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For artists and collectors sponsored by Intercal...your mohair supplier and Johnna's Mohair Store
Melbourne, AustraliaEvery now and then I like to look at the different eBay sites like eBay.UK to see if I can find a unique one of a kind artist bear up for adoption.
Today I did a search and saw 394 results found for Artist Bears, One of a Kind, Mohairs, New but when I began to browse, I was appalled to find that this section was full of those mass produced CHARLIE BEARS!!! 
UGH YUK!!!
How can they possibly be listed as ONE OF A KIND when they are LIMITED EDITIONS of 1000!!! It makes me sick to my stomach!!
No wonder most of the talented artists are giving eBay a complete miss thesedays.
Now I feel much better that I got that off my chest! 
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Because ppl have no conscience today....
...and eBay will take the lucre, no questions asked.. until there's a problem and then wash their hands of it.
Sellers used to honor the boundaries of categories.
Another example: one used to have their listings pulled if a website listing or any other selling source was posted within the auction text too, heaven forbid that anyone's attention was directed elsewhere than within eBay (I cannot even bring myself to stamp their name with a ® which I normally would, as they are so egregiously out-of-bounds nowadays)—now business websites urls are posted boldly right there, directing the Buyers to go view the rest of the Seller's goods.
eBay doesn't even put on a feeble show of policing their own policies any more.
As soon as it looked safe for a few to slip the mass-produced goods into our smaller niche market, many others are following, with a better chance of being seen there than in that other one of tens of thousands of listings.
As long as eBay is continuing to make their money from all Sellers (not Buyers) they don't much care where it comes from. And they are doing it from those selling groups of items, not us individual piece Sellers.
We OOAK Sellers are *a bother* and are being discouraged from listing.....
Posts: 751Hi there!
Yes, I agree - Charlie Bears are hardly One of a kind - artists bears but I cannot help feeling you are being a little harsh describing them "a yuk".
They are well made mass produced bears and I know they have a large following on this site amoungst collectors.
Personally I don't collect - just make, but I can understand why people collect them, although I agree there should be another section to put them under.
Karon
Melbourne, AustraliaThey may be well made (in your opinion) but they are still mass produced and whether they are made in the UK, Hong Kong or Australia...to me, all mass produced bears are yuk.
I like, collect and appreciate the work that goes into individually hand made bears that are designed by the artist and made solely by the artist from beginning to end. AND I WILL PROBABLY DIE, STILL SUPPORTING THOSE WHO MAKE BEARS PURELY FOR THE LOVE OF BEARS AND THEIR ART!!
Posts: 751Do you class Steiff in the in the yuk catagory too?
YorkshireI agree with you that Charlie Bears should be placed under the manufactured section.
As a collector and part-time bear maker 
I appreciate the work, time and talent that goes into an artist bear and I have the good fortune to have quite a few in my hug (including a lovely one by Karon). However, I also find that there is room for the odd Charlie Bear (isabelle collection) or two in my hug. They may be mass produced but their faces appeal to me. I can't help which bear I fall in love with and I purchase regardless of his/her pedigree. I have a few that only cost £10 from the local card shop but they are still cared for the same way as my artist bears, hugged, groomed and well basically loved. Have you ever examined a Charlie Bear before in the fur?
We can't all like the same thing - I personally don't like Steiff bears but please don't shoot me
GermanyI think, there is collector whom her bears search for the name of the artists and collectors whom the bears buy who look in the heart.
Whether these always OOAK are makes no difference.
I have bears me with different things connect. Bears from my childhood, from my mother, father.... and also from artists.
Exchanged, bought....
People putting things in the wrong category is so frustrating, sellers who also misdescribe stuff so it turns up in searches are equally annoying and it's a pity eBay doesn't do anything about it.
You may already know this but when you search, you can add a - (minus/hyphen) and say put
artist bear mohair -Charlie into the search bar (no space between the hyphen and the word you want to exclude) and the -sign will remove anything with Charlie in the title... Hopefully that will weed some of them out for you. Apologies if you already know
Tho I probably should keep my fingers silent on the mass production thing, since I'm a bit biased.... as someone who has designed for mass production companies before I have to say it's nice that they do commission artists to design for them. The extra income companies like this bring in to artists is a great help.. I have no idea how Charlie bears works or how well they pay, but it's nice to see artists getting some benefit.
I'd always been of the opinion that mass produced artist designed things can be a gateway to collectors finding our artist made pieces, if they were unaware of the whole scene, which many people are.... Then there are the people who will never spend the kind of $$ we have to ask for our pieces and who would never have been our customers, and then there are the collectors who love and will buy both.... But yes to go back full circle- things should be in their correct category. I wonder if they can still be reported for that? Tho it sounds like that would be a full time job!
I agree that there should be a category of their own, there are more of them than one of a kind bears, I wonder if Ebay let it happen so as they can keep that category, don't they pull categories if they don't have many stuff listed? Not sure but I agree there should be a Charlie Bear category on there.
Pauline
