My son-in-law Joe is a great Craigslist shopper. He has a CL alert app on his phone, so he's notified as soon as new listings go up, and he frequently sends me links to his latest finds, asking what I know about the piece.
Yesterday he found an amazing Alvar Aalto
Paimio armchair for $40. The seller told him that her late husband bought the chair from the MoMA store several years ago. I'm in the process of trying to track down when it was sold there and how much it cost at the time. The
Paimio chair, which I featured in a post about Aalto just a few days ago, is still manufactured today by Artek, the company in Finland started in 1935 by
Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maire Gullichsen and Nils-Gustav Hahl. It retails new for $3,750 from online stores like FinnStyle and YLiving. 1st Dibs has a 1980s model listed for $1550.
Here's the picture from the listing. Joe had a phone conversation with the seller last night, and he's going to pick up the chair tonight after work. Chalk up a major score for my wonderful SIL!
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Alvar Aalto Paimio chair...a major Craigslist find!
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UPDATE: My SIL called and rousted me out of bed this morning, and he was upset! He awoke to an email from the seller of the Aalto chair, saying she had received an offer for $120 for the chair and was having a hard time turning it down, even though she had given him her word that she would delete the ad and sell only to him.
As soon as he got her email, he jumped into his car, screeched out of the driveway and headed her direction, calling her on the way to tell her he'd match the offer and calling me to vent. I finally heard back from him, and while he still wasn't thrilled that she reneged on their deal, things actually worked out fine. Rather than use the indignant buyer approach, he decided to turn on all the charm he could muster, which is considerable, since he's an outgoing, good-looking guy. I guess it did the trick, because she repeatedly apologized to him, even as she was telling him a long, personal story about why she needed the extra cash. When he handed her the $120, she told him she'd throw in a really nice Cantoni bar and two pneumatic bar stools free because she felt bad about upping the price. He quickly calculated that he could sell the bar set for a lot more than the extra $80 he had to pay for the chair, and while he still can't quite figure out her line of reasoning, it was crystal clear to him at the time that he'd better squeeze everything into his car and speed away before she changed her mind again, which he did post-haste.
Ah, Craigslist...In addition to getting some really great bargains, you have to deal with some real characters. I guess that's part of the excitement.
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On a saner note, he and Jenn picked up these green leather swivel chairs last night ...just because they're funky and were reasonably priced. The seller described them as La Tour 1887 Eiffel chairs, but that doesn't turn up anything on Google. Anyone know anything about them?
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| The latest Mystery Chairs |
