That’s what we’ve been calling my husband around these parts lately. Stephen and I both check Craigslist regularly for good deals – furniture finds for me and music/computer/sports equipment for him – but apparently good things happen when we switch genres, because my hubby has been scoring amazing furniture deals lately!
It all started when the heat wave we’ve been having finally broke and it was actually pleasant to sit outside in the evenings again. Our deck furniture up until now has been hand-me-downs from my MIL. The pieces were still serviceable, but they had seen better days. You can catch a glimpse of our folding chairs in this shot of our deck from a few weeks ago.
We’d been having drinks on the deck and throwing the ball for Molly after work, when Stephen mentioned he’d really like to find a metal table and chairs set that we could use when we wanted to eat outside. I didn’t know if we’d be able to find an inexpensive set this time of year, but he pulled out his phone, pulled up Craigslist, and within 5 minutes (no kidding!) he was on the phone with a lady who had a set for sale for $30!
He picked it up after work yesterday. Want to see it? Tada!
Yes, it’s maroon and it only came with 3 chairs, but we can easily change the color with spray paint and keep our eyes peeled for an additional chair or two. Not bad for 30 bucks, right?
It got me thinking… At $30, why wasn’t this set sold the second it was posted? The answer – Because there were NO PHOTOS with the listing! It read:
2 Sets of Lawn Furniture $30
I have 2 sets if lawn furniture. First one is two chairs with table that has glass in the top. The second set is all metal chairs and table. These are $30 for one set or $60 for both. I can text pics. Please call xxx-xxxx
So here’s a tip if you’re buying something on Craigslist: keep in mind that people are lazy! If you see an interesting description with no photo, but they’re willing to text you a photo of the item, you might find a diamond in the rough that other buyers have been overlooking.
Here’s where our new $30 set ended up.
I had thought we could paint it practically any color we wanted, but when I woke up this morning, I realized the patio set was very visible out the left window (sliding glass door) of our living room. Looks like we might want to stick to white, blue, or even green spray paint to compliment our living room color scheme!
You might think our success story was over, but there’s more! Still excited that he’d scored such a great set for so cheap, Stephen continued to browse the furniture section. 5 more minutes later, and he called me over to show me a photo of the CUTEST mid-century chair and footrest for sale. I figured it had to be pretty pricey, since it looked to be in great condition. The price? $40!!
Miraculously it hadn’t sold yet either, so our SUV was quite full when Stephen brought his treasures home yesterday. Here’s the chair that got me all giddy.
Super cute, right? The owner said she’d had it recovered in vinyl a few years ago, so after the woodwork gets some restoring and a new coat of poly, it will be another one of those awesome pieces that will last forever.
There were even bonus features we didn’t know about before we brought this set home. The first? The footrest is adjustable. You can change the angle of the top by flipping a little bar up on the underside of the stool.
The second? The chair is actually a rocker! When Stephen told me that, I immediately called dibs for this chair in our future nursery. How stylish and comfortable will we be when we’re up feeding a baby at 3 am? 😉
There’s even a happy little epilogue to our Craigslist story. We recently had the opportunity to replace our mattress set with a newer, more comfortable one for free. I listed our old set on Craigslist, and a few hours later had an interested buyer. As Stephen was getting home with his awesome finds, I just happened to be selling our old mattress set for… $150!
I guess you can call me The Craigslist Queen, since ya know, I’m married to the King and all. 😉
We are still flying high over how well our sales worked out, and I can’t wait to get my hands on that mid-mod chair and make it really shine. So what about you? Scored any great deals lately? Have you ever bought and sold items and come out ahead in the end?
