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Fully on board with this. And a good reason to stick to retailers you know. But it's expensive.. I love 'real' furniture (and design) but it's expensive... Fur

Fully on board with this. And a good reason to stick to retailers you know. But it's expensive.. I love 'real' furniture (and design) but it's expensive... Furnishing a small sized condo with DWR or similar quality or vintage/antique easily costs $15k+ It's worth it IMHO and there are less expensive quality options too. There are some good finds like I have a coffee table from CB2. but have to look closely at the materials. Metal & marble. Solid __ wood or real __ veneer not on top of cheap particle crap. Nice furniture actually retains value. Lasts forever. Can pass it down. I don't think anyone's Ikea Billy is going to last the test of time. But pieces from 200 years ago still sell at auction and some mid century originals go for crazy amounts of money. Even though I make good money it's still expensive. after buying I spent like 2 years furnishing it fully. The problem is almost no one can afford nice stuff upfront and a recurring cycle of poverty For instance bigger necessities: a nice pair of shoes or boots will last longer and thus cost 3x less over lifetime than cheapos. But a large % can't afford the upfront cost. IDK what a solution could be. Maybe all those online pay over 4 months zero interest are filling this need. But still would need longer terms to afford something substantial. Plus if those companies are making money it's from fees and debt. just reinforces the cycle with the added dopamine of ooh i get this for free today one click online buying

lgabraham 5y ago
Interesting points. It is true high quality furniture can retain value. I hope that if someone has a fixed budget, but can be confident they are finding the best prices, they will by definition buy higher quality goods. We certainly could offer reasonable financing terms for these higher quality goods.
- dillondoyle 5y ago
  Totally. I think your service could add value there in doing manual curation and better cataloging across. Like 'high quality' or search walnut veneer or no cheap fiberboard lol. Crowd reviews are all gamed now it seems. i would be into some more sources of professional curation. Financing in general isn't great. Not an easy thing to fix. Personally I'm into having it as a service for low income Americans through USPS. write-off losses or take them out of tax over very long time frames. A few $k with low or no interest + reasonable long ish time to payback would be life saving for a lot of people
  - lgabraham 5y ago
    Yes, this is a great idea, and something I have been thinking about. A clear risk of our site right now is decision fatigue. Some users we have spoken about wanting to be guided through their purchasing journey. I think you're right mass reviews alone won't do this. We likely would use a partner like Affirm for financing. We don't want to emphasize it too heavily, but we do see it as an important tool in purchasing furniture.
    - dillondoyle 5y ago
      If you do end up doing manual curation don't let the commission % guide your choices!
smoe 5y ago
For my new apartment I'm working with 2-3 younger carpenters who's design and quality I really like. It is going to be significantly more expensive than the cheapest stuff from retailers, but still a lot cheaper than the overpriced "designer" furniture from big names. Plus I can customize everything to a degree to fit the dimensions of the apartment better. But I reckon depending where you are, craftsmanship has been completely driven out of the market. I do fully agree with your point about a lot of people not being able to afford nice stuff upfront and often ending paying more more over the lifespan of the item. But I also think it is also an issue of consumerist societies where people rather want a 100 cheap things and replace them often, rather than 10 nice and long lasting ones. Then there I think is also a matter of perceived value of especially furniture. I know many not rich but affluent people that don't bat an eye shelling out a lot of money for some electronic gadget or expensive traveling every other year but won't invest in a piece a furniture that could last a lifetime. So we end up with either cheap mass produced stuff or designer ware for people for whom money doesn't matter. With little choice in between.
- dillondoyle 5y ago
  oh boy. the amount of real estate listings I look at (lotto dreams) that are many millions and filled with the cheesiest, cheapest looking, ugliest stuff that looks straight off the american furniture warehouse floor... That's amazing you have a friend that will do that. I recommend it for art too! Especially paintings.

lgabraham 5y ago

Interesting points. It is true high quality furniture can retain value. I hope that if someone has a fixed budget, but can be confident they are finding the best prices, they will by definition buy higher quality goods. We certainly could offer reasonable financing terms for these higher quality goods.

dillondoyle 5y ago
Totally. I think your service could add value there in doing manual curation and better cataloging across. Like 'high quality' or search walnut veneer or no cheap fiberboard lol. Crowd reviews are all gamed now it seems. i would be into some more sources of professional curation. Financing in general isn't great. Not an easy thing to fix. Personally I'm into having it as a service for low income Americans through USPS. write-off losses or take them out of tax over very long time frames. A few $k with low or no interest + reasonable long ish time to payback would be life saving for a lot of people
- lgabraham 5y ago
  Yes, this is a great idea, and something I have been thinking about. A clear risk of our site right now is decision fatigue. Some users we have spoken about wanting to be guided through their purchasing journey. I think you're right mass reviews alone won't do this. We likely would use a partner like Affirm for financing. We don't want to emphasize it too heavily, but we do see it as an important tool in purchasing furniture.
  - dillondoyle 5y ago
    If you do end up doing manual curation don't let the commission % guide your choices!

smoe 5y ago

For my new apartment I'm working with 2-3 younger carpenters who's design and quality I really like. It is going to be significantly more expensive than the cheapest stuff from retailers, but still a lot cheaper than the overpriced "designer" furniture from big names. Plus I can customize everything to a degree to fit the dimensions of the apartment better. But I reckon depending where you are, craftsmanship has been completely driven out of the market. I do fully agree with your point about a lot of people not being able to afford nice stuff upfront and often ending paying more more over the lifespan of the item. But I also think it is also an issue of consumerist societies where people rather want a 100 cheap things and replace them often, rather than 10 nice and long lasting ones. Then there I think is also a matter of perceived value of especially furniture. I know many not rich but affluent people that don't bat an eye shelling out a lot of money for some electronic gadget or expensive traveling every other year but won't invest in a piece a furniture that could last a lifetime. So we end up with either cheap mass produced stuff or designer ware for people for whom money doesn't matter. With little choice in between.

dillondoyle 5y ago
oh boy. the amount of real estate listings I look at (lotto dreams) that are many millions and filled with the cheesiest, cheapest looking, ugliest stuff that looks straight off the american furniture warehouse floor... That's amazing you have a friend that will do that. I recommend it for art too! Especially paintings.