Loaded for FAO bear: Statue sells for $11,800

By Pamela Sitt
Seattle Times staff reporter

	KEN LAMBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES The teddy bear outside the Seattle FAO Schwarz toy store, thronged by downtown shoppers last November, was sold yesterday on eBay. The company filed for bankruptcy last month.
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The first question is: What do you do with a 15-foot-tall bronze sidewalk bear?

The second: How do you get it there?

Those decisions will be left to the anonymous bidder who paid $11,800 yesterday on eBay for the ultimate teddy bear — the famed FAO Schwarz bear at Sixth Avenue and Pike Street in downtown Seattle.

The bear is the second of eight to be sold nationwide as FAO closes toy stores after filing for bankruptcy last month. FAO Schwarz stores in New York and Las Vegas likely will reopen under new ownership; the Seattle store is slated to close Sunday.

The three-day bear auction, which garnered 36 bids, was conducted by the Florida-based Gordon Co. and National Retail Equipment Liquidators, both appointed by a bankruptcy-court judge to manage liquidation sales for FAO Schwarz.

The Seattle bear has been paid for and will be picked up in the next week or so, according to a source familiar with the transaction.

Some potential buyers had expressed interest in donating the bear to children's hospitals or charities, the source said.

Pamela Sitt: 206-464-2376 or psitt@seattletimes.com

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