The old  wooden tables, chairs, wardrobes or beds, which several years ago would be considered too old and fit for the garbage can, are now being hunted by wooden furniture traders. Having become fed up with artificial wood, people now prefer natural wood made products.

Traders have been hunting vehemently for old wooden furniture. On many furniture streets in HCM City such as Truong Chinh in Tan Binh district, Ngo Gia Tu in district 10 or Bach Dang in Binh Thanh district, one can see the signboards which say “old wooden furniture wanted”, displayed on eye catching places. The advertisement pieces on seeking to purchase old wooden furniture can also be seen on websites and forums.

Trading old wooden furniture has become a lucrative business for wooden furniture manufacturers and traders. It is because the demand for natural wood has been increasingly high.

The rise of old wooden furniture

Tran Van Tuan, 40, in Tan Phu district in HCM City, related that he has a closet made of china ball tree, a bed and some furniture items which he bought nearly ten years ago. As the items have become old and out of fashion, he decided to sell them and replace with new products.

Right after hearing that Tuan wants to sell old wooden products, a lot of traders have come to ask for purchasing the old furniture. “I have been treated as if I am the God,” he said.

Tuan said he could not imagine that he would be able to sell the furniture at such high prices. “The sale prices were nearly the same with the purchase prices. I could use the products for a long time, for which I did not have to pay any money,” he said.

“Even the old wardrobe could be sold at 8 million dong,” he added.

Hien, 50, a housewife, also got surprised when traders welcomed her solicitingly. “I brought old furniture to exchange for new furniture, and the buyers accepted to buy the old furniture at the prices equal to 70 percent of the purchase prices. I could choose new furniture items at reasonable prices. Especially, I could change the new items within three weeks,” she said.

Hien added that she did not have to pay transportation fees. “The traders had to pay for taking my old furniture away and bringing new items to my home”.

Wooden furniture traders prove to be very selective and they only purchase the old products made of natural precious timber. However, there are also popular shop owners whose clients are low or medium income earners, who also accept to buy the products made of normal wood.

“We are targeting popular buyers, and we looking for normal old products,” said Thanh, the owner of Thanh Binh workshop on Truong Chinh Street.

Old wooden furniture market taking shape

Old furniture products being displayed at furniture workshops are diversified in dates and prices.

“We have an altar cabinet inlayed with shell-fish made of a kind of previous timber which is priced at 60 million dong. We also have cheap products, such as a wardrobe which we sell at one million dong only,” said Nguyen Van Minh, the owner of Minh old wooden furniture shop on Quang Trung Road. “All of them are made of natural wood,” he stressed, saying that natural wood made products are now the top priority of many customers.

Minh said that in recent years, people tend to use the products made of natural materials. Therefore, the demand for natural timber to make furniture has been increasing dramatically.

Especially, Minh said, the biggest advantage of old wooden furniture items is that they do not shrink after a long period of use. “OId products would become beautiful after we upgrade them. Meanwhile, the products are cheaper than new products, therefore, they have become the choice of many buyers,” he explained.

In general, the prices of old products are lower by 30 percent than brand new products. “It takes customers about 40 million dong to get a new set of windows and doors, while they would have to pay 10 million dong only if they use renewed old products,” Minh added.

Dat Viet