Also note that it doesn't have to be an antique to be great furniture. Quality, solid hardwood furniture was being made for the mass market, and is thus widely

Also note that it doesn't have to be an antique to be great furniture. Quality, solid hardwood furniture was being made for the mass market, and is thus widely available on the used market, well into the 70s (though particle board began being used sometime in the 40s and 50s, in limited amounts). Depending on your style preference, you may find furniture that is merely "old" rather than antique, but that is still something you'll love. I enjoy mid-century modern furniture, for example, though because it has become trendy in the past decade, it's no longer as much of a bargain as it used to be (this is another trend my mom has noticed...the era of stuff people are still buying has shifted forward in time, I guess to whatever people's parents and grandparents had in their houses when they were growing up, so it's what has nostalgic value for them, 30-somethings furnishing their houses probably spent their early formative years in mid-century modern furnished houses). But, I also really enjoy the era before that...1900s through the 1940s was an excellent era in American furniture, if you don't want to spend a lot of money. It was beginning to be machine-manufactured, so there's a lot of it out there, and it was made from our vast hardwood forests that had yet to be depleted. And, I tend to prefer simple, utilitarian, American styles over more ornate older European inspired styles, which used to be a good thing when hunting for bargains, but now it's among the stronger periods and styles (while others, like French antiques, have tanked in value a lot, newer American eras and styles have held pretty firm...partly that's also because American styles and newer eras just didn't have far to fall, as they were cheap to start with).