huge, the range is even bigger and our little members club has grown from only 65 members when the new showroom opened to over 25000 members now.
Our members interests vary greatly, we have some who only buy occasional gifts and don’t even collect bears themselves whilst others have magnificent collections that they add to weekly.
The continued support from members is a major part of what makes our business so strong and has allowed us to continually grow in what for many shops in our industry has been a very tough year.
Add to this the huge number of new inquiries our award winning website generates each day and the growing number of international visitors that come to us on bus tours our future is looking good.
We wont be sitting on our laurels though, we will continue to look at better ways of delivering our award winning customer service to our members and will every month endeavour to come up with more of the super deals and offers that members look forward to each month.
 This month we have another very popular event featuring the famous Settler Bear range which is a real passion for many of our members.
This company has created an almost cult following for their beautifully dressed bears that they release in new collections twice each year, we are featuring the recently released
“Season 11” in this months promotion but our entire range off Settler Bears that are in stock is being offered to members at 20% off their regular inexpensive prices.
We have probably the biggest selection of Settler Bears in stock that you will find anywhere and we still have many of the earlier collections that many stores no longer carry, in fact if it is still available from Settler Bears we will still carry it in our range.
Season 11 is amazing and features over 100 new designs in 12 collections.
See our special feature on these bears later in this newsletter.
QUICK LINKS:
 Teddies on Parade Special Event featuring Settler Bears
This Months Super Specials
This Months Prizes
Click this direct link to the Settler Bears catalogue section
To see only the new Season Eleven Settler Bears click here
 LOCAL & GLOBAL TEDDY NEWS
The good, the bad and the cuddly!
New designs just arrived from germany.
 We have just received shipments from both Hermann Coburg and Steiff, these are the two best known traditional German bear makers in the world and are famous for their award winning designs in some of the best handmade limited edition mohair bears the world has ever seen.
Just in from Steiff are a delightful collection of very traditional replica bears from early last century including Limpy, Matthias, Reinhard, a Classic panda, a classic 1925 replica, the latest design in the Lladro Four seasons series “Summer” and a really unusual Steiff Club Edition “Paper Teddy” which is made of paper.
This range also features “Theo” a replica of a famous 1916 bear.
 If you are lucky enough to visit the famed Puppenhaus Museum in Basel, Switzerland, there's a very special Teddy bear you need to meet.
He is known simply as "specimen number 1766", but you'll instantly see that a mere number does not adequently capture this Teddy bears shining personality.
The original 1916 bear was sent to Steiff Schulte mill in Duisberg, to have artisans custom make a material as close to the Puppenhaus Teddy bear as possible
The designers carefully measured every angle of the original bear to copy his proportions, from the tips of his ears to the bottom of his feet.
A Steiff classic has been reborn for a new generation of Teddy bear enthusiasts.
First of the Teddy bears in Steiff’s "Tribute to the Puppenhaus" series.
You can see all these bears and many more Steiff Limited Editions in the Steiff section of our online catalogue
 Hermann Coburg has some fantastic themed bears this season including “Trooping of the Colours” King Arthur the 1st in the Camelot series, Hermann’s 90th Anniversary Bear, The latest in the Flower series Wild Tulips, a musical series “Johan Brahms” and a tribute bear called simply “Max Hermann Bear Maker” as one of the worlds most respected bear makers.
To commemorate the 90th anniversary of Max Hermann and Hermann-Coburg Teddy Bears, a very limited edition OF 90 PIECES WORLDWIDE of this delightful replica bear has been created.
Made from brown tipped mohair plush, he has excelsior filling, and is a growler.
Around his neck he wears a green bow.
Details of the edition is embroidered on one of his paws.
Trooping the Colour also known as the Queens Birthday Parade Bear is Limited Edition 100 pieces worldwide.
"Trooping of the Colour" Bear has been created to celebrate the Birthday Parade for Queen Elizabeth II, which is held annually on 12th June.
 The custom of Trooping the Colour dates back to the time of Charles II in the 17th. Century when the Colours of a regiment were used as a rallying point in battle and were therefore trooped in front of the soldiers every day to make sure that every man could recognise those of his own regiment.
In London, the Foot Guards used to do this as part of their daily Guard Mounting on Horse Guards and the ceremonial of the modern Trooping the Colour parade is along similar lines.
The first traceable mention of The Sovereign's Birthday being 'kept' by the Grenadier Guards is in 1748 and again, after George III became King in 1760, it was ordered that parades should mark the King's Birthday.
From the accession of George IV they became, with a few exceptions and notably the two World Wars, an annual event.
This impressive display of pageantry is now held on the occasion of the Queen's Official Birthday.
It takes place in June each year to celebrate the official Birthday of the Sovereign and is carried out by her personal troops, the Household Division, on Horse Guards Parade, with the Queen herself attending and taking the salute.
Since 1987, The Queen has attended in a carriage rather than riding, which she did before that on 36 occasions, riding side-saddle and wearing the uniform of the regiment whose Colour was being trooped.
The regiments take their turn for this honour in rotation as operational commitments permit.
Trooping the Colour is made from quality mohair plush, with excelsior filling, and is a growler bear.
You can see all these bears and many more Hermann Limited Editions in the Hermann section of our online catalogue
EXCLUSIVE WORLD CUP SOCCER BEARS - NOW IN STOCK
2010 World Cup Fan Bear
a Special Edition to mark the occasion of the FIFA World Cup 2010 to be held in South Africa (June 11 - July 11, 2010)
We have now received our first delivery of the Australian edition, we can still order the English and German versions
Hermann are releasing these Limited Edition 35cm mohair bears in the colours of Australia, Germany and England as a special commemorative collectable for football fans and teddy bear collectors alike.
Only 111 pieces for each country will be released and at the special price of only $349 they will certainly sell out quickly.
We have an order in for some of the Australian bears and we can order the German and English bears at this stage however demand will be high so you would be well advised not to wait too long if you wanted to secure any of these editions.
MORE DOLL AUCTIONS TO FOLLOW!
our first auction of a number 1 edition Florence Collection doll sparked quite a bit of interest with our doll collecting members.
Holly was the first design offered and we will try to have a new #1 edition doll each week to offer to members.
 mark Jones is also the designer of the Florence Collection of Limited Edition Porcelain Dolls and over the years has collected all the #1 editions from each design.
We are able to offer a few of these beautiful dolls to our members in a special auction sale to be held online through our website in the next few weeks. The reserve prices will be very low, in fact they will be starting at their original selling prices from the year of their first release.
The first 6 designs we will be auctioning are from the 2003 and 2004 Florence Collections.
This is a rare opportunity for you to get your hands on a #1 edition doll that until now have never been offered for sale.
All these #1 dolls are still in their original boxes and have their certificates of authenticity.
This weeks doll auction features a beautiful Indian Princess sitting on a wooden cart, Shianne is the number 1 in a small edition of only 120 pieces worldwide.
We have a starting reserve price of only $249 which was her retail price when she was first released in 2003
If you are interested in possibly adding Shianne to you collection you can see the auction details by clicking this link
 CHERISHED TEDDIES EVENT
DATES BEING FINALISED FOR LATE JUNE.
Nana’s Teddies are planning to have a huge Cherished Teddies Adoption Weekend Event later this month so keep an eye on your e-mails for notification of this big sale event where you will be able to take advantage of some really super bargains on a huge selection of now retired and hard to find designs.
We are just waiting on the arrival of the new 2010 designs to be able to set the dates for this special adoption Event where we will be featuring the new range as well as having all the great specials you have come to expect from our Cherished Teddies Events.
Full details of this event will be e-mailed to members in the next week or so.
 CHARLIE BEARS UPDATE
At last we appear to be getting closer to being able to fulfil all the orders we have in the system for our members waiting on Charlie Bears.
We have finally received news that a large container shipment left the Charlie Bears Factory in Thailand on the 8th June and is due to clear Australian Customs late this month.
 We will receive our portion of this shipment a few days after it lands at the Australian distributors warehouse.
I still have not been advised exactly what bears designs we will be getting in this shipment but I have been told that the majority of our outstanding orders for last seasons designs will be coming.
Some of these orders are outstanding from the big event we held last August and I fully understand and share our members frustration in having to wait so long for their teddies, I don’t enjoy fielding calls daily and not being able to give positive answers to our members who in the main have been quite patient and understand that this situation has been totally out of my control.
So again thank you to all members waiting on bears, I really appreciate your patience and be assured the moment I get your bears I will be in touch and will send them on their merry way home to you.
PLEASE NOTE: None of the new 2010 plush designs are expected in this shipment as Charlie Bears are committed to catching up on all outstanding orders from last season first.
As for the new 2010 Isabelle range, we have not seen any pictures and nothing will be released until later this year possibly August or September.
Charlie Bears wish to have all back orders out of the system before releasing the new range.
As soon as the new ranges official release date is determined and we are sent our pictures I will share them with you as soon as we are allowed to put them on our website.
I have included this brief note to all stockist from the Australian distributors:
Dear Charlie Bear Stockists,
As discussed we have a 20ft container arriving end June and William has emailed to advise,
“We will then have another one setting off 6 weeks later and then every 4 – 6 weeks to clear back logs.”
This is all the information I have at the moment so please do not ring asking when we will receive stock as I have given you all the information I have.
As I have explained to many stockists, the Charlie Bears take a long time to make and with only 2 factories in Thailand they were unable to keep up with the orders.
William and Charlie travelled to Thailand in March to discuss the issues and they now have 5 factories hand making all the bears.
However new people need to be taught how to make the bears correctly so this will not be a quick fix to stock but it will improve things over time.
Also Charlie has explained that when they started they where only a small family business and will remain so only being able to produce a certain number of bears a year.
We have had to close the order books so we can supply what is on order.
We have not taken on anymore new stockists since August 2009 and will not be taking any on until we can catch up.
Unfortunately it has taken more time than anyone anticipated making the bears. Again as they are handmade they will take time to produce.
Kind Regards,
Kerri - Bears by Charlie Australia
Here is a comment from Charlie Bears owner William Morris on the new Isabelle collection
William’s comment
“Australia will have a special Isabelle Collection this year which will only be shared with other international markets and not the UK which does mean that allocations will be much more generous.
 In terms of supply of bears whilst the general feeling is that Australia is getting a raw deal nearly all our customers in the UK are also waiting for stock to arrive that was ordered last year.
We are working as fast as we can however we cannot compromise quality and as such due to the massive increase in trade generally whilst it feels that orders are not being fulfilled I am sure that if you look at the increase in delivered spend from 2008 - 2009 for this and other customers you will be quite surprised.
Kind Regards
William Morris
Director
BEWARE OF THIS SCAM
 I was recently made aware by one of our internet associates of a new SCAM doing the rounds, she sent me the following message that I share with you, it hopefully may prevent some of our members falling victim to this scam.
Hi Dave,
Please be aware of fake Windows Support phone calls. Do NOT let the caller take control of your computer.
I received a call earlier this evening from a person claiming to be from Windows Support.
The caller (I believe to be from India) proceeded to tell me that my computer is getting a lot of software errors and asked if they could remotely connect to the computer to fix the errors.
To verify that this was someone from Microsoft Windows Support, I asked them for their full name and Microsoft Employee ID and a phone number I could ring them back on.
This is so I could check the phone number against Microsoft's Support phone numbers. When I asked for this information they hang up.
Scams such as this have been happening throughout the world so I thought I would warn you in case you get a phone call.
Please pass this information onto your family and friends.
Cheers Deb, Auzzie.Biz Domain Services
THIS MONTHS
SUPER SPECIALS
KRAMER
A very soft and cuddly teddy bear that just wants to be hugged
Kramer is a 38cm bear and is one of the great bears in the Korimco Soft Toys for everyone range, he is fully washable and makes an ideal playmate for kids of all ages
Normally $32.95
Sale Price $16
Thomas Kinkade Bears
 Tetley Dog
Tetley is one of the famous Charlie Bear range and like all his teddy bear cousins he is fully jointed and very very cuddly.
He loves to play hide and seek but is not very good at hiding as the big antique bell on his collar keeps giving his hiding places away.
Normally $84.95
Sale Price $60
 BURT
Burt is a now retired BOYDS BEAR and is part of their very
popular Signature Series of artist designed bears
Burt is a fully jointed teddy bear, he was designed by well known
entertainer Patty Duke and he features her signature on his footpad
We only have 5 available as he is now retired
Normally $69.95
Sale Price $50
THIS MONTHS
SPECIAL EVENT
Teddies on Parade Event
7 pm Tuesday 15th June 2010.
RSVP by 3 pm Tuesday the 15th for catering and gift allocation
Internet & Phone orders can be placed until 5pm
on Monday the 21st June
We will be showcasing all the latest designs including the recently released Season 11 ranges We have every Settler Bear design that is still currently available including many favourites from their earlier collections and until the 21st they are all on sale.
 HUGE DISCOUNTS
& SPECIALS
20%
OFF ALL SETTLER BEARS RANGES
As a member you can get 20% off all Settler Bear designs that we have in stock when you attend this months TEDDIES on PARADE event or by using the enquiry cart and typing SETTLER BEARS in the general comments box when you submit your internet enquiry placed before 5pm on the 21st June.
Click this direct link to the Settler Bears catalogue section
To see only the new Season Eleven Settler Bears click here
You can also see the complete Season 11 collections in group settings
there are lots of pictures further down in this newsletter.
Hundreds of beautiful Settler Bears to choose from that you can save 20% on right now!
Plus a Free Gift with purchase
and great Prizes to be Won!
We have reserved a special FREE Gift for all members either purchasing at this
months TEDDIES on PARADE event or ordering online or by phone any
Settler Bears before 5pm on Monday the 21st June.
Free Gift with purchase
You will receive free
a retired edition Settler Bears enamel collectors pin
featuring GRACE a Toby Award winning Settler Bear
plus you will also receive a current Settler Bears
2010 catalogue and a printed carry bag
INTERNET OR PHONE ORDER MEMBERS
If you live too far away to attend the TEDDIES on PARADE night you can see all
our beautiful Settler Bears in our on-line catalogue click here
and still get the 20% discount off all prices shown if you order by using the
enquiry cart and typing SETTLER SALE in the general comments box when
you submit your internet enquiry before 5pm on Monday 21st June.
All Members either attending our
TEDDIES on PARADE event
or ordering online or by phone
will get an entry in the draws
to win these great prizes.
THIS MONTHS PRIZES
1 of each will be drawn at the TEDDIES on PARADE event
1 of each will be reserved for an internet or phone orders draw
1st prizes
A 38cm Settler Bear
SANDY
valued at $54.95
2nd prizes
A 28cm Settler Bear
CARLY
valued at $35.95
3rd prizes
A 20cm Settler Bear
AMITY
valued at $22.95
 WINNERS ARE GRINNERS
May’s Special Hermann Event
Teddies on Parade Event
lucky prize winners
Congratulations to our Hermann Event winners
1st Prizes - A Nana’s Teddies Gift Voucher - valued at $100
Tina Hampson of Kiama NSW won the “Teddies on Parade” door prize.
Jackie Anstis of Cambridge Park NSW won the internet/phone order prize.
2nd Prizes - A Nana’s Teddies Gift Voucher - valued at $50
Brian Mobbs of Oakhurst NSW won the “Teddies on Parade” door prize
Susanne Benham of Aberfoyle Park S.A. won the internet/phone order prize.
3rd Prizes - A Nana’s Teddies Gift Voucher - valued at $25
Warren Waudby of Castle Hill NSW won the “Teddies on Parade” door prize.
Brenda Payne of south Hurstville NSW won the internet/phone order prize.
$100 Members Super Draw
Leanne Curran was the first correct answer drawn in our Lucky Members Super Draw.
 Will you be this month’s $100 Gift Certificate Winner?
You have to be in it to win it!!!!
Enter this months draw for a $100 gift voucher now by answering this simple question,
Which famous entertainer designed our featured Boyds bear?
You can find the answer in the June 2010 members newsletter.
E-mail your answer now and don’t forget your membership number.
Event information for new members:
- Teddies nights start at 7pm sharp and generally run till around 9pm but this depends on how much fun our members are having.
- It is essential to RSVP so that we can organise catering and gifts.
- Our TEDDIES on PARADE nights are young children free events so that you and other members can relax and enjoy the bears and the company.
- Well behaved teenagers are most welcome to attend.
So why not mark your diary, RSVP now and come along and have a relaxing fun night out with a great bunch of people that share your passion for collecting Teddies.
That’s it for this months general news highlights but before I sign off for this issue I wish to remind you of the following dates:
TEDDIES on PARADE
Settler Bears Event
7pm 15th June.
Settler Bears Sale
ends 5 pm Monday 21st June 2010
Regards and beary best wishes
Dave.
FOR THE BENEFIT OF OUR NEWER MEMBERS THAT HAVE JOINED
US RECENTLY I WILL CONTINUE TO REPEAT EACH MONTH THE
FOLLOWING INFORMATION ON MEMBERS DISCOUNTS AND BENEFITS
MEMBERS DISCOUNTS.
 For the benefit of members old and new I would like to clarify the importance of making it known to us when you are ordering that you are in fact a member, if you cant find your number we can look it up on our computer system for you.
As we have now over 25000 customers on our lists it is hard for us to keep track of every ones status so we ask your help in providing your membership number with all inquires and orders, this way we can ensure you get the discounts or specials you are entitled to as a member of our club.
MEMBERSHIP NUMBER IS DISPLAYED AT THE TOP OF EVERY NEWSLETTER, just above your name.
- Your membership entitles you to a minimum of 5% off all regularly priced products that are not already reduced.
- All prices in our on-line catalogue are our normal retail prices and members discounts will be deducted from these retail prices.
- Discounts are not available for lay-bys as we incur additional costs in providing lay-by services.
- Members discount also applies to Pre-orders placed with payment in full at the time of placing your orders.
- Discounts do not apply to postage costs.
- Special offers are made to members from time to time at up to 80% off retail, further discounts do not apply to these offers.
- We always strive to offer our members the best possible value on all our teddy bears and other products, as such we are always happy to match or better any genuine advertised competitors prices. As it is impossible for us to monitor all available offers please bring it to our attention and we will see what we can do.
 CHANGED E-MAIL ADDRESSES
Many members are changing their e-mail providers or going to broadband which changes their e-mail addresses.
It is imperative that you advise us of any change in your E-mail address if you wish to continue to receive your newsletters.
We would hate to lose contact with you.
I hope you enjoy this months news and all the additions to our on-line catalogue ranges, please check back frequently for new additions that will be uploaded as they arrive.
Regards and bear hugs from all of us,
Dave, Jan, Troy, Marilyn & the Bears.
|
