I am planing a trip to Denmark in April to do some furniture shopping. I have researched several companies online that handle both the furniture and the packing and shipping. I was wondering if anyone has any advice for me on shipping etc? I have a small vintage furniture business but I usually stick to purchasing locally.
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
I'm in Central California abo...
I'm in Central California about 2 hours south of San Francisco. I plan on getting a 20ft shipping container or smaller filled with some decent pieces and having it shipped here. I have been selling quite a bit of Danish Modern stuff and I am getting requests for alot more.
Expect to
Pay top dollar from wholesalers like remodern and søren hansen.
Ohh yeah and denmark is not the golden cup of cream overflowing with dead cheap classics.
In denmark the auction house lauritz has spurned a national sport of weekend furniture hunting and then selling at auction.
I have been to a general jumble sale which was at a farm filled with furniture, mostly crap and a few ok pieces. It was over in 30 sec. A s dealer came in and paid an agreed price for the job lot so all were told the the sale was over!!!
So happy hunting but bear in mind you will be 1 of hundreds doing exactly the same.
Sorry not to put a positive spin on your trip but best be prepared
I'm going
to have to agree with Simon. I've had more luck in Belgium and France than in Copenhagen/Denmark.
Then again, it depends on who your clients are, i.e. Beverly Hills housewives are going to pay silly money for things that the rest of us scoff at. So, if your clients are willing to pay, go for it.
I have no first hand...
I have no first hand knowledge of how simplymods gets their Danish teak/rosewood pieces, but I would be very surprised if it was not initially procured through estate sales and auctions in Denmark throughout the year(and perhaps other adjacent countries), then group shipped cost-effectively in containers once or twice a year to California. Only 5-6 pieces are auctioned off at a time (in week-long auctions) to help spread out the container shipment throughout the year (or six months), and also avoid flooding the market. They could have their own man on the ground in Europe or contract with someone there.
They have too many good quality pieces consistently to acquire them via available sources in the US.
It's pretty obvious
That the merchandise is imported. I'd say about 10-20% of the listings are actually something considered designer or collectible. The rest is run of the mill but cleaned up and presented nicely.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1950s-Danish-Modern-TEAK-Nightstand-Bedside-Tabl...
Indeed, most of their stuff...
Indeed, most of their stuff probably won't draw much interest from those who are focused on big-name attributed pieces. However, I find many of the era's anonymous pieces very well designed and crafted in their own right. These are the pieces that simplymod seems to acquire a lot of from Denmark.
The unfortunate part of the setup are their cultivated buyers who bid up prices on these items due to their relative scarcity in the US (higher than I think they are worth as well). The current eBay auction link you listed is a perfect example. Very elegant nightstands, but bid up to an inflated price. I would grab those in a heartbeat for $200-300.
Don't blame the seller or the pieces themselves for the actions of eager buyers.
simplymod-auctions seems to...
simplymod-auctions seems to know what theyre doing.
There is a dealer in the San Francisco area who just recently started importing from Europe and I dont think he knows what hes doing yet. That, and he was probably ill prepared to deal with the sheer volume of furniture he shipped in.
His prices have sky-rocketed to cover the new overhead and he's initially flooded the market with similarly styled pieces that are not selling as quickly as they once did... where before he only listed 2-3 items a week now he seems to be listing as much as possible to try to unload his pieces which are probably costing him an arm and a leg to store since he has no showroom.
At the end of the day I wonder if its actually worth it to ship directly from Europe. Unless you already have a large warehouse or showroom to deal with the quantities necessary to make it cost effective, its probably better to simply pick items here domestically.
shipping costs
I heard shipping from Denmark is quite expensive, if you buy something while being close to the German border, you might hopp over to Germany to send it from there, it´s way cheaper there. There are eBay sellers in Austria and Denmark who gather their sales and ship them once a week from Germany, because it´s so expensive in these 2 countries...
The other thing to bare in...
The other thing to bare in mind is exchange rates, the dollar has been fluctuating in recent weeks. Also its worth condisdering how you are going to be valued as a buyer of this furniture by the sellers. As initially its going to be a one-off trip purchase, so its possible the sellers are more likely to deal with, and give faveorable prices to the Danish dealers, who are in-turn more likely to buy from them on a regular basis.
At the end of the day it all comes down to knowledge of your market and potentional vendors, export costs, plus calculating the risk against cost.
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