One of the best reasons to buy secondhand is you can often buy goods of much higher quality than you could afford brand new. This applies to everything from cars to clothing, toys to tools.
Sometimes the new goods that you might be able to afford look so fresh and exciting, even though their lifespan could likely be much shorter than a less expensive secondhand option. A great example of this is outdoor furniture. Every year retailers put out lots of pretty outdoor furniture sets. Much of it is plastic. Or resin (which is plastic, but sounds nicer.) Or even wood. Some of it is affordable and some of it costs as much as a decent car. Much of it won't last from one Summer Olympiad to another.
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| Notice how this plastic set has aged... not pretty. |
Several years ago we moved into a small rental house that had a small fenced in yard with a large square deck in the middle of the backyard. It was unique, but great space, especially for entertaining. However if you want to have guests over to your deck you need a place for them to sit. I started looking and was generally depressed by what I found in our price range. I didn't want plastic chairs or wood that I would have to stain to keep looking nice. So I turned to craigslist. I found a listing nearby lacking of photos, but they said they had a Weber charcoal grill (which I knew my husband wanted) and outdoor furniture for sale, so I convinced the husband to fire up the jeep and off we went. For $100 we got a gliding loveseat, 2 non-bouncy chairs, 1 bouncy chair, a coordinating coffee table and a Weber Charcoal grill.
This was great deal that necessitated more than one jeep trip to transport it all, but our deck was still missing something. We still did not have a place for people to sit down and have a meal, so I resumed my craigslist searching and found a complete dining set- consisting of an oval table and 4 spring base chairs for sale- same style, construction and color as the furniture we already bought. This time we knew to take 2 vehicles to transport our haul. We arrived at another gorgeous home and paid $125 for the outdoor dining set.
For $225 we had fully furnished our outdoor space, including a grill. I believe some of the pieces may be Woodard.
I know, I know, this wrought iron stuff looks like what your grandmother has. That's the point, your grandmother still has it and with minimal maintenance it still looks good. It may not be hip, but it is solid.
When we moved the following spring all of the furniture came with us and fits great on our deck. I never worry about it in the snow or the wind. It remains outside year round and requires little maintenance (though I would like to paint it another color.) Someday I hope to upgrade our outdoor furniture to something more stylish, but until I find awesome modern metal furniture on CL (I would love to have some Salterini wrought iron) whether that be in 12 weeks or 12 years, this furniture will work, which can't be said about the new furniture we could afford.
