Question 1

Who are Loved Before & what do we do?

Accepted Answer

Loved Before is committed to making a positive impact by repurposing pre-loved toys into eco-friendly soft toys, contributing to a more sustainable future and using the medium of soft toys to educate the next generation on sustainable habits. Here at Loved Before we provide a diverse selection of eco-friendly soft toys and invites individuals to explore our offerings or delve deeper into our sustainable soft toy mission on our website or in store. You can find us in Selfridges - Oxford Street, Birmingham & Trafford!

Question 2

Can we donate our preloved soft toys to you?

Accepted Answer

Yes, if you’re looking to donate your pre-loved soft toys, and live in the UK, you can post your donation to this address:

202 Heath Road, 
Leighton Buzzard, 
LU7 3AT, 
Bedfordshire, 
England.

If you live outside of the UK and would like to donate to Loved Before, please contact us here. (https://www.lovedbefore.london/about-us/contact-us)We’ll be able to see what we can do to accept your teddy bear donation!

By donating, you are joining one of the fastest growing sustainable movements in the United Kingdom. Eco friendly soft toys are growing in popularity and with your help we can spread the word far and wide about the future of sustainable consumerism through the medium of soft toys!

Question 3

Do you only sell online?

Accepted Answer

While primarily operating as online, Loved Befores' can also be found in Selfridges stores across the UK such as the ones located in London (Oxford Street), Birmingham (The Bullring), and Trafford (The Trafford Centre).

If you have a store where you'd like to see our eco-friendly toys featured or a favourite location you believe would be a perfect fit for us, we encourage you to reach out via our contact form. We are passionate about spreading the word about our wonderful sustainable toys and are always eager to explore new places and opportunities to do so!

Question 4

When do you add new friends to your store?

Accepted Answer

Unless stated otherwise, we run releases of new soft toys every Monday at 8pm. This means that new sustainable toys of all sorts of types, sizes, species and conditions will be up for adoption. Our eco-friendly soft toys often go quite fast, with many people choosing to adopt on release night, however you're sure to find the perfect soft toy friend if you keep an eye on the site. You can always also let the team know if you're looking for a specific preloved toy, so that they can give you a heads up should one be coming up for release.

Question 5

Are Loved Befores suitable for children?

Accepted Answer

Soft toys which have been manufactured to safety standards acceptable in the UK will have an attached CE label. UKCA labels have been introduced post-Brexit, but this is too new to affect most of the cuddly toys that come to Loved Before, and the CE label is still officially considered an acceptable safety mark. These labels also warn about any additional issues relating to that toy’s use. For instance, unsuitability for children under a particular age. Soft toys without a valid CE or UKCA label are not suitable for use by children under the age of 14. We strongly advise against buying them for a home where children younger than that may be able to get hold of them.

Whilst the great majority of cuddly toys we offer do have CE labels, some were made before these labels were introduced.  But don’t worry, ‘toys’ which (for that or any other reason) are unsafe for children will always be clearly marked with a warning.  This will be shown under the Loved Before’s photo, with the word WARNING in capital letters, just under their story.  A similar warning will be repeated under that toy’s ‘product’ tab. Where items have a CE label which gives any safety warnings, we will highlight these. Just to be extra-careful, in cases where the CE label is damaged or not completely legible, we treat the toy as having no valid label and being unsafe for children.

As well as checking labels, we closely examine every Loved Before, before it leaves HQ. On occasions we will list a well-loved cuddly toy which is in some way broken or non-functioning.  As with the older, pre-CE labelling toys these will not be suitable for children, but we offer them for adoption because as soft toys lovers ourselves, we understand how appealing these ‘retired’ toys will be to many adults. Cuddly toys of this sort will only ever be sold through the website (or specialist collectors events), where clear written warnings will leave buyers clear about the toy’s condition and its unsuitability for children.

We sometimes offer Loved Befores in situations where adopters would not always have the chance to see website warnings. This would apply for instance to the toys offered in our pop-up shops, and to pre-release agreements made via social media. You can be confident that LB’s offered for adoption outside our website will always have undamaged and legible CE labels, and will have been carefully checked to make sure we can find no feature creating a potential risk to children.

No cuddly toy will leave Loved Before HQ with any visible tear in its covering, or any part which we believe has started to come loose.  The danger of loose material, or parts, on any toy is that they might be inhaled or create a choking risk. We can’t of course guarantee that toy coverings will never get torn or that parts won’t eventually become loose at some point after you have adopted your Loved Before.   So just as you would do with any other toy, it will be sensible to keep an eye on their condition, and to use your judgement about whether their use may one day need to be restricted, or more closely supervised. And (just as would apply to a cuddly toy bought new from a shop) childcare professionals advise that children under the age of 12 months should not sleep with any soft toys, to reduce the risk of suffocation or accidents.

Question 6

Do you sell all types of cuddly toys?

Accepted Answer

Although we often use the term 'bears' generally, it's not just teddy bear friends that we stock online. You'll find a whole range of species and types of sustainable toys at Loved Before. You can choose to view them all in one view via our 'all soft toys'(https://www.lovedbefore.london/all-soft-toys) page, or if you prefer, search through our categorised pages of 'animals'(https://www.lovedbefore.london/all-collections) and 'species'(https://www.lovedbefore.london/all-animal-soft-toys).

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