Got any tips for buying secondhand?
I know some of you are experienced at shopping secondhand, and I’m hoping you’ll answer a few questions I have. I’d like to get some garden furniture or maybe a kitchen table and chairs, and have been unable to find anything that’s both eco-friendly and in my price range.
I figured I’d try to get something secondhand instead. I do ok with op-shopping for clothes, and we got our Prius secondhand too. I’ve often given stuff away to charities or people through Freecycle, and donate my old books to libraries. But I’ve never really bought furniture secondhand.
So before I start looking, I’d love to know how you manage it.
- How do you find good sources for secondhand furniture?
- Am I expected to bargain for a deal? Because I’m not very good at that! I’d rather just pay what they ask.
- How can I check the quality of what I’m buying without taking too long or being rude about it? I don’t want to imply that people are selling junk, but I do want something that will last a while.
- Am I even likely to find what I’m looking for, or do secondhand places do other things better?
Please help out this newbie to the world of secondhand shopping, and give your best advice and stories!
12 Comments
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Garage sales are a fantastic way to find really good quality second hand furniture. You need to be up early (though with furniture it’s not so critical as you’re not in hot competition with the professional e-bayers). People often have a garage sale because they are moving interstate, and it is easier to sell their furniture and buy new at their new place than it is to move it all. I’m not great at bargaining either, but at a garage sale you have people who really want to sell their stuff, today, so finding the price you will take it away at is a win for everyone, and a win for the atmosphere too if it saves carting truckloads of furniture around the continent. Even if you had to pay the same kind of $ you can find things that are infinitely better quality than at the “superstores”.
I buy much of what we need through eBay. I set up a search for the particular item I am looking for, set a distance from my home that I am willing to travel for pick up, choose any other particular criteria I am looking for from the list of options down the left hand side of the screen, and save the search. I am then sent an email whenever something that fits my criteria is posted. Whenever something comes up that looks interesting, I will check out the description and the reputation of the seller. Sometimes my gut feeling tells me to steer clear, and I always listen to myself when I get that feeling!! If the price, item and seller is right, I will then ‘watch’ the item until it is closer to auction closing time. Hope that is useful!
Hi there.this may sound strange, but i go to the local tip. they have heaps of stuff and so cheap, often in perfect condition. often they get the stuff from the road-side clean up’s that council’s have. we just got a 60s buffett for $60!! and its so much fun checking out all the unusual things on offer. cheers, Tanya
Try Gumtree. We bought our outdoor setting second hand.
I also used Gumtree to sell a lot of our big-ticket items (we had 2 washing machines once Stu moved in!).
I don’t bargain, I just pay what they ask, but I’ve had people bargain with me. I have a ‘lowest’ price in mind… but when it comes to bargaining, the worst they can say is ‘no’!
People are quite happy to let you look/test the item for as long as you need
I second garage sales, they are great sources of furniture. I would also try ebay, especially for garden furniture. And look in the bigger op shops – try going a bit further afield. Op shops are good for kitchen chairs, and sometimes have nice tables as well.
You don’t have to bargain if you don’t want to – it’s not like this is a culture where you’re expected to bargain for everything as a matter of course.
I wouldn’t worry about taking your time to check the quality – it’s expected that you’ll do this.
Sometimes it takes a bit of patience. I found the exact type of coffee table I was after in solid timber and a beautiful style at my local flea market for $20. It took me about six months of just keeping an eye out, but I treasure it so much more because I waited till I found just what I was looking for.
Verge shopping!
I check all curb side collections in my area and go running early in the morning, look for interesting piles and come back with the car to load it up. Or I stop running and dragging it along if it’s too good to be left… so did our perfectly good big Aussie BBQ for example end up at our place. I’d found a skateboard for easier transport as I had to push it for more than a km
Once I found a huge mirror perfectly intact one block from our home, I got back for the car but as our seats don’t go flat I discovered I wasn’t able to take it home. But I was lucky the owner came outside and told me she was so happy I was interested in the mirror as it had been in her garage for years and nobody wanted it, she helped me to transport it to my house in her car!
I’ve made a beautiful frame around it and put it on top of the fireplace, it looks like it has always been there.
I guess half of the stuff you find in my place is from the verge, some of it needed a bit of TLC but most could be used straight away.
No barging experience needed.
Wow, everyone, this is great! You’ve made me feel much more confident about this.
Reyna, I had no idea that you could set up a permanent search on eBay – I’d always been put off by the idea of constantly looking for what I wanted. This sounds much better.
Wilma, your mirror find sounds great – I love it when people are friendly and go out of their way to help like that.
I love going to our local auction houses when i get a chance. They have viewing days were you can go and checkout the furniture, take a good look at it to make sure its okay and then if you are able go back on auction day and bid to a price you are comfortable with (remembering they add a buyers 10 or so percent) I am constantly amazed at the how cheap some pieces of furniture go for. if you can’t make it to the auction you can always put in a book bid of a price you would pay for the item. I know my local secondhand shops well and often after an auction will see the items there marked up hugely! My other favourite would have to be tip shops, I can’t believe what people throw on the tip.
Oh see I wouldn’t have guessed that about the 2nd-hand shops marking up stuff they get from auction houses – but now you mention it, it makes perfect sense!
Thank you all for this. This has helped for my assignment. I would like to thank you all for this information.
Secondhand furniture has been the main type of furniture our family has bought for the last decade.
In those years we have bought (mostly from opshops) a lounge, lots of bookshelves, desks, wardrobes, chest of drawers, etc
Certain op shops chain (ie Lifeline) will have special stores: ‘Supa Stores’ that stock furniture, others like the Salvos and Vinnies may stock lots of furniture at their depot stores. At opshops it is a bit of potluck, sometimes you will find just what you are after, other times there is nothing there. Saying that there was this one Lifeline store my Mum & I would go to whenever we were looking for a certain piece of furniture and we rarely came away empty handed.
I would also try Ebay: I have recently bought 2 recliners, and in the past an IKEA table my mum & I use for craft and a big linen cupboard. With Ebay you dont have to travel, can ask the seller for measurements, some will even deliver and you can often find something quite quickly, in a week or 2.
Its been great reading everyone’s tips and suggestions, and if circumstances allowed I would love to try auction houses, the tip and garage sales too!!
Thanks Rachel – it’s very encouraging to see the success that others have had with this.