Valentine's Day

Gift ideas for friends and the gift for a partner:

the two get bought in different ways. For classmates or the whole office the gift is small and bought by the handful: a little bear holding a heart, a mug, a bag of chocolates with a card. For a partner it is one piece meant to last, which is where giant bears, preserved roses and jewellery come in. Fresh bouquets and breakfast boxes are made to order for a delivery date, never second-hand. Plenty of the bears and bracelets offered on afterwards were first given at Christmas, only weeks earlier.

Giant peluches, sitting height and standing height:

sellers quote one or the other, and a bear sitting on a sofa is a good third shorter than the same bear stood up, so ask which you are being given. The big ones are hard to wash at home and take over a corner of the bedroom, which is why so many are passed on in March.

Preserved roses under glass and their imitations:

a preserved rose is a real flower, treated so it keeps its shape and colour for years without water. It feels soft and slightly leathery. Foam roses are lighter, too even and often show a moulded seam; soap roses smell of soap and leave powder on your fingers. Both are fine at their own price; the problem is one sold as the other. Direct sun bleaches red petals to a dull pink, and edges that have turned dry and papery mean the rose is on its way out.

Name necklaces, charm bracelets and the hallmark:

plating wears through first at the clasp and along the edges of the letters, so look there. Silver should carry a 925 stamp. Pandora is the brand most often copied: genuine silver charms are stamped S925 ALE, or 925 ALE on older ones, and most have a threaded core. Copies sometimes carry the stamp too, so a blurred, rounded hallmark gives them away more often than a missing one. A piece already engraved with initials only suits a buyer who shares them.

Fresh roses on the 14th against a rose that lasts:

a florist’s wrapped dozen red roses runs around ₡25,000 delivered on the day, and two dozen costs close to twice that. None of it has a second-hand value, because the petals drop within the week. Resale runs on what outlasts the date: a preserved rose kept out of the sun, a bear that still looks new, a silver bracelet in its box. A bear with a flattened face sells for very little, whatever it cost in February.

A bear that has spent a year in a wardrobe:

press the belly and the head, because stuffing that has clumped stays dented. Brush the fur against the grain for matting and bald patches at the paws and ears, where hands go, and pull gently at the neck and arm seams. Smell it, too: a bear shut in a wardrobe picks up a mustiness that a wash at home will not shift. On a musical bear, press the paw and listen before you pay, and on a dome with a lit base, switch it on.

A giant bear photographed next to a door:

that is the scale shot buyers want, with the height in centimetres, whether it was measured sitting or standing, and whether it has been washed. Photograph a dome in daylight, since flash makes faded petals look red again, and any hallmark close up. List in the last week of January; once the 14th has passed, retitle a bear or a dome for a birthday or Día de la Madre on 15 August rather than waiting a year. Foil heart balloons and LED letters spelling LOVE only sell in the week before, the same short window as the party gear under New Year’s. And tell anyone coming from Tibás or San Ramón for a bear taller than they are to bring a car with the back seat folded down, because it is not going home on the bus.