How do you, as a private seller, determine the value of your vintage Mid Century Modern teak, walnut, or rosewood furniture?
We get questions like that every day, and while we can not reply to each email, I take my time to write all that information in my blog.
For those who do not know us, here is a quick information: my husband and I professionally restore vintage Mid Century Modern furniture. We rent a workshop and a few storage units in Toronto ($$$). We love what we do and work long hours to make a living.
We noticed that most people do not know how much work it is to refinish vintage furniture properly. People see the sellers saying how easy it will be to fix the furniture they are selling: "little TLC" or "light sanding and stain," and you can sell for thousands of dollars.
If only that were true! The sellers should follow their own advice to see the results, but they rarely do; or even worse, if they do, the result is even worse than it was in the beginning.
Since most vintage furniture will require some work to make it look like new, it is essential to understand the scope and the costs of furniture restoration to price your vintage furniture correctly.
These are the simple truths:
1. If the piece requires refinishing, the work will cost more than its current value.
For example, it will cost over $1000 to refinish an average teak dining table, so your table should be priced around $200-$500. Similar refinishing cost would be for a sideboard, a dresser, etc.
If you are selling vintage sofa that requires new upholstery, essentially, you are selling just a frame, since the upholsterer will have to take everything to the bare wood frame, fix what is required (wood parts, springs, etc), and afterwards to build the sofa again using new foam and fabric. The labor and the foam will cost depending on the sofa design from $1000-to $2000/3000 and more; the upholstery fabric will start from $30-40, average will be $50-70 per yard, and if you want performance or wool fabric, the price will start at over $100 per yard. That means that good quality and great design sofas will cost $2000-$5000 and more.
2. Nobody pays 1st dibs price. You will get 25% discount for just checking the item online. If you find a similar piece on the 1 st dibs, you should not expect to get more than 1/8 of that price as a private seller. Very easy to check that!
The seller on 1st dibs can be happy if he brings half of the advertised price home; the rest goes to trade and other discounts and hefty 1st dibs costs.
3. You should be looking for comparable "sold" prices in your local market.
The most accurate market read is to study the auction results. You will be amazed how much lower these are compared to what you see on the Marketplace or Kijiji. You should also check the local retail pricing. The private sellers can expect to get 1/4 or !/3 of the retail price. The last checkpoint is to identify small local resellers on the Marketplace. Most of them do not do any restoration, just post nice photos on their Instagram pages. Private seller's price should be lower than theirs.
4. Selling on Marketplace or Kijiji.
If you post a vintage MCM furniture item on the Marketplace or Kijiji and do not sell it in one week, your price is too high!
At the moment, 90% of vintage MCM furniture on Marketplace and Kijiji is overpriced 2-3 times, these items will not sell in 10 years. What most sellers do not think about is the competition! You will have lots of competition, and not only with other vintage items, but with new furniture (or lightly used newer furniture). People can buy a nice new sofa for less than $500. Why would someone buy your outdated sofa your family has given you for more?
This is what I call a reality check: say you posted a vintage sofa that requires new upholstery for $1000. Now, check what other sofas a person can buy for a $1000. You will be amazed! True eye-opener that will help you to understand why nobody is interested in buying your item.
If you will follow Marketplace for some time, you will realize that only cheap items sell.
Vintage Canadian dining set should be priced for $400 - $1000. Nice Danish dining set consisting of the table, chairs and sideboard on average costs $1300-$1500 to $1700-$2000. The teak bedroom set should cost from $400-$500 to $800-$1000.
If you sell your vintage MCM furniture in less than 1 hour, your price was much lower than the market price! It is easy to avoid that - do not rush to agree to sell to the first one to write. Wait for some time and read all the inquiries; someone will tell you how much you can get for it! This is my answer about how to not undersell your vintage furniture.
I have to mention that if you want to sell your vintage furniture to the dealers, your price should be lower than you would post it on Kijiji or Marketplace.
Most importantly, please be truthful about condition of your furniture.
Lastly, please check another blog post to see if your furniture is made of teak veneer or solid teak):
https://midcenturymoderntoronto.com/blogs/about-mid-century-modern-furniture/is-danish-mid-century-modern-furniture-made-of-solid-teak-or-teak-veneer