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Risom Furniture

9 years ago

Do anyone know where in durham nc I can sale a pair of 1970's Risom frame chairs, good condition original upholestry. I also have a walnut color Risom cocktail table and a large Risom dining table?

Comments (3)

  • 9 years ago

    I would try eBay for a wider audience.

  • 9 years ago

    This is where you start:

    https://www.google.com/search?q=jens+risom+for+sale&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

    This isn't where you're looking for prices (or even looking at them), this is where you look for the specialist sellers that trade in Danish Modern pieces by known designers. Then you take good, natural light pictures and email as many of them as you can the best pic of each of your pieces along with your city, Durham, and a price in the ballpark of how much you want for them.

    You won't get a response from most of them, and the majority of those who do reply will send you a form letter saying "thank you but no thanks". But with a little luck one or two of may actually be interested enough to ask for more pix and a detailed description of condition.

    And if they like what the see and read, then you can start talking money. Be aware that they're going to calculate the cost of getting stuff from Durham to wherever they are, and that won't be cheap. And then they'll have to invest the time and money to bring the condition of the pieces up to their standards (regardless of what you think of the condition). Then they'll add their overhead costs, and even a little profit.

    What I'm telling you is that you're not going to make a fistfull of cash selling to a specialist dealer. You might even do better trying to sell them on Craigslist. eBay... furniture... a lot of people try it, but it's too much work for me.

    You should certainly plan to go to the antiques show at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh July 14,15,16 to look for dealers of this kind of stuff, but even dealers of "real antique" Southern furniture, if they actively work the show circuit, may very well know of a dealer or two who might be interested. All you have to do is visit a while... However, I wouldn't bother visiting with the jewelry, glass, china, or clothing sellers. There's only so many hours in a day.

    It would seem to me that those interested would be most likely to show up either in the DC or the Atlanta shows, but hey, you never know until you ask around.


  • 9 years ago

    To expand on one thing cgard said, you may do better selling directly to the end user, because they will often pay more than a dealer who has to resell and make a profit. Private buyers often outbid dealers for antique and vintage furniture at auction because they are willing to pay more than a dealer (and still end up paying less than if they bought from a retail dealer). But you can't expect to charge a buyer the same amount someone would pay for it in a retail shop, you can only expect someone to pay a fraction of that, maybe 50% at most.

    I had a friend with a vintage furniture shop. He had a good eye, but he was not particularly educated about what he was selling and his prices were modest. Not too low, necessarily, but they were not as high as they could have been. He had some sales to people who came down from Manhattan who were dealers, and he saw some of the items he sold in turn offered on 1st dibs for 5 times what he sold it for, some things 10 times what he sold it for. (And they sold for close to that). They were Manhattan dealers with international sales, they had a lot of overhead.

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