This morning, a High Point Furniture Company 18 wheeler showed up outside our office with a whole truck of "fine furniture" destined for Denver, CO. The "order", however was cancelled en-route so they need to unload all this "fine furniture" cheap.

I had to bite and take a look. As I walked over, there was a couple looking at a bargin $575 Bombay chest and had their checkbooks in hand. I expressed interest also, took a look and immediately pointed out all sorts of issues:
  • The thru dovetails on the back of the drawers had 1/16" gaps betwen the pins and tails and were held together by brad nails and what appeared to be glue from a hot glue gun.
  • The drawer bottoms were made from a cheap 1/8" thick grade of plywood.
  • The drawer sides were attached to the front using a butt joint and more brad nails and hot glue gun glue.
  • The entire chest looked to be made of 1/2" material.
It did have a nice finish and stone top, but outside of that, it was junk. Needless to say, after my comments, the people looking to spend $575 on this bargain, put their checkbooks away and said they would think about it and walked away.

Someone else called the police on them and they are currently being issued a citation for not having a permit.

What is my point of this debacle:
  1. It's ashamed that people take advantage of other peoples emotions by offering them a "bargain" and getting them to bite on a piece of junk.
  2. The general public doesn't know the difference between a finely crafted piece of furniture and a mass produced, low quality piece.
  3. Don't buy anything "bargain" from the back of a truck.
  4. The finish makes or breaks a piece - fine finish on a poorly made piece makes it look "high quality", while a poor finish on a finely constucted piece can make it look cheap.
I found this instance both sad and amusing. It was fun playing with the guys that finally admitted to me they just drive the truck and don't know a thing about furniture; eventhough, they sounded like "experts" when trying to unload this stuff.

On a final note, if this is a "once in a lifetime opportunity" to take advantage of their loss, why do they have permits in the next city over to sell out the back of a truck since this was just our dumb luck that they need to unload this stuff from their "cancelled" order.