The market for vintage furniture has dropped a lot over the last 20 years. Buy it as a piece of furniture you like at a price you're willing to pay. Don't expect that it will appreciate in value.

"In my area (D/FW) it would go for around $300-400."

That's nice to know.

I don't think the lady selling it is interested in offers and I suspect she is offended that it hasn't sold yet. I think her first posting said it was "appraised" at $1,000 or something close to that, and so her price, $650 at the time I think it was, should make it sell fast. The price eventually dropped to $500. And now she dropped it another whole 20 bucks to $480. So even $400 would probably offend her.

I don't blame her considering you could spend more for a cheaply made modern dresser.

Guess I'd go $325 for it, but it's no where near that price now. I really like hand made real wood pieces, hand cut dovetails, etc. And a piece of marble like that would probably cost over $300. Maybe over $500.

Have you actually seen the dovetailing? the back? opened the drawers? Had a look at the marble top? Eastlake was the beginning of machine made Knapp joints and i doubt that is in any way hand made....dates late Estlake era. Beautiful piece!! Great beveled mirrot but she is "smokin' her sox" as they say if she thinks she will get $480 for it. That $1000 was likely years ago and for insurance not an estate or quick sale appraisal.

Good luck convincing her of that!

I cannot go see it. She would expect me to be paying the asking price or accuse me of being a scammer. I can't be treated that way. If her ad said "must sell, moving out of state" I'd go and make an offer. Her ad does not read any way like that.

Those are indeed machine cut dovetails. At least I think so. They are TOO uniform.

Sorry to be blunt but please Not scammers. I will report.

I would have bought this Eastlake Sideboard for the dining room, but someone else bought it first. Price was low, something like $250 or $225 if I remember, But also it was something like 80 miles away so not convenient.

I’m confused. Why do you think making an offer would make you a scammer? I’ve not heard of the term used in that context. And if she reported you to the police for doing so, wouldn’t the cops ignore her?

tj

Frankly, the owner sounds like a jerk. I would not buy something without seeing it. If you're ready to pay $480, say you'll bring a check and if there are some hidden flaws, back away. My experience is that auctions are where you can buy furniture for really good prices --- and can examine it ahead of time.

It was first advertised toward the end of August. Maybe someone could have got her to agree to let it go for $600 at that time. She probably would have protested an $600 offer though.

Maybe if she drops her asking to $400 even I will just buy it. Don't hold your breath though, that could take a few more months.

Do you know this woman? If not, where are all these assumptions coming from? You might just be assuming yourself out of a good deal!

@Sigrid: ”Frankly, the owner sounds like a jerk.”

What makes you say that?

OP said, " I cannot go see it. She would expect me to be paying the asking price or accuse me of being a scammer. " The seller said, "Sorry to be blunt but please Not scammers. I will report."

If someone threatens to report you for making an offer they think is too low, that sounds like a jerk to me.

I'll add that there are a bunch of Ebay in the $250-$400 price range and the one shown looks a bit dinged up.

But that’s just it: she’s not threatening to report people who make offers; she’s threatening to report scammers. OP is assuming that scammers equals people who make offers.

I wouldn't want to pay for it without seeing it. I'd have a bit of a concern that she might be the scammer pulling a bait and switch. I also can't really blame her comment- unfortunately there are a lot of scammers out on these kinds of sites with private sellers. Sometimes there is a fear of nefarious folks- that's why it's sometimes suggested to trade off in public places or police station lots if it's possible to do so.

It is a nice looking dresser. I would probably pass on it at $480 though.

I like the overall look of it. And the reddish hue, but that's just in the photo and it may not be like that in person. I could see it bringing $500 in an antique shop. I will not go see it. Maybe I should send an email asking if she plans to drop the price some more. Kind of sarcastically. She drops the price in $20 increments over the course of months, and her tone suggests she is not inviting to offers.

I could delete the whole topic if that would make folks happier. I just thought this was illustrative of how hard it is for sellers doing private party sales. A seller has a price FIXED in their mind. Their ad reaches very FEW serious buyers who have a different idea as to value. And the seller struggles to adjust their expectations.

Are you in a hurry for it? I think a lot of people have inflated ideas of what their stuff is worth these days. Just to make a huge assumption, this seems to be a pretty big piece of furniture and I assume she wants it gone. I would wait and see what the price is nearer to Christmas (if it’s still there). Absolutely no way would I pay $480 for something without taking a closer look.

“I could delete the whole topic if that would make folks happier.”

Why on earth would you do that?

It's not a scam to make an offer. If you have a price in mind, you just say, "Will you accept [your price]?" No harm done either way as the seller can say "Yes" or "No" and you accept that.

When I sell something, while I don't necessarily state that I am open to offers, if I have a price in mind and someone makes an offer I will consider it and answer as I see fit. Sometimes a seller has been trying to sell something for so long that they're over it and if they get some kind of reasonable offer they'll accept it just to get it out of the house.

When we bought our house, knowing that it had been on the market for a long time, and had started with a price that was 60% more than the asking price we were looking at, we offered 10% less than the asking price. The agent was confident that our offer would not be accepted and that it would take the sellers (a committee) at least a week or more to come to a decision. Our offer was accepted the next day- they were glad to get a firm offer and just wanted to sell by that point.

I don't believe in pricing high and setteling for less. I like the auction concept. Start low and see who is willing to pay more.

People often ask me to bid for them at auction and when we discuss their top dollar,,,,say $150. I ask if it goes for $155 will you be upset? If they say "yes" we adjust their top dollar.

I went to see something quite a while back. It wasn't even a piece of furniture, but anyway the asking price was $500 and it was something for which there would be very FEW interested buyers. I knew it was way over-priced so I offered $350 take it or leave it which i thought was quite generous. Well it got turned down, told $500 was a bargain price and if I wanted it I should have no problem paying the full $500. It was described as a "rare" item by the seller. Yes but rare and something very few people, especially local would be interested in. And it was way to heavy to consider shipping. So here was a local buyer offering $350 cash with a pickuip truck to take it. The answer was no you can't have it for that. So what do you think happened????

I watched it continue to be advertised for about 3 months, until the asking price dropped to $300.

Then the same thing appeared for sale again for $500, by a guy I know, some 60 miles away who bought it. I contacted him, made fun of him, said i had offered to buy it months ago for $350 which I know for a fact is more than you paid.

I wouldn't say "take it or leave it", because that sounds a bit aggressive.

And I would have replied that I did want it, but not $500 worth of want :-)

The price is whatever you thnk it is worth to you as a functional piece of furniture that you compare to other furniture you might need.

It has no special value just because it is old because the market for brown furniture of any style is very weak. No one wants it and there is a glut in the market as boomers die or down size. Because it is sturdy, many pieces are still around and so they aren’t rare. I couldn’t sell any of my beautiful vintage stuff and so I gave it away because I preferred gifting it to selling it for pennies and dealing with the hassle of selling.

FWIW bargaining is not scamming. The scam on Craigslist is that if you are selling a relatively expensive item, people will offer to purchase it sight unseen with some story about a friend picking it up. There are others but this is the one that happened to me when I attempted to sell a relatively expensive MCM piece. I immediately got several of these and they just didn’t seem right and when I googled, the scam was explained

So anyone selling firmiture or other higher priced items is going to be deluged with scammers almost immediately.

Craigslist is indeed a hotbed of scammers and people who don't use it often are often overly wary. (Those who do use it often are even more wary!)

Uh-oh, or if you're a fan of Scooby-Doo, Ruh-Roh

The dresser had disappear from the for sale listings for a long time. But it is back now, advertised again for the same price it was last we saw it, $480. No price drop this time.

https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/atq/7573153076.html

Eastlake Antique Traditional Victorian 1880's Walnut Dresser with marble top and framed beveled Mirror.

The drawers seem to have the same nice construction as the dresser I bought not that long ago. A thin piece of walnut affixed to the face of the drawer. It, at least going by the photos, have much more reddish to the color than the one I have now.

Dresser I currently have for comparison.

That marble top on your dresser is not original. Some how some where, sometime someone began making and selling those marble tops with the sort of shelf on top as a replacement for either a missing marble top or a fix for a top in poor condition. They seem to be made in the standard sizes and al,most always in pristinew hite....but I have seen one in a gray marble.

Sorry about the eastlake that the poster thinks is worth a fortune, and it appears to be in the same room as the first pictures.

I'd give her $350 for it. But don't want her mad and yelling at me because she thinks $500 is half price. Since she had once said it "appraised" for $1k. I also don't want her to counter offer saying she would be willing to go down to $475. I have $350 cash for it.

It's only been for sale for 6 months so I guess that isn't so bad.

| like it in part because the mirror is nice and wide. Mirror almost as wide as the dresser itself is esthetically pleasing to my eye. Also a wider mirror will make the room it is in look bigger.

See the asking price is down to $330 now! I find it very amusing. It's been for sale for about 2 years and the price drops by a tiny bit every once in a while. It is in the seller's dining room taking up space, not being used. If you had offered $330 last year you would definitely have been turned down. 6 months ago I think $400 they considered "rock bottom."

LOL....enjoying the drama!

If you still want it, I'd go around and ask if they'd sell it to you for $300, cash in hand.