Furniture dealers on Craigslist (Austin, Cedar Park: mattresses, consignment, credit card) - City-Data Forum

cepiner · 07-03-2010, 07:48 PM

I've seen a lot of furniture dealers on Craigslist selling bedroom furniture that is brand new and still in boxes. They are advertising that the sets are solid wood and dovetailed. They are also very cheap. Does anyone know if these are legit or if this is a scam? I would rather not spend a ton of money on new furniture but I don't want junk either. Thanks!

joedtx · 07-04-2010, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cepiner

I've seen a lot of furniture dealers on Craigslist selling bedroom furniture that is brand new and still in boxes. They are advertising that the sets are solid wood and dovetailed. They are also very cheap. Does anyone know if these are legit or if this is a scam? I would rather not spend a ton of money on new furniture but I don't want junk either. Thanks!

There are alot of dealers who use Craigslist as another advertising medium, unfortunately so do the fly by night people as well. Keep in mind that over 90 percent of the todays furniture are imports from Asia with the bulk of that originating from China. Many of these manufacturer's package their products for resale to mulitple sources such as chain stores, dealers, and even high end retail outlets. Keep in mind that they also have defective product lines which for business purpose cannot be recycled or sold to established clients therefore they end up in the 'Gray Market' and sold in bulk containers to 3rd party middlemen badged as generic products with no warranty unless the seller chooses to offer some form of compensation these dealers purchase the products for pennies on the dollar. Keep in mind that typically furniture has as much markup as 400% so there is alot of flexability in the market which allows so many to move product and still turn a profit. If you choose to consider a product DO NOT buy it out of a box, inspect it carefully as if your life depends on it, if anything is missing or just plain poor quality you should avoid it.

I would approach it like most things on Craigslist use caution and remember that age old saying "If it sounds too good to be true it probably is".

achtungpv · 07-04-2010, 09:12 AM

I can't vouch for the ads you've seen but I know a friend-of-a-friend (that sounds shady) that's in the furniture business. We got our daughter's bedroom set for $700 cash...trundle bed, 2 Sealy mattresses, dresser, mirror, nightstand. It retails on the Land of Nod website for around $2500 w/o mattresses. Exact same model. Exact same manufacturer. First run. He's just able to purchase directly from the manufacturer and sells to friends at cost. Our common friend furnished his entire house from him.

I wonder if it's some of these same type of guys who are selling on the side?

cepiner · 07-04-2010, 02:57 PM

Thanks for the feedback. It's good to hear from someone that got quality furniture for a good deal. I may go take a look at the stuff tomorrow to see if it is junk or not. There are supposedly manufacturer warranties but since it is a cash basis transaction, I wonder if I'll have any protection at all.

FreeAsABirdNow · 07-05-2010, 10:35 AM

We tried to order a nice set of bunk beds from a retailer who posted a CL ad. After waiting a month for the set, we were told it will be another 2 weeks. We canceled the order. Hopefully, everything will be square with our credit card very soon (I haven't checked on it yet). If not, we can reverse the charges ourselves (fortunately).
In your case, maybe research the manufactures first to check on quality?

reachvali · 07-05-2010, 11:51 AM

[SIZE=5]achtungpv[/SIZE] can i get the contact details of the person from whom you got the furniture? I am planning to buy furniture.

achtungpv · 07-05-2010, 01:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reachvali

[SIZE=5]achtungpv[/SIZE] can i get the contact details of the person from whom you got the furniture? I am planning to buy furniture.

Can't. It was a friend of a friend. Don't even know his last name. He only cuts deals for friends and our common friend hooked us up. He had the furniture shipped to his house and left a key to his garage so we could pick it up while he was at work. So I've never even met him. Plus, I don't want to ruin my opportunity to continue purchasing furniture through him.

cepiner · 07-08-2010, 08:40 PM

I had to go see the furniture for myself. It was junk. There was a hole in a dresser that was on display, and I was able to see that it was not real wood. I just thought I would post this in case anyone else was interested.

calel · 07-09-2010, 06:33 AM

There's a consignment store in Cedar Park named Austin Furniture Consignment that posts a ridiculous number of ads on Craigslist. They are legit though and seemed to have good deals on bedroom furniture.

mark311 · 07-09-2010, 08:08 AM

You might want to check out Furniture Market if you haven't already. They stock a wide variety of higher end fairly expensive furniture along with some pretty good quality inexpensive stuff. They also have a bunch of catalogs that you can look through that they can special order furniture from and those prices can be really good as well.

Furniture Market in Austin, Texas: furniture store | furniture outlet | furniture warehouse