Who'd Have Thought?

So Philip and I have gotten motivated to cut back, watch our spending, and pay down our debts. We started selling a few things we had that we really weren't using on craigslist. I was enjoying making a few sales (since everything we were selling thus far had been given to us from friends and even strangers!). On Saturday I posted this pretty cool "retro" recliner Phil had gotten from an old roommate. I immediately got quite a few responses, and almost sold it that night but it fell through. Then Sunday morning I got two more calls. I told the first kid he could see it Monday, I told the second lady, Julie, that if the first kid didn't buy it I'd call her back. She offered me $100 for it! I told the first kid the new price, totally expecting him to drop out, but he still wanted to come see it!! Julie really wanted to come see it too, so I scheduled an auction to be sold to the highest bidder.


So 9 am came really early this morning, and we had even two more emails about people who wanted the chair, one who replied from Boise ID that she'd be willing to pay the $100 and have her brother pick it up. Julie arrived 10 minutes early, we invited her in and told her we were waiting for the first kid. After chatting for a bit, she told us what she knew about the chair (it was a famous knock-off of an Eames lounge from the 1950's) we called the other kid, he said he had a flat tire he was still working on and would be a little while, we told him we couldn't wait much longer and were going to sell it, he understood, and she bought it for a hundred dollars! We might have been able to get more out of her, but I'm no professional and she was a really nice lady.


While we were talking, Phil went and googled the chair. Here's a picture of ours and the real one.




It turns out the real chairs are sold for about $7000 and the knock-offs (more common) are sold new for about $3500! Who'd have thought? I don't think we could have found a buyer in this area for much more, without some real work. Since this woman gave us this information, I didn't feel right about deciding not to sell it or asking a lot more, she did just want it for her own living room. But we were happy to earn the extra $100 and learn more about these old chairs.

I myself would never pay a ton of money for a famous 'name'. But what a funny experience! Before we sold it, we peeled off a generic price sticker for $15, that's what we think Phil's old roommate bought it for.