Is even high end used furniture impossible to sell these days? Consignment?
 

When my wife and I were starting out 20 years ago, we saved up for a year to buy a nice couch and armoire for our living room.

The couch is made by Hancock and Moore, and the armoire is Drexel. At the time, we paid more than $6K for the two pieces, which was a large part of our net worth!

Our thought was to buy decent quality, and keep it forever.

Well, forever has been not quite forever, but 20 years isn't bad. We're redoing our house, and don't have room for these anymore.

I've put them on craigslist, but the problem is every day there are literally dozens of couches put on craigslist, so it gets swamped in a day or so. Also, pretty much everything on craigslist are couches that were $499 new and are being sold for $75, very used.

Any thoughts on how to move this stuff? Is it basically worth zero these days?

Does anyone have experience with consignment stores? I've heard some horror stories about them (they don't pay you, give you the run around, etc.).

Try eBay. I've bought some cool furniture over the years there. Gotta find local buyers, though.

Consider donating to a local charity like Goodwill or Big Brothers Big Sisters who take clothing and household items. The tax deduction might make it worth getting rid of the hassle. The flood of cheap furniture from places like Ikea makes getting rid of older stuff a pain. Certain styles are hot right now and stores are popping up in Seattle that deal only in used mid century stuff but most used furniture is virtually worthless.

Most people who buy used furniture have no idea what the good stuff is and those who do don't buy used. Further (maybe it's just me) but upholstered furniture has always been a hard sell...like trying to sell a used mattress. It cost as much or more to recover than the price of a new one.

The Drexel Armoire is the one you need to try and market. Great brand made from hardwood should be a much easier sale.. If it has the right look people will pay good money for it. Run a ad on CL with it alone. Good pics, priced right and include local delivery (this is a problem for lots of people) That's why furniture stores offer it..

my 2 cents

Mike

Thanks for the thoughts.

Donating is an idea, although I think I'd probably need an appraisal or some other documentation if I claim a value higher than $500 each (???).

I've not had much luck with craigslist with these items.

Here's my ad for the cabinet:

Beautiful Drexel Armoir Cabinet

and the sofa:

Hancock and Moore leather couch sofa

It's amazing that when you have furniture, it's worthless, but when you need it, it is expensive!

This isn't going to make you very happy but I just finally sold a pair of designer couch and loveseat for $100 on CS this last weekend. They were near 8k new in 2001 and I couldn't get anyone to take them at anything above $100. Granted I don't live in as nice an area as Irvine however.

In the end I needed them out to get new furniture in for a remodel. I would have donated them, however ARC or DAV wanted two weeks before they could come and get them. The new furniture had been sitting at the designer for too long and I was about to pay storage for them.

Really nice pieces.

Try this guy, Home

Guy I went to HS with.

He's in LA.

I looked and I agree that the cabinet is going to be easier to sell, but 800 is a lot of money these days. I can appreciate a good leather sofa, but my experience is the same, hard to sell soft furniture. You might take the loss on that one. Definitely put it on LA CL so the Hollywood hipsters can find it. If you can offer delivery, that will be a big plus for the younger Pirus driving crowd.

Here's how tough the market is: I'm currently offering 200 on a Vendo 81 Coke machine that sells for around 5000 in perfect condition. This one is restorable, but barely. They want 400 for it, but it sits. If I got it, I'd flip it for 400 and feel lucky.

That armoir looks awesome and I was just in Irvine this past weekend. But I'd never have been able to carry it on the back of my motorcycle.

i have a friend (a silent pelican) that did very well unloading great furniture with a consignment store. bonus is that the stuff is "stored" offsite.

put it in the driveway with for sale sign on it..... maybe the neighbor wants it, lol

Testify brother on that last statement.... that is the truth!

Ok the Armoir is very nice. I would hold out someone will buy it for close dollars. If not I'm moving it to the garage for car products storage and such. Find a good consignment shop put it on the floor for 1K

The couch is nice but if it were me I would donate to a good organization. Use your CL ad for Tax purpose.... I don't think 1K would be out of line given your original documentaion.... maybe??

Mike

Unless it is collectible (eg Stickley), it is probably worth about 10% of what you paid for it if that. Just like the Audi A8 that was $80K when it came off the lot 10 years ago.

Pussy.

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This would do it.



I really like the sofa. Around here you might get 400 for the cabinet and 200 for the sofa. Really nice pieces. See if you can donate and get your deductions.

If you're in OC, you should check out the home consignment stores. There's one in Aliso Viejo by the Walmart. I think they have a couple other locations. Best place to get top dollar.

No matter how nice, that's a lot of money for a $20 yr old couch...especially when there are outlet stores out there where you can find $7k Italian leather sectionals that are much more stylish discounted to $1k.

I feel your pain. We went from 4200 to 3000 feet and its a battle selling furniture.

Our Armoir is in the garage right now. Works well for storage.

The tuff thing with the armor is that most homes now have the media niche's for the TV.

I think consignment is probably what I'll do.

That probably is the best way to get top dollar, even if they take half the sale price. The problem with selling (and buying) used furniture is it is just very hard to get buyer and seller together. There are just so many styles, price ranges, condition, etc. that it becomes a needle-in-a-haystack situation for private party to private party sales. Consignment seems to help solve at least some of that issue by having a huge warehouse of used stuff to go through.

$7K couches for $1K, please direct my wife to those places! :)

I think the thing with those "$7K Italian leather sectionals" is they aren't really $7K to start with. I'm pretty sure something like that is of unknown origin and brand, but certainly made offshore, etc. My stuff is handcrafted in the US "furniture capitol" (North Carolina), etc. (And is still worth nothing! lol. So much for the value of handcrafted, made in the US etc. in today's world, I guess).

I bought a beautiful leather chair and ottoman from a guy in Dana Point a couple years ago. It was in perfect condition and something like 20 years ago. He had it custom made in Hungary and had dragged it all over the world. Got it on Craigslist for $150. I can't imagine what he paid for it.

No, no one said that there was no value to finely made furniture, just not much of a market.

Two different things.

And, there are hundreds of designs to buy. Now you've got one design to sell.

Nothing but lowballers looking for furniture on CL......When I move across the mtns 3 years ago, I gave up and put it in my cabin. I wasn't gonna give it away....Some bookcases and Shelving units ended up in my new garage.

Nice pieces. Too bad you can't figure out a way to keep them.

Armoirs are not as useful as they were 10 years ago as TVs have changed and grown so much. You can't fit much of a modern wide screen TV in that armoir. Drexel is a great brand and their mid-century stuff sells really well right now.

That couch is awesome.

Good luck with your sale.

^ What KaptKaos said, that cabinet is all but useless in today's living room. And it is way too young to be a classic.

Furniture does have little used value in general, unless it is truly antique. The supply is staggering between people moving, getting divorced and constantly changing styles and deco.

I don't think I have a single piece of furniture bought new. IT all is either antique family stuff or it has been bought at 1-2 years old for 20 cents on the dollar off CL. :D

Your easiest solution and best bet is charity with a tax deduction if you itemize.

G

Just a perspective:
-The armoir is in good shape, but a lighter color. Might sell better in the south. It is in the general price range(but still high) for used pieces. Not modern, not vintage, but a little craftsman.
-The couch looks dis-colored and saggy like a frat-house discard. Some new filler and a conditioner might boost its value, but craigslisters are still going to be looking for value. They don't care about original price and name brand.

Research same pieces on the market and go from there to determine value.

How well do you know this guy? do you know if he gets his stuff as a one off? I use to make funky furniture like that when I started out as a cabinet maker. I love to build piece like that for fun but could not make a living at it so I decided to build kitchens and other commercial looking type products for the general home owner. One day when I grow up, I like to do stuff like that again for money.

I think there are some variables to what sell and doesn't. Items that have less personal contact like dressers, tables, etc would be fine. When we moved into our home, I found a complete Thomasville dining room for around $2k cash. I think it was over $10k new. Items like couches and chairs are a lot more intimate, especially if they are cloth. We have some custom made couches and chairs that we paid a good bit for, but with 4 kids eating on them every night, I know I wouldn't want to be the next owner.:(

3 things I will not buy used:

Underwear
mattresses
and couch/sofas

I agree the armoir looks nice - BUT the picture with the old TV totally validates the comment ^^ perfectly. I would take that picture down immediately an replace it with a picture of the interior totally void of gear/papers/etc... Maybe put a background light inside the cabinet to highlight the clean woodwork. JMO.

Couch - it's leather which is cleaner and easier to sell vs. cloth. Not much to add other than I would stage it better...positioning and lighting...and remove all background furnishings. You want pictures of the couch only on your nice wood floors.

Good luck.

Nice furniture!! When we finished our home renovation project a few years ago, a buddy had a beautiful high-end couch and chair that he had paid $3600 for. They were in "like new" condition and he asked $300 for them, so I got a great deal! He had tried to sell them for a year and didn't get a bite, it's a shame that well-made, high quality furniture doesn't hold it's value better than that! Around here, everyone buys the pressboard, crappy furniture that falls apart in a few years, it's "disposable"...

Update:

Was able to sell the couch for. Went through Clist, there was a lot of interest once I lowered the price.

So, for anyone selling furniture, I'd say clist is effective, but you have to price it cheap. I had tried pricing it high at first, with the thought that people would want to grind down on the price, but IMO you need to price it fairly close to what you want to get.

The cabinet is another story. No interest at all. To get rid of it, I put it on eBay, ending up with a reserve price of . . . . $51!

It's bid up to $52, ending today. I guess it's worth it for the humor value, selling a piece that I paid $3K for for $52.

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

It's not done 'till it's done. Snipers will get it up some.

Trying really hard not to bid...

Unfortunately wife is moving in and I need to get ride of things not take on more furniture.

Trade for a piano?



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