Any tips on second-hand furniture hunting on ebay/facebook etc ?

[samosamo]

Just that really.

I'm looking for mid century type stuff. But I'm finding that anything called that is being offered at a premium! A bit like buying for weddings - don't ever use that word!!

What tricks do you have and where else should I be looking??!!

Thank you!

I would say search under brand names or piece names if you can - so search for an Ercol table rather than a mid century table. Look out for more obscure brands as well if you can. Consider whether you would be happy to buy something in an unfashionable colour or slightly damaged and sand it down and restore it.

Or search for the material (e.g. teak). Also search for items that are local collection only - often go for much less if you are willing to collect

I think that if someone is listing something as a brand name, they know it's worth to the buyer, but sometimes you just get someone listing 'sideboard' with very few details but you can see that it's what you want. You have to be patient and scroll through a lot of stuff, but it can pay off. Also look at mis-spellings, eg dinning table. I can always see nice stuff on FB marketplace going cheap in our area and our village even has a Gifting and Giving page which sometimes throws up a nice item that needs work.

Most people under 50 watch antiques & decor shows & know mid century = £. I'd try house clearance sales where older deceased owners might have some stuff.

Mid century is in fashion right now, so will go at a premium. If you want cheaper then Victorian stuff is so undesired they can barely give it away.

Mid century is indeed in fashion and hence costs ££££. Sorry.

Furniture charity shops out in the sticks.

It can be worth just searching for the type of piece e.g. 'table' - might get a lot of results depending on area, but people often just put up briefest descriptions.

We got a couple of things from local charity furniture shop for much less than they are advertised when the brand/style is promoted.

Misspellings are your friend for bargains.

Search “Chester Draws” or “Walldrobe” or “Ercal” or “side tabel”. People who can’t be bothered to get the search terms right often aren’t charging as much as others.

Failing that, “vintage” is a good all-purpose search term.

Thanks all!

I'll take a trip to charity shops where a lot of our seniors live....

local auction house they always have lots of furniture from all eras and dealers wont pay high prices for them some bargains to be had (my daughter runs an auction house in leeds)

Try charity shops and auction houses.

I have 60s/70s stuff from car boot sales, second hand ads, local charities where they recycle furniture (e.g. Emmaus), charity shops, relatives (tell them you are in the market for hand me downs!). Also gumtree and ebay.

When I bought these I do not remember 'mid century' being a term, and would agree just search for the brand name or vintage, or e.g. 60s.

Buy a local paper and look in the small ads section. Older people selling what might have been new 50 years ago don’t always use the internet. The traditional way of privately selling was through newspaper small ads.

I check Facebook market place most days if I have something I want in mind. I also find charity shops good for furniture but one day they might have something you like and another day they might not have any thing. It's just a case really of constantly looking until you find the perfect piece for you. I do tend to start looking a couple of weeks before I know I will need a piece of furniture as well.