A Beginner’s Guide to Becoming a Jellycat Collector

Whether you’re looking to start a collection for yourself, or you want to purchase a gift for someone special, here are all the things you’ll need to know before you get started.

 

Jellycat is a soft toy company founded in the UK in 1999. Their mission statement then remains the same today, to spread joy and spark creativity through their adorable and huggable plush animals and characters. For a long time, they were best known for creating plush animals, with the Bashful Bunnies proving particularly popular.

An original Bashful Baby Pink Bunny

But over the last 25 years the company has expanded and branched out into a variety of different products, including a hugely popular range called Amuseables, launched in 2018, which includes plush food, plants and sports equipment, as well as children’s books, keychains and bags.

A collection of Vivacious Vegetables from the Amuseables range

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Jellycat’s popularity really skyrocketed and from there it has grown and grown, with a TikTok account that has over 10 million likes, as well as pop-up shops in London, Paris, New York and Shanghai selling exclusive items.

A complete set from the Fish & Chip shop in Selfridges, London

Below are the most important “rules” that I’ve set myself and stuck to since I began collecting in 2019, which has saved me a lot of money and disappointment over the years. Remember, collecting should be fun, and if you remember these tips, you should get a lot of enjoyment out of the experience.

 

 Decide What You Like

There’s no point trying to collect every Jellycat that’s ever been made, you’ll get completely overwhelmed, not to mention bankrupt! They are a high-end brand, their commitment to high quality, luxe materials and rigorous safety standards is very much reflected in the price! So, only collect the ones that interest you. For me, it’s all about the Amuseables, I love the food, fruit and vegetables, cakes, baked goods, they’re fantastic and so fun to display. I also like the more unusual animals, such as the goblins and monsters, but I don’t care about dogs or cats, and that’s fine, my collection is about me and yours should be about you.

Some of my favourite pink creatures

Don’t Overpay

Some Jellycats become incredibly rare and hard to find, in fact this is becoming far more common as the brand has risen in popularity. If you manage to find a long-retired design lurking in a corner of the internet, you could be looking at paying well into the hundreds to get it. If you can afford to do that and it’s been on your wish list for a while, go for it, but it’s important to remember that an old, retired design is very different to a new design that’s gone viral.

Retired Amuseable Maple Leaf, now selling for between £100 - £200 online

Jellycat have become notorious for resellers, meaning people buy the most popular item from the new releases, and sell them online for a massively over-inflated price because they’ve become hard to find. However, the design that came out last week and is now selling for hundreds on eBay because it’s already sold out on the Jellycat website, will be sitting patiently on a shelf in an independent stockist waiting to be sold at its retail price, it’s all about knowing where to look. The Jellycat website has a list of official stockists here so do your research, phone around and ask if they post out if they aren’t local. Don’t fall for the reseller con.

Last year's viral Amuseable Peach, available in shops for £22.95, selling for three times that online

Be Strict with Yourself

It’s easy to see a long list of new releases and think that you simply need them all! But you must keep your collecting under control, they are only soft toys and not worth getting yourself into debt over. If a couple of creatures are selling fast, make them your priority purchases for the month, and work through the rest of your list gradually over the coming months, keeping to a strict budget. I try to limit myself to only buying three or four a month, less than that if they’re larger, more expensive creatures.

Red Amuseables

 

These are some basic starting points for beginning your collection. My collection is documented on Instagram @the.jellycat.shack and from there you can find loads of other collector’s pages with loads more helpful tips and information. Happy searching!