Dennis N's Profile

- and it's made in India? We can't find an old 2-ft plank in America? How much "making" is involved here?

THEY GROW PINE IN INDIA?
Wikipedia says so I guess.

There is no evidence that furniture cost scales linearly with durability. If someone can link a peer-reviewed study that shows that a Ligne Roset couch will structurally and aesthetically last ten times longer than a couch that's one-tenth the cost, I'd be willing to stand corrected.

If furniture were the investment these purveyors of taste say it is, there would be a huge market of analysts and engineers doing independent multi-year testing on furniture and publishing standard reliability and longevity ratings, like with cars or appliances. We would have furniture companies begin to converge on a set of standard dollars per life year ratios, by price class. JD Power would give awards to the best furniture manufacturers. Investment bankers might even allow owners to sell shares/options on furniture, and collateralized debt on the furniture.

Is any of this happening? No. JD Power, Consumer Reports, and Goldman Sachs all recognize that furniture in general depreciates massively with wear and tear, accidents, and capricious cycles of taste. Combine that with its high upkeep and general illiquidity, and what you have is an asset class that's almost completely useless as an investment vehicle.

I love how commenters are suggesting investment into used classic furniture, because it's cheaper than new. Wow. The fact that it's cheaper old than new basically defines this stuff as a bad investment.

We get furniture to beat it up. We let our toddlers jump and play on it; we let our pets scratch it up and we prepare for when they pee on it; we cheer for our favorite teams, have movie nights, take naps, and let our millennial kids fall in love on this stuff. We want to be able to disassemble, lift, and move it when someone grows up, gets married, or otherwise moves on. My goodness. Leave art in the museum. Furniture is a tool for real people to live real lives. Let's have furniture over-appreciators recognize that world inside the AT bubble is tiny, and respect those living happily with IKEA elsewhere.

"They say only rich people can afford to buy cheap stuff."

Obviously he hasn't experienced being poor.
Ask him about buying nice things when he lives in a place where a guy crowbars his locked door off the hinges and carries out his things. (Happened to me!) Ask him after a fire, earthquake, flood, or hurricane destroys all his expensive stuff. For too many of us, at least one of these things are bound to happen within the next 20 years. Extra insurance policies are not free. They also don't really replace that sentimental value you foolishly attached to a thing you sit on.

It's cool if people spend a certain moderate amount for a couch they want and need - maybe even a couple thousand. But isn't $8000 crossing the line into needless self indulgence? All furniture eventually breaks, burns, or gets stolen. You can't take it with you! Couches are just tools for sitting. Surely the balance point between durability and cost isn't $8k+.