They sold their soul

They used to be on such a high horse about their ethics, too. Then the money started rolling in.

right!!!! etsy is essentially useless now

@@OhGeeWillickersMister Yes they did!! I've said that from the day Etsy announced "shareholders".

I used to sell on etsy. Quit in 2020 for this exact reason. I miss what it used to be

right? my family has had the same couches for many years and we want new ones but all of the ones being sold now are so bland and not cozy at all. just weirdly shaped and hard.

literally 😢

And if you go to secondhand stores it's all full of used low-quality furniture which is even worse 😢

"IKEA is the furniture communism would have invented if communism worked."

⁠@@personzorzso we have capitalism furniture?

Just curious, does this have anything to do with the rampant use of flame retardant chemicals back then? I know they've been reduced or eliminated in recent years because they cause thyroid issues.

Wow this is fascinating, thanks for sharing.

Yes thank you for sharing. Also tipping furniture is a danger. You have to anchor stuff now whereas before people didn’t worry that opening a dresser drawer would cause the unit to come down on you.

The houses themselves burn faster as well. Old houses take a lot of work, but you are less likely to be killed in a house fire.

That is soo important! Thank you for sharing!

Yes! Plus people seem more likely to move around for work these days.

This is such a real thing!

This is a great point.

So true!

THIS

Ikea has so many things that look the exact same

the illusion of choice

Just btw it’s boggling not buggling! But buggling is very cute haha

omg yes! i was just thinking this a few hours ago bc i was searching for a cool table lamp online. they were all bland, beige, and boring. all of them. the only cute ones were the vintage ones, and those were super expensive

@@coolchameleon21the thrift stores around me have sooo many cute lamps i have to stop myself so often so definitely check for vintage lamps there if you have ones near you

I hope your business and self are able to flourish soon

wish you the most success in your business!!

I'm so sorry this happened to you, I hope Mina sees your comment

As far as I can tell, the more raunchy items (like, way more raunchy) haven't been affected by dropshippers as much. What appears to be dropshipped is often just a manufacturer based out of China

Love this! I've tried to sell antique furniture on FB etc and no one wants it. I had an antique bed from the 1800's that wouldn't even sell for $200 that a C&B COPY of was being sold for thousands. Vintage furniture could easily be modified or refinished, too. Makes no sense that more people don't buy second hand.

@@hr3134 coming from someone who's hugely into antiques and is currently in the process of furnishing their entire room in antiques, a lot of people have weird misconceptions about it. That it's haunted, will break easily, dirty, etc. Even though 99% of the time the antiques are better made than modern items. It's so strange

jokes on me, this kind of place around me UPCHARGES

Unfortunately there are no furniture thrift shops here in Poland. At least I've never seen one.

​@@lovelylacie15I would buy an antique closet, desk or a cabinet but never a couch or nothing with cushions. I'm disgusted by what it could have collected for 50 ar 100 years. Even the couches my grandparents have in their summer homes disgust me. They are probably about 50 years old and still functioning but sooo nasty looking >_< with itchy fabric. They were made during the communism

literally why im still using my wooden well-made childhood dresser. its bulkier than i'd like and i would love to get something smaller but also storing it is not realistic and its too valuable to get rid of so... im "stuck" using it.

Only if you like it!

Yes only if you like it. But if you no longer like it, find it a good home with someone who will appreciate it. We can't afford to keep losing the good stuff.

It's definitely better for the environment and your wallet if you do!

Yes. I have to move in the next year and I’m horrified about what I’m going to do/how much it will cost, but I’ve spent so much time (thankfully not a ton of money thanks to FB marketplace) curating a house full of sturdy, high quality, at this point vintage furniture.

Yes, that. I spent quite a bit of money on furniture, 10 years ago...thinking I would continue to live in the place I had been renting for 10 years already at that point. Then I had to move and had to sell everything. Got barely anything for good quality pieces, because there was no big designer name attached to them. I swore to myself, I would never buy new or expensive furniture again, after that. Well, unless I should ever own property, which is not particularly likely. Been living with thrifted stuff ever since.

THAT. I've moved... 6 times in the last fifteen years, I think? Still the same work, but changing office with my new job, and I started at basic wages, so at first it was low quality-low price furniture because I couldn't afford much, then it was because I moved often AND moving heavy furniture is a pain. Also, I live alone, and any time I want to move stuff around, it's a pain, unless it's on wheels (which I'm doing more and more). Solid wood is a nice dream, but really not practical for me for now, price aside

I would LOVE to not move again, but housing prices are insane so people end up having to hope locations as they're priced out of their current housing.

Yah. I don't drive and have to move every 2 years with rent prices rising so I literally research ikea furniture by how well I think I can assemble and take apart something over and over. Their quality is very hit or miss. But I'm lucky we have a physical location in the burbs I can actually test the stuff before buying.

It's so bad. A lot of stuff that people buy when it's time to move out gets broken and thrown out. I have a lot of antique stuff from the 19th to the 20th century and I have a motto that if my stuff is on the street it's because I've been murdered

Where are you usually able to find Thomasville pieces?

I remember the commercials 😊

Do you know of any places that still make genuine furniture in the south east US? I've been looking for quality furniture, and I've had a horrible time trying to find anything that isn't cheap disposable garbage.

@@alexlowe2054I’m also interested, if anyone has any info

@@alexlowe2054 I know a little bit about other North Carolina furniture brands- Bernhardt Furniture is also from NC and most of their furniture is made in NC too, only a little bit is made in other countries, and Hickory Chair Furniture is super nice (I was at a furniture store a few months ago and was looking at a chair from them), and the majority of their furniture is made in NC also. They can be a bit pricy but their products are well made.

GOD, I feel you. I'm finishing my first semester of Industrial Design here in Argentina and they're showing us examples of high-end design so far. I guess they're just trying to show us good design first but idk, realistically we all just want to do good products at the end of the day. Tho to be fair, first year in this uni is experimenting with a lot of other art disciplines and different mediums. Next year I'll start seeing more stuff related to industrial/clothing design. I would love to know how is your design university!

The problem is complex, but it can be summed up by a few words: Late stage capitalism. The cost of life to income gets worse and worse every year. Wages never keep up, so we have less purchasing power. We want the same ability to buy things that our parents had, so we turn to cheaper furniture because quality means you can afford 1 couch and no dining room table, chairs, desk, bedframe, ect. Cheap means you can afford it all. It's the cost of raw materials, the cost of transportation, the cost of labor, and the cost of land to build factories on and the cost to actually build the factory that have all gone through the roof. Some furniture is just absurdly overpriced, but overall, there isn't a market for middle ground, because it still means being able to afford half of the furniture you need, instead of everything when you buy cheap. The problem is, no one looks at purchases as long term costs, just up front. I've spent over $40,000 furnishing a 700 qr ft apartment, but everything is high quality, real woods, and with care, will last me the next 30 or 40 years with refinishing and reupholstering.

I had a similar issue studying interior design in Australia. We never really discussed the quality of products, and we were basically forced to use only high end products in our designs. What they considered to be low budget suppliers were still mostly well out of my price range as a consumer. I found it really frustrating that no one was interested in creating accessible interior design for the average person. You certainly can't make the same amount of money, but at least you can make a bigger impact on the world.

Sustainability is no longer a required category. Used to be that quality furniture was inherited, or at least sold off when the first owners were done with it. That's over. A few years ago I helped moving a friend's gran out of her appartment into a retirement home. My heart was bleeding when we demolished the bedroom, a really beautiful arrangement of laquered dressers, bedframe and nightstands, nothing broken or bent, minimal signs of usage. But they had tried and couldn't get anyone to take it away for free, so to the dumpster it went...

exactly!!! i complain to the market organizers (mostly about pyramid schemes) and it works!!

That’s so true! It makes me sad when i see a vendor and their things are obviously dropshipped

The amt of Scentsy booths ive seen at my local art fairs is wild lol!

I find that asking the vendors about what they’re selling, who made it/how it’s made reduces the risk of buying mass produced items. This, and uniformity of the products. And price, but sometimes prices are inflated to make the item seem legit, and sometimes small artists/crafters VASTLY underestimate the value of their work (I know several that I’m constantly begging to raise their prices. One is a glass blower.) Also sometimes makers will sell mass produced items if they’re worried that their owns won’t sell. Life as a maker is pretty tough, and I don’t blame these, as long as they’re honest about what’s theirs and what’s not.

I've noticed this! I wish handmade actually meant handmade.

it also distorts what consumers think they should pay for actual handmade goods!

3 people dropped shipped stuff from Walmart that I ordered from ebay. I hate Walmart with a passion

I will purposely switch to Vintage rather than handmade and go to Vintage sellers instead

@@mwv1217 I often get things from eBay that arrive with Amazon packaging. A few do have the same name as their eBay account but it's the ones that don't which surprise me. I suspected they ordered the item I want from eBay then use their Amazon account to get what I ordered; that's too many steps, though that's what I think happened.

It's been making me so mad; I went there for handmade items and now literally no site is safe.

How do you like it? I just ordered it last week 😭

@@emilygruber9421 it's pretty firm but otherwise i like it! easy to assemble too

I have the couch from Joybird in velvet and I’m very sad because I thought I did enough research to not be buying crap!

me when my bookcase shows up as the bottom tier of the case study

Couches are just insane today. You really need to spend $7000 and up for a quality 2-3 seat couch. I spent $13,000 for my American Leather custom couch, and that was with my designer discount... But the quality is bar none, and it'll last me the next 30 or 40 years. I've invested over $40,000 in furnishing our 700 sqrft apartment, but I hopefully will never buy furniture again, just refinishing and reupholstering. You have to look at furniture like buying a house. Yes, you will have to spend some money on it down the road for upkeep, but your locking in the cost at today's prices. Cheap furniture can't really be reworked/isn't worth it, and you be will paying 40% more than you paid today to replace it in 5 to 10 years. In the long term, you will pay way more than buying quality.

💯💯💯

niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This is the real issue. As Mina said, furniture is an investment, but everyone thinks their investment is the best and should have a price to reflect that.

@ciaociara I just bought an antique Duncan Phyfe sofa for $50. The upholstery is in rough shape, but the cushions are not sagging at all and the overall structure is strong. So I lined up a professional to reupholster for $800 (includes the fabric). All in, it's still cheaper than I'd find on Houzz or some other site, and it will be something that is unique and I will love.

Once at an estate sale several years ago I bought a dining room set - table with 2 extension leaves and 6 chairs - for $60. Technically the sale was over but the people handling it were willing to get rid of it instead of having to load it into their trailer. The chairs were in a bit of a rough shape but I fixed it up a bit and I'm still using that dining set.

The whole thing is just devastating and so sad.Many politicians helped make this all possible and it is just so sad.

the persuit of ever growing profits. When the market cant grow anymore, the only way to keep growing profits (which is the definition of success in a capitalist society) is to reduce manufactering, managing, services, etc cost to keep line going up.

Mine too! He custom made tiny wooden houses for a board game making contest. It wasn't long after before Etsy allowed other sellers to copy and make terrible, shoddy versions of my husband's houses. It's really sad and your husband sounds just like mine. He really cares about his handmade wood work.

Nothing wrong with solid plywood! Its what eames used.

Screws don’t necessarily mean quality. The type of wood and how much hand-crafting should be considered too.

​@Magund1 It's definitively quality when compared to the alternative of glued together plywood furniture, which is the point that they are discussing.

​@@Magund1 screws mean low quality. Quality wooden furniture is joined invisiby with wood joints.

What’s his business name?

Link him! X

Where can we find his stuff!

Where in chile❤

Drop his website or Instagram if he has one

I'm reupholstering 2 couches. It's a nigthmare since the previous owner was knowing how to use an industrial nail. Héhé. My father was saying there was no value to putting new fabric on. Looking at the interior and how it's made is fabilus.

I reupholstered my dining room chairs as they were both rescues: one from my dads friends garden and one from the dump. They are great chairs! I’m going to start reupholstering another dump chair, it’s a carved armchair that is Victorian. I love it so much!

I would like to second that.

@@Gabytron Me too!! Third that!! I even reference her work in my university, college courses!!

Ppl rambling on sounds more like a commentary vid than a video essay

Fourth this! It's the reason this channel is on my top faves list.

Absolutely. It's lovely to have some real research instead of just vague opinions based on someone's personal observations.

Haha that's my exact same strategy lol

Maybe a vampire bites you and you'll actually have 500 years for decorating

where can I see the rugs?

On my site! (it's just my name, unfortunately I can't add it directly here because it gets auto-removed) :) I also want to add that if anyone is looking for high-quality furniture and decor, consider Amish/Mennonite shops or registered Craft Councils. I'm Canadian, and a member of my province's craft council. You can find all sorts of talented artisans in craft councils who use quality materials, take pride in their work, and make really unique stuff. It's also great for supporting local industry!

Could you share where you bought the couch from? I'd love to know!

forever grateful my mom held on to the hard wood cradle me and my siblings used so that i can use it with future kids instead of a plastic bassinet.

I lucked into a solid maple desk from the '50s on Craigslist a few years ago...for $40. I'm keeping that shit forever. I also am the only person my age that I know of who upcycles furniture...like my childhood desk, which used to be my mom's, is now my kitchen island cart (I made a top with oak and poplar scraps). Point being, developing an eye for quality pieces that can be continually upcycled and reused at different stages of life is a skill that lots of younger folks don't develop because most public schools don't offer shop classes or home economics anymore. How can you identify quality if you're not even touching the things you're purchasing before you buy them, especially if you don't have any experience doing so? Yknow?

Yes! So true! Even in stores though, like Target, it can be hard to tell when something is prone to breaking. I got a bookshelf from them and when I disassembled it for storage, one of the "wood" shelfs split apart at the screw hole. I ended up throwing it out because it would have been hard to repair and I disassembled it because I didn't have room for it in my apartment. It was sad, but it probably would have just had more issues, and maybe someone rescued it from besides the dumpster, I kept all the hardware in a plastic bag tied to it, who knows. But yeah, no more "wood" furniture from Target for me.

i worked in a warehouse at a high end very expensive kitchen furniture company, and the only real wood inside the entire warehouse was the wooden pallets we used to ship the furniture 😀

plus, even if these companies say they replant trees, old wood forests' wood quality is completely different from new growth wood. we need to replant trees, but we also need to leave them alone longer. a lot of radical changes need to be done for a better world. we have the answers, but the few millionaires & billionaires that keep us caged in of course don't want to change things as long as they can keep getting a quick buck off working us to literal death...

Particle board makes me so angry. I spend 400$ on a credenza. It got here, and it turned out to be all particleboard. 🫠

As an engineer, yeah. Once a product is functional and selling everything becomes about shaving off cost. Can we get away with less material? Cheaper material? Cheaper build processes? Keep doing that until the product barely functions and customers are getting pissed off. Cars, houses, appliances, clothing, furniture, airplanes, everything is just barely working now.

And they actually cared about it lasting, making heirloom pieces. Heirloom is an archaic term anymore.

Yeah, factories anywhere can make good quality items. The thing is that drop-shippers are never competing on quality or brand, they're competing on flooding the space with the cheapest shit that just barely scrapes by without too many credit card chargebacks or claims of outright fraud.

Yeah, China has some of the most advanced manufacturing in the world (and obvious a huge cultural history of craft), it's just that the people reselling the furniture opt for "as cheap as possible" so they can max their profits. Plus the fact they're selling low quality stuff (and people basically accept it as a fact of life) means they can keep selling more of it when it inevitably needs replacing. It's pretty common to lay the blame on other countries producing what our companies want, instead of blaming the companies for going down that route in the first place - that's capitalism! etc

@@cactustactics As far as the long history of craft in China, well the majority of those industries were destroyed during the cultural revolution. Some survived but very minimal. This is also sad. But you are right that sellers here wanted cheap products and many times kept the higher prices.

@@JB-pd3ir that goes for every industrialising country though, artisanal work gets largely replaced by mass production. But those traditional skills and approaches still exist, especially where countries make an effort to preserve and support them. I see far more of that in China than in western countries tbh But my point was really that China produces stuff at all price points and levels of quality to meet demand, if people are seeing low-quality stuff, it's usually a case of you get what you pay for. Or often you get what someone else paid for, and then you paid that middleman a whole lot more on top, and you feel ripped off because you have been! Not by China tho

Yeah they tend to gatekeep higher quality items for domestic customers lol. For example, I saw the same tote bag listing on Amazon, AliExpress and Taobao but looking at the reviews, only Taobao sends you the same bag as the listing photos while the ones sold on Amazon and AliExpress has a plastic interior pocket instead of a fabric one like in the pics. I also found more variety in designs and quality in like phone cases and clothes on Taobao too

Ooooh, I'm shopping for a new couch; I'm going to look into them! Thanks for sharing the rec!

I really think modular furniture is the way of the future (for better or for worse!)

facebook marketplace always has tons of gorgeous vintage furniture

I wanted to do this while searching for a bookshelf for my new place. H/e the size difference in estate sale furniture can be comical w the size of city apartments. Me and my spouse live in a much bigger space now but banking on an estate sale in our area for the right size furniture/look was unlikely and unfavorable w all the uncertain factors. The stars just didn't align 😩 I may end up looking for a lamp this way though 😄

Wow….a 210 year old table!!!

literally I have stopped shopping there for that reason, it's sad bc they used to be such a good platform.

We had that happen with a chair. By the time it was in the house the fabric had ripped off. We returned it and bought something from the 1970s instead.

Why not get a simple metal frame and keep an eye out for something on FB. Where I live I regularly see queen bedframes/headboards being given away. Last time I bought one at Costco it was 20 dollars which was decade ago so maybe 60 now but at least it'll serve until you find something you love. Plus if you are looking at apartment living it's easier to move. You could even create your own headboard to add style to your room.

I have so many trees and gardens at my home in queens in NYC. Huge yard. I think New Yorkers forget how much better the quality of life is if you’re just willing to commute a bit to manhattan when you need to. Just live in the suburban areas of the boroughs.

@@nataliaalfonso2662 we lived in astoria before moving to midtown. i’ve lived in 3/5 boroughs in new york. there are trees in queens yes, but it doesn’t compare to nature outside of new york. living in nyc and living outside of nyc are both great options, it isn’t a competition 😊

this is really funny to read as a miami native that moved to NYC. florida greenery always felt very synthetic to me

@@graceascurra astoria……… IS URBAN LMFAO. I didn’t say anything is a competition. It’s just I lived in Miami too, and grew up spending half my years in Miami and half in NYC. Obviously…. There are way more trees in NYC, when you’re in the SUBURBS. Not the inner city urban areas of the boroughs; THE SUBURBS. Like bayside? FOREST hills? (hence the name forest) little neck douglaston….. prospect park, riverside….. Like the areas with so many trees and flowers there are literal botanical gardens and stuff.

@@graceascurra do you understand that astoria was literally known as “crackstoria” when I was growing up? It an URBAN area. Suburbs babe. Suburbs. We’re in a very literal…. Deciduous coastal rainforest. So everything I said about people literally totally ignoring the possibility of living actually completely in nature within NYC stands. I had one tree and a bunch of gardenia shrubs in Miami. I have sooo many trees, an a tire pollinator garden, food garden, blueberry shrubs, so many rose bushes, peonies, hydrangeas azaleas…. So many huge fat rhododendrons… Several oaks… this is all just on or right around my house in queens. You can’t compare the nature of a deciduous four seasonal northeast forest biosphere with subtropical swamp. And to be clear: neither of us has even mentioned the “borough of parks.” The most forested area of NYC. Staten Island. Bc why would we lol? But there covered in trees too. A freaking hundred year old oak fell on my house 3 years ago. And there are 4 more all around. And those are just the city trees. Not any of the ones on my property.

I would say about 90 percent of what we have in our townhouse is family hand me downs and hand made tables…plus one I got free from work. I did buy one mid century desk from EBay because it had screw on legs.

The brands and/or manufacturers are the same exact product with a different name.

We've all made mistakes at some point. You should consider financial planning

True. My portfolio was diversified across several markets with the help of a financial planner, and were able to achieve over a million in net profit among high dividend yield equities, ETFs, and bonds. It is vital that you have a variety of exposure, including in firms that are currently generating cash flows.

Do you mind sharing your financial planner?

Leah Foster Alderman

You are most likely to find more info when you look her up

Often, low quality products are more about saving money than intentionally building a cheaper product. The lightbulb story is incredibly misleading, on multiple counts. No, the lightbulb standards were not designed to force customers to constantly buy new lightbulbs. Yes, there is a firehouse with the oldest lightbulb. No, that lightbulb is not magic. It will eventually burn out, just like every other lightbulb. The laws of physics haven't changed. The reason that lightbulb has lasted for over a hundred years is because of two factors. First, it literally never turns off, because turning lights on and off will shorten their lifespan. Second, the lightbulb is very dim, about as bright as a dim candle, because brighter lightbulbs have shorter lifespans. Lightbulbs can still be manufactured to last for an incredibly long time, but the things that make a lightbulb last for an incredibly long time are also the things that make for a very crappy lightbulb. The final factor in the lightbulb discussion is that it wasn't a single company. It was a group of companies, a cartel. Their worst offense wasn't setting limits on lightbulbs, which increased their brightness. The worst problem was that they also directly conspired to raise prices. The companies of the Phoebus Cartel intentionally manipulated markets for their own profit. The best thing you can do to prevent that sort of market manipulation is to avoid these types of dropshippers, and to buy things from local businesses, rather than large corporate enterprises designed to maximize profit by charging you as much money as they can get away with. Unfortunately, things like the Oil cartels are manipulating markets at a level that most consumers can't do anything to fix.

5000k tho?????????????

@@asuka_the_void_witch yeah, it’s a damn fine couch

Nebraska Furniture Mart is a magical place!!! My brother and I live out of state, but have contemplated buying enough furniture from there to fill our houses and then just hiring a moving truck to delivery it to our states.