Ikea’s affordable flat-pack furniture has made it a favourite with families and homeowners on a budget. Did you know that the Swedish furniture manufacturer is also a highly-coveted name in the vintage furniture market?
The Vilbert chair designed by futuristic Danish designer Verner Panton and released by Ikea in 1994. Only circa 4000 of these chairs were ever made, and we recently sold four of them in our eBay store to a specialist collector for no less than £900.
As with our charity shops in Hinckley, all the proceeds from donated items we sell on eBay go to help our homelessness charity continue its work.
Our volunteer John has a lifetime of experience with secondhand furniture, having worked in several Emmaus communities; he now keeps an eye on items kindly donated to our Emporium shop and helps to identify things more suited to be sold on eBay: “I’ve been working in Emmaus shops for so long that I can glance in a box and pick out the things that would work well on eBay. It’s good because it raises money but it also involves the companions too – they always come and ask me about how things are going on eBay, and suggest things to be sold on there.
“Identifying those chairs wasn’t actually as impressive as it sounds. They had a name on the back of them – a guy called Verner Panton – who I knew was a chair designer. So I googled it and found they were rare 90s collectables. We put them on eBay to see what would happen. I soon got a message from a guy who collects 1980s and 1990s Ikea. He offered me £900 and I accepted straight away.”
“When we drove over to deliver them, he was so happy. I have never seen anybody so excited about four Ikea chairs.”
We’re always putting up new and unusual finds for sale in our eBay store – to suit smaller and larger budgets – so make sure to keep checking back as more stock is added regularly.