Buying furniture from vendor — reasonable price?

[FrustratinglyIrrational]

I'm bad at decisions at the best of times, but I have to make a decision tonight on whether to buy a dining table and chairs set from our vendor, and it's really stressing me out (please don't be too hard on me — I am generally very anxious, and especially when it comes to purchases. You can imagine how the house-buying process went..!).

I do like the set, as I think it goes very well with the colour scheme of the kitchen/diner. It's more high-end than anything I've ever bought before (moving from rental/IKEA furniture etc.), and I'm not sure what to do. The vendor has said it'll be £1000 for table + 4 chairs. If I were to buy them new now, it would be £1500 (as they are on sale). Is that a reasonable discount? I think they've had it for about 1.5-2 years. I do like it, but I also haven't spent any time researching dining sets. Normally I'd do a lot of research before committing to something like this!

@Didicat I think you might've sent the wrong link? That one's quite different. Though I appreciate you looking! You're all very welcome to send links for good tables my way

@LizB62A I actually don't know — is that correct? Good to know if so. I've never bought anything from there before, or even heard of it (this will be the first house we've owned, so I'm not used to shopping for furniture).

Do you reckon it would be worth it for £500? Thinking of offering that, and saying we'll look elsewhere if not. Do you think that would be a reasonable price to pay?

that table and chairs wouldn't be my thing...
Buuuuut in your shoes (assuming you like it) I'd refuse the £1000 price tag, let them take it / sell it and buy the new one on sale it's brand new and only 450 more with discounts applied.
Those are fabric seats and will be marked and full of other peoples crumbs (not envy)

I think £500 would be fine for 2nd hand for the table, but 1k is too much.

We got a Neptune one second hand for about 500 it is quite nice but not the worth rrp

@LivingLaVidaCovid Yes, I do have some slight reservations about fabric seats. I think I could just about overlook it in this case (for a decent price), given that they seem to keep the place so spotless in general. But I don't think fabric seats would be my first choice for a kitchen if buying new. I also wonder about whether the lack of back legs on the chairs will cause them to break eventually.

At this point I'm thinking I'll say £500 or no thanks. So I guess my question now is: does £500 seem reasonable, or would you all still say no in my shoes?

It’s not to my taste but £500 seems more reasonable. You could spend money travelling to look at similar sets, plus potentially need a van to move them.

I don't like it at all so wouldn't pay anywhere near that much.

Oh my, just seen the actual photo of the set. That looks awful!

Sorry op but you can get a much better designer set for a bit of extra money than that wannabe designer set from Furniture Village.

Absolutely agree with everyone else. Not my personal style and choice but if you like it that’s fine. Second hand furniture ready depreciates fast. £500 if you want it otherwise I would honestly decline.

I do think they are somewhat chancing their arm at the current asking price. These things happen with house sales etc. I was asked to buy an American fridge for £1k I declined as would want to buy my own.

Does anyone on here like it? I'm now questioning my own taste. Tbf, I'm not sure I would've picked it out without having seen it in the context of the kitchen. I know I shouldn't care what anyone else thinks, but if pretty much everyone thinks it's horrible, that does affect how much I want it in my kitchen!

I was asked to buy an American fridge for £1k I declined as would want to buy my own.

Had a similar thing with my house vendor, he wanted £3000 for the landing/stairs carpet. We declined, he ripped it off and took it with him (no idea what for, honestly) but when he ripped it off he left some carpet strands stuck to the floor that we took to the shop he told us the carpet was from and had it done, new, exact same top of the range carpet for 1/3 of the price. 🤷🏻‍♀️

You have asked so I’ll be honest with you. No it’s horrible you can do much better. Even if it costs you new £250 more than the £500 ( I know they wanted more) there are better options in sales and IKEA. It’s just not nice. You will find much better within your budget.

It’s your new place start afresh even if with restricted budget for different items etc.

Look for a furniture warehouse that sells ends of lines & ex display furniture, I got an oak extending dining table & 4 chairs for £399, the same set was in Oak furniture land for £750, the only mark was on the extended surface, a good polish & you couldn't see it.

@friendlycat Yep, I did ask, and thanks for adding another data point! Could I ask for more specifics about why it's horrible? I've lost all sight of what makes a table nice. (I've only really had classic wooden farmhouse-style tables in the past, but I don't think those would go as well in this kitchen. It has quite a glossy modern look to it.)

@Nat6999 Which one did you get yours from?

Tip: The table is marble 'effect'. Try to steer away from anything trying to be something else - wood 'effect' (or veneer), leather 'effect', stone 'effect' - if you can afford to. It almost always feels and looks a bit cheap and naff.

Chances are you won't get £500 for it, no. I'd say

It’s ceramic / glass, with a marble-effect design.
And it says ceramic is heat and scratch resistant. So I reckon it’s actually pretty hard-wearing. So long as you don’t smash it!

If you like it Op, and it looks good in the kitchen, offer what you think it’s worth.
I personally wouldn’t pay £1k for a second hand dining set.
But yeah, maybe offer £500 for the hassle-free element of having a dining set in situ when you move in, that goes.
If they say no, well, fair enough!

@Thenose Yes, I noticed that. Certainly I try to avoid wood 'effect' and leather 'effect', but I wasn't sure if the same principle applied here — is ceramic a poor quality material for a table top?

One thing that I'm a bit unsure about is the fact that it's "ceramic on glass", as in general I avoid glass in furniture. Do you think this could be a problem?

Four chairs for an extendable table doesn't seem enough, surely you need six chairs.

Hmm, I just had a little dig in the internet archive, and it seems that these items are permanently on sale (or at least they were on sale in August, and October, last year, which are the only snapshots I could find). I guess it is one of those places then.

Sorry but that’s offensively ugly.

Is this your first house purchase? The first few months after moving in are often wildly expensive as you discover all the things your new place doesn’t have, or the things you don’t have, little things to fix, endless trips to B&Q. And buying eats up all your funds. I really wouldn’t spend £1k on what looks like second-hand office furniture; get something from a charity shop for now and take your time over deciding what you’d like. We had deckchairs in our sitting room for two years while we saved up for a sofa; houses take time.

I'd buy new, you don't get the warranty from the set they're trying to charge you a mont fir!
I bought my set from Next on sale, 6 seater table solid wood fir £125 and chairs £60 per pair - look for bargains elsewhere £1k for 2nd hand furniture village is bonkers

It's horrible and the vendors probably don't want it either and CBA to take it to their new house.
I'd prefer new from IKEA at half the price for new.
Absolutely no way would I pay to take that on

If you want specifics, I don't like the chair design with the supports going back. And the pillar supporting the table is too large and dominant in the design.

Personally i think its ugly as hell (sorry)
And wouldn't pay a penny let alone 500.

You sound like you dont like it either and 500 isn't a bargain for something you dont want or like.

I'd tell them you wont pay extra on sale price for it but they can leave it if they like. That way you have something to eat off when you get in but I'd be replacing it with non fabric whatever you fancy longer term.