Is online shopping turning most everything into a market for lemons?
IMO, yes - Its a lot harder to stay in business selling trashy products when you deal with people face to face in a given location, and hope to be there for years.
Why are most sofas so bad?
661–670 of 762 posts
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#662Earlier quoted context omitted.
I dropped out of school in 9th grade. I make $200K a year. A friend of mine has a college degree and has been unemployed for a year. There is no uniform standard of education in the US. Kids in the South are being taught that evolution is on par with intelligent design. Poor black kids in Baltimore have on average a 3rd grade reading level in high school, while rich kids a few counties away are taught when to use a b…
"few counties away are taught when to use a backdoor roth ira" What are you on about? Nobody is talking about a back door roth IRA in high school.
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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#663Earlier quoted context omitted.
And even the cheapest crap you can get from IKEA doesn't seem that bad to me. I've had one of those 5-euro LACK coffee tables for around six years and it really only has some minor surface damage on the top. Far away from throwing out. Although at the same time, I think I'm on my third MARKUS chair because of the gas spring leaking. Thankfully they do have long warranties, so you can exchange them if it doesn't last…
You could even hang some servers underneath your LACK, aka the LackRack [0] [0] https://wiki.eth0.nl/index.php/LackRack
This is hilarious, but I can't imagine relying on 4 screws into the cheapest wood known to man, all at the one end, holding up a heavier rackmount server without it sagging dangerously. On the other hand, I can imagine two LACKs stacked, with the servers on top of the bottom table, their weight being borne by all 4 legs evenly, and just mounted to the legs of the top table just to hold them securely in place. Anyway, thanks for sharing that awesome link!
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#664I have a cheap sofa today made of the sawdust and glue. I had “good” sofas before made of hardwood. They both feel fine under your butt and get wrecked by the cat before long. The new one comes apart in pieces so one person can easily move it in or out of a doorway or stairwell. Maybe the “joinery” is worse but who cares? It does the job and is easier to deal with, and that’s probably why these things have replaced the old beasts. Plus if you are interested in things like the joinery under your upholstered furniture there are still people who will cater to that for a premium you’d justify somehow.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#665When I moved to an area for work I wasn’t planning to live long-term I ended up buying the cheapest sofa in the store. I think it was around $270. After a prolonged illness I grew more and more displeased with it, to the point that I went and bought a better one after I was better. I bought from a place that advertised the inside of the sofa more than the outside. It was all about the build quality and how long it wo…
I've been wanting to buy nice furniture for a very long time... unfortunately the housing crisis has prevented my from ever having a sense of permanence. If I had known I'd live in my last place for nearly a decade I would have purchased nice things, but as it stands, until I have a mortgage of my own, I refuse to spend good money on something I may need to replace next year.
Good furniture holds value especially buying used good furniture. If it doesn’t work out next year you can sell it for about what you paid if you haven’t destroyed it. Hard wood holds up to abuse much better than the particle board stuff too.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#666When I moved to an area for work I wasn’t planning to live long-term I ended up buying the cheapest sofa in the store. I think it was around $270. After a prolonged illness I grew more and more displeased with it, to the point that I went and bought a better one after I was better. I bought from a place that advertised the inside of the sofa more than the outside. It was all about the build quality and how long it wo…
We had an ikea klippan for around 10 years, and had to give it up when moving. During these 10 years I haven't sat on any sofa, be in office lobbies, hotels, showrooms, friends' home that made me feel like it could be a significant upgrade upon my 400 USD sofa. Sure that might not be usual, and I actually wouldn't recommend any other Ikea sofa in general (many were crappy when we were choosing ours). But price and ma…
A chair is a chair unless you get an actual office chair, but even then everyone copied herman miller already. I’ve sat in five figure chairs and there isn’t any magic there other than its provenance I suppose. So many of the cheap chairs being sold today are actually shameless copies of mid century design chairs that people still pay a ton of money for. You might as well pay literally a hundreth the price and get the same experience going generic eames.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#667Earlier quoted context omitted.
Particleboard is absolutely useless, MDF is mostly useless except using as a guaranteed flat surface on top of something to support it, hardboard is pretty useful in certain applications though. OSB is great and extremely affordable as sheathing, and there's a massive variety of plywood that's great for their respective purposes - from cheap rough sheathing, mid-grade for shop projects and filling large gaps in furni…
Avoid particleboard like a plague if you can afford it, appparently most of IKEA products now made of these since they are widely being used in dirt cheap furniture construction. They melt like ice once in contact with water. Recently, just had to chopped off all four legs of a bookshelf then replaced them with metal legs. The bookshelf legs somehow got damaged in contact with accumulated air-cond water droplets.
Just finished a walkin closet cabinet (from kits) installation. All walls, floor to ceiling, veneered particleboard. Heavy, fragile, crumbly, weirdly hard. Rather nope. Blame the client.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#668Earlier quoted context omitted.
IKEA products seem to vary wildly between "partical board disposable" to "made from actual wood and somewhat decent."
IKEA sells many products in a couple tiers. E.g. if you get the cheapest billy bookcase it'll just about barely hold up if it's full of books and you don't nudge it. If you get one of the more expensive models it'll be surprisingly sturdy instead. Same sort of thing applies to nearly all their products. Yes they sell cheap crap -- that still serves its purpose mind you -- but they also sell slightly more upscale furn…
BILLY bookcases are very sturdy, have you seen problems with them? I do recommend the thinner ones over the wider ones because the wider ones tend to sag in the middle if you have a lot of weight on them.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#669Earlier quoted context omitted.
People used to tend to carry more. Cash, membership cards, etc. There was even a Seinfeld episode on the theme.
The front pocket bifold I carry has room for several hundred dollars in cash, and at least 8 credit card sized objects (and could easily hold 2 or 3x that if you didn't mind stacking the less frequently used ones, not counting my ID. How much are these people carrying?
People also probably used to be more fashion-conscious with having even relatively bulky bifold wallets in their front pockets. I carry basically a business card holder with significantly less on a day-to-day basis. Maybe $40 and likely about half a dozen credit card sized object things.
I carry a travel folder when I travel but my actual wallet is pretty minimalist. (Though just a phone wallet/pocket doesn't work for me. The Apple magnetic wallet I bought which I was also uncomfortable with depending on was 3 cards--no more, no less.
Re: Why are most sofas so bad?
#670Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless there is a drop of moisture, then you throw it all away. You might not want to set foot in your kitchen or bathroom then. Generally speaking cabinets (in the US) use particleboard frames. Higher end stuff will use plywood. I went with IKEA's Sektion cabinets to replace some forty year old particleboard cabinets that warped after years of water damage from a burst pipe. They came with a twenty-five year warrant…
Those are normally coated in melamine, even the edges, hence the ability to use them in a wet area. Ironically standard worktops are only coated on the top, so those can take damage.
That's true of pretty much anything made of particleboard though.