Advice on buying a crib (Chicago, Golf: mattress, college, live in)

[mr aztec]

Can anyone recommend a decent place to buy a crib? I live in Lakeview and have a car. Also, my DW won't consider craigslist (my personal recomendation for just about everything. Thanks much.

[chet everett]

Cribs are one of those things that are crazy overpriced most places. If you have a car and don't like the selection at Target or WalMart it probably worth heading over to Ikea. In less than two years a pricey crib is going to be pretty worthless, as many moms are, like your wife, not keen on having their kid in somebody else cast off bed-in-a-cage.

The places that specialize in "crib and baby furniture" are all huge on the "flexibility of transforming a crib to a toddler bed to a big kid bed to a bunk for college to a honeymoon bed", somehow that never really works all that well...

[ajolotl]

I got all of my cribs at Babies R Us and was quite happy with the selection. I agree with Chet everett that a pricey crib isn't a good investment. Just get on consumer reports and make sure it is the cheapest that is safe and reasonably durable. They are hard to sell and obviously aren't useful for very long. Most women won't let you get away with a used one.

[Mamama Mia]

I'm a mom who thinks you get what you pay for when buying furniture, cribs have a great resale value. I would check out the Land of Nod on North Avenue (Clybourn) there are also a Pottery Barn Kids and Beautiful Beginnings in that general area.

[eevee]

Originally Posted by chet everett

The places that specialize in "crib and baby furniture" are all huge on the "flexibility of transforming a crib to a toddler bed to a big kid bed to a bunk for college to a honeymoon bed", somehow that never really works all that well...

I've heard a LOT of these types of cribs are being recalled. there was something in the Trib recently about the lastest round of crib recalls.

JMO, but if it was me, I'd just do what my sister does w/ my 8 month old niece: throw a thin, comfy full sized mattress on the floor and just call it a day. no one in my family had used fancy, overpriced, transformable cribs and we all survived!

[Lookout Kid]

DO NOT buy a cheap crib. We did, and are regretting it. Last year we bought a crib by Simplicity for about $250--just before the big recall. Ours was not on the recall list, and we breathed a sigh of relief. Now there are more Simplicity cribs being recalled, and once again ours is not on the list (even though the model number before ours in numerical succession was recalled, as was the model number after ours). We are now seriously questioning the safety of our crib, and wondering if we are likely to be in the next wave of recalls. We are to the point where we are considering just trashing the old crib and buying a new one. Simplicity is now out of business--but the defective cribs were from different manufacturing facilities and often went under other brand names.

My advice is to buy a crib without moving parts (like a drop side) that feels quie solid to you. Babies-R-Us has better options than Target and Walmart, in my opinion. Don't buy a used crib. Safety standards changed earlier in the decade in terms of matress fit and the spacing between slats (to make sure a baby's head can't fit through). And you never know if a used crib has been recalled in the past.

If you insist on a cheap crib Ikea is alright, but the matress sits pretty low to the ground and it is hard to bend down and pick up the child after they get older. I know multiple parents who complain about this with their Ikea cribs.

[chet everett]

The Swedes are mostly pretty tall, so I can see how what would be comfy for them might not be so good for other folks...

[mr aztec]

Originally Posted by Mamama Mia

I'm a mom who thinks you get what you pay for when buying furniture, cribs have a great resale value. I would check out the Land of Nod on North Avenue (Clybourn) there are also a Pottery Barn Kids and Beautiful Beginnings in that general area.

After extensive list on craigslist, IMHO cribs have horrible resale value--40% if you are lucky, 25% average. I did buy a crib on CL a couple of months ago to suprise my wife...she was not happy. lol. It is going to Brown Elephant today.

Thanks all for the advice. I will probably settle on Babies R Us, though I could make my bi-annual trip to IKEA and check out those as well.

As an aside, I'm not sure why I go to IKEA 2x a year, I always come back dissapointed and with something I really don't know what to do with when I get home. Its certainly not for their hotdogs!

[Lookout Kid]

I don't know why Ikea even bothers to sell hotdogs in Chicago. There's a Portillo's just up the street on Golf Road, afterall.

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by Mamama Mia

I'm a mom who thinks you get what you pay for when buying furniture, cribs have a great resale value. I would check out the Land of Nod on North Avenue (Clybourn) there are also a Pottery Barn Kids and Beautiful Beginnings in that general area.

Holy crap! We checked out the Land of Nod and its very $$$$$$!!!