What soft toy repair costs
Most of this trade does not publish prices, which is understandable and unhelpful in equal measure. A few do. We read every repairer we could find, took down every figure they published, and built these bands out of them.
Every band below says how many real quoted prices sit behind it, so you can see which ones we are confident about and which ones rest on two numbers.
70 published prices from 8 repairers · read on 23 August 2026
One small thing
£10-£45
from 7 published prices
- A popped seam
- A patch
- One eye, or a pair
- A stitched nose or mouth
The commonest job in the trade and the cheapest. If only one thing is wrong, say so, because several repairers price this separately.
A part replaced
£15-£45
from 27 published prices
- Paw pads
- An ear, or a pair
- A cotter pin joint
- A growler or a squeaker
Priced per item almost everywhere, so two ears is usually more than one but less than double.
Cleaning only
£16-£75
from 15 published prices
- A gentle surface clean
- A full immersive wash
- A brush-out
Size makes the difference and everybody who publishes prices this way says so. A vintage bear costs more than a modern one because it is done by hand, and John Lewis now sets the floor at 20 pounds over a counter.
Restuffed all the way through
£15-£95
from 6 published prices
- Whole-body restuff
- Your choice of polyester, kapok or wood wool
Traditional fillings cost more than polyester. A 30cm bear sits at the bottom of this band and it climbs with size.
Wash, restuff and a mend
£35-£95
from 6 published prices
- Clean
- Restuff
- Small repairs
- A brush-out
The standard package where a repairer offers one. Jointed bears cost more than unjointed, and the bottom of this band is now a John Lewis counter rather than a workshop.
Relining and reconstruction
£35-£400
from 6 published prices
- Relining a whole body
- Rebuilding a limb
- Moth damage
- Extensive patching
The widest band by far, because this is where a photograph tells you least. Expect to be quoted only once it arrives.
On hourly rates
Only one repairer in the whole trade charges by the hour.
We read 77 repairers. One publishes an hourly rate, at £35, rising to £45 when it is urgent. Anyone quoting you a going hourly rate for this trade is guessing, and so was every article we found that gave one.
Three ways the same work gets billed
Itemised menu
The commonest by a distance. You pay per thing fixed, so a bear needing three repairs costs three lines added together.
Quoted per job
No published prices at all, and a figure only once they have looked at it. Around three quarters of this trade works this way.
By the hour
Rare. One operator in our whole survey publishes an hourly rate, at £35, with an express rate of £45 when it is urgent.
A minimum charge
Some will not start below a floor, whatever the job. £25 is the lowest we found and £100 the highest.
Ask which of these they use before you send anything. The same repair can be a line on a menu, part of a package, or an open-ended quote depending on who you have gone to.
Return postage, medium soft toy
£9.25
Royal Mail Special Delivery, and the one real figure several repairers publish. Sending it to them is almost always on you.
The tier above all of this
Reweaving, which means rebuilding the fabric itself thread by thread, is quoted per square inch and runs into the hundreds. Waiting lists past a year are normal. Of every repairer we surveyed, the ones who mention it at all mention it to say they do not do it.
Before you spend any of it, check whether you should.
Three questions, and it will tell you honestly if replacing it is the better call.
Is it worth repairing?