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Why are most sofas so bad?

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Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#671

Post by al_borland »

neilv wrote: post #304
scoofy wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. The buying up of precious housing as investments by non-residents should mostly be banned, starting with institutional and overseas investors. AirBnb should also be banned. And the people who profited off that startup, who must've known they were creating illegal hotels and destroying rental markets, should be hit with devastating fines, maybe also imprisoned.

Airbnb was never meant to be what it has become. It started out as an easy way for people to rent out a spare room. The name “Airbnb” came from air mattresses on the floor.

It’s the get-rich-quick types who decided to be professional Airbnb landlords. Short term leases make no sense at all to anyone actual invested in rental properties, without something like Airbnb to back it. A long term tenant who pays on time should be the dream of every landlord, but with all the Airbnbs, it’s not even considered.

I don’t know if this is the fault of the early investors, but I’m all for pulling the rug out from under the the people who own dozens of properties for the sole purpose of doing Airbnb. They are likely extremely leveraged, due to the low interest rates from years past, so they’d be screwed and be forced to sell fast.

I agree on the international investors as well. Priority should always go to people who will actual live in a place. All those multi-million dollar places in NYC that sit vacant are a horrible. What’s the point of housing if no one is there to live in it.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#672

Post by decafninja »

gannonburgett wrote: post #501
decafninja wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some brands like Hermes, Rolex, etc. also require you to establish a “relationship” with them to acquire their most popular items (Birkin or Kelly bags, stainless steel watches). This entails a lengthy purchase history, and some schmoozing of your assigned sales associate doesn’t hurt either. Unless you’re some well known figure, just waltzing into a boutique with a suitcase full of cash won’t get you what you want t…

Mercedes and other manufacturers do this as well. While it's arguably an extreme example, you can't purchase the Mercedes Benz Project One hypercar unless you have a history of purchasing their low-volume, extremely expensive cars (AMG Black Series, etc).

But that’s, as you say, an extremely, extremely, rare model isn’t it?

A 911, even something like a GTS or Turbo, is peasant-class compared to that.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#673

Post by iknowstuff »

btbuildem wrote: post #181

Twenty some years ago I used to work at a business that made and delivered sofas. They've got showrooms in key large cities in North America, fancy schmancy top end stuff. The factory was a real place; the frames were made of solid wood and plywood, there was a sewing floor and even one (incredibly kooky) person whose sole job was to stuff the pillows. This guy was in a little room full of feathers all day, and they'…

I was hoping this stream of consciousness was going somewhere

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#674

Post by maccard »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #623
Too wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it have 4K and HDR? Those are game changers, especially on such a big screen.

Are they really game changers though? Baraka (1992) in 1080p non-HDR looks stunning.

HDR truly is. It's as big a leap as the jump from 480 to 1080 IMO.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#675

Post by maccard »

arbitrage wrote: post #618
zac23or wrote: post #530

Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. 1. The new switches I bought broke before the old ones, which are over 20 years old. 2. LED bulbs last less than incandescent bulbs, even with a 20-year warranty. 3. The new cell phone's screen breaks very easily, it's not like the old Nokia's. And nowadays something expensive is no longer guaranteed to last. This is why I value old things so much: I have an old chair…

You're exaggerating about light-bulbs. There is no way LEDs last less than incandescents. If you are experiencing this, its possible your wiring is bad. You should call an electrician and have them check that out.

Unfortunately my experience matches this - our LED bulbs are lasting between 2 and 5 years. There are truly just some cheap, shitty bulbs out there.

But, they cost £3 each and leaving them running 24/7 will cost you less than £20/year.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#676

Post by ryandrake »

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #625
itsoktocry wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Everything is bad these days, not just the sofas. When these conversations happens, I always wonder why people want some of these items to last forever. Are you going to stick with that 10 year old plasma TV? Great. I want new tech, and this stuff moves fast. Furniture is a bit different, but my parents had all kinds of good, long-lasting stuff that no one wants because it's out of style.

> Are you going to stick with that 10 year old plasma TV? Absolutely. It cost me the price of a power supply repair. The display is beautiful and the interface is crapware free. > I want new tech, and this stuff moves fast. True! Advertising tech is ever evolving.

My home theater TV is a Hitachi plasma from 2007. It works exactly as it worked the day I bought it. You know what broke? The bog standard MacMini that acted as my HTPC suddenly lost the ability to output 1080i after a software “upgrade” so now I’m stuck with 720p.[1] so even if one of your tech doesn’t fail, something else in your tech circus can fail, ruining the experience anyway.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39687566

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#677

Post by morgante »

nostromo wrote: post #242
hammock wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) North Carolina was and is the center of solid wood furniture), and they still cost several to many thousands of dollars, and they will still last 100+ years with a couple reupholsterings or so, but most furniture comes from Asia now and is sold for 10x less, and is not worth reuphol…

Room and Board sells great sofas that are made in the US. We've been very happy with ours. It's made from solid wood and stuffed with real feather down. It's several years old now and has shown no signs of aging.

Their beds are also great. It's the only solid, high-quality furniture I've ever owned.

It's not cheap, but easily much higher quality than anything else in the same price point.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#678

Post by ryandrake »

ejb999 wrote: post #648
WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #636

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is no way LEDs last less than incandescents. Sure there is. I bought a case of Sylvania LEDs in 2019. They're used a few hours a week and I've tossed 5 of the 15 I've installed.

Same here - I am constantly replacing my LED lights whereas parts of my house still have 25 year old incandescents that have never been replaced since I moved in.

Same here. I keep a big box of LED lights hanging around in a box and am constantly replacing them. I had to replace incandescent lights too, but not nearly as often. Everything is designed to fail.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#679

Post by Aeolun »

ericd wrote: post #338
Aeolun wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I Often hear people saying that IKEA furnitures don’t travel well or don’t last long. It’s like we’re not going to the same IKEA. I mean, if you are comparing with heirloom class furniture then that’s certainly true. After taking the cabinet or bed apart and sticking it together 4 or 5 times, you certainly start to notice some degradation. But then we’re talking about a factor 100 price difference.

The thing is, antique stores are stuffed to the gills with heirloom class furniture, and it doesn’t cost 100x the amount. Gorgeous solid cherry, mahogany, etc, where even the backs and drawer bottoms are solid can be had for a song. We recently tried to find a mostly solid wood IKEA dresser, but because they’re switching all their designs to new anti-tip designs over the next few months, almost everything was out of…

Hmm, I’m not sure that’s necessarily true everywhere. We replaced our IKEA (or equivalent) stuff with solid wood antiques and they were all $1000+. We had only two items to really replace, but compared to the $50 that the IKEA stuff cost it was quite an expense.

Re: Why are most sofas so bad?

#680

Post by [deleted] »

emodendroket wrote: post #397
hammock wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) North Carolina was and is the center of solid wood furniture), and they still cost several to many thousands of dollars, and they will still last 100+ years with a couple reupholsterings or so, but most furniture comes from Asia now and is sold for 10x less, and is not worth reuphol…

> You can still get made in the USA sofas with real hardwood, not rubber wood, which is fine, or worse, soft pine or particleboard or OSB) Where? I went around furniture stores and found it hard to discern any relationship between price and quality.

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