The trendy soft toys – worth between £12 and £60 from most retailers – are in some cases hitting online marketplaces with price tags well into the four-figure range
Jellycat floggers are targeting UK toy shops en masse in a bid to sell off stocks of the plushies for massive four-figure sums.
The craze-igniting British-made soft toys have climbed high in popularity in recent years, igniting a surge in “stealing to sell” shoplifting that has forced sellers to protect their dwindling supplies. Shop owners and managers are having to go to extreme lengths, with some reporting dozens of toy thefts.
In response, they have tightened security, even going as far as to install CCTV cameras specifically to monitor sections of the shop where the toys are kept. Browsing online marketplaces like eBay reveals the motivation behind the string of recent thefts, as items previously worth as little as £20 are being sold for more than £2,000.
Searching the term “Jellycat” on eBay will return dozens of items up for auction, usually “retired”, rare, or limited edition designs that are not readily for sale, being sold for thousands. The top entry on the site is a £2,399.99 Jellycat “Cream Mouse Tot” teased as a both rare and retired design.
Other retired toys, are sold for similarly dizzying amounts, including a “Rumplekin Frog” currently on the market for £1,999.99 and a “Rumplekin Fox” for £1,399.99. Newer designs, provided they are “brand new with tag” (BNWT) fetch similar prices, including a “Dixie Bashful” on the market for £2,345.
The prices are a mind-boggling markup compared to what is available in-store, with the toys typically retailing from around £12 to a maximum of £60. But the promise of a major payout is fuelling shoplifting, with shop managers saying they saw dozens of incidents over the Christmas period.
Speaking to The Guardian, Caroline Owen, the store manager at Scotsdales garden centre in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, said around 60 toys were stolen late last year. She told the publication that, while she couldn’t be sure they were being stolen with the intention of resale, she believed this was at least one of the most likely motivations behind the string of thefts.
Ms Owen said: “What we don’t know is whether the shoplifting is own-use, so stealing for yourself, or stealing to sell. I think there is both going on.” The manager added that several colleagues had also seen shoplifters targeting the toys, suggesting they may even be travelling far and wide to snap up Jellycat stocks.
She said: “I think some people have realised their shoplifters are not coming from their area. They’re actually travelling in.” Another shop owner from Dorset, Charlie Groves, said they said a woman steal a Jellycat toy from their shop, only to find the item up for sale online for a massive markup.
