How to Source Vintage and Secondhand Furniture Online

When I moved into my first solo apartment in Berlin, I didn’t want furniture that was something for everyone—I wanted pieces that were everything to me. The apartment was complicated: Two old friends had decided to move from Berlin to the Black Forest, but not before they spent a few months in Sicily. They needed someone to care for their cats and furniture while they were on the road, and in return, I would inherit their rent-controlled lease when they finally moved away. Before I moved in, I knew that they’d take everything with them when they left Berlin for good: Their bed, the couch, their bookshelves, and even the fridge. But in this I saw an opportunity where others might have seen dread: I could take time while finding my furniture, and making sure that I fell in love with every piece I purchased.

Second-hand furniture shopping online was a perfect fit for my taste (midcentury, mostly), my time constraints (I was in no rush), and my budget (minimal). I found that sifting through classified ads is the exact opposite of traditional flat-pack retailers, which offer quick comforts and seamless consumer experiences. These retailers make it easy to match your nightstand with your dresser, and it’s entirely possible to fill a house with furniture from a single web shop over the course of a long weekend.

But second-hand furniture doesn’t work like that: The process of purchasing pieces is far slower, but the payoff is far greater. If you know what you want, you can set up notifications on eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other classified aggregators to track down your favorite designer, or scan fresh listings in your preferred style or period. And if you’re patient, you’ll find what you need at a deep discount. There’s no single secret to success when shopping for secondhand furniture online – but there’s an approach that makes the process as painless as possible.

Pick your platforms  

The first step to finding secondhand furniture online is choosing where to shop, and what you’re shopping for. In searching for secondhand steals, I’ve found every country has its own hotspot: In the States, Craigslist remains one of the most popular classified boards, while Gumtree dominates the U.K. market and leboncoin is France’s favorite. Etsy is home to a surprising number of antiques around the world, including a wide range of midcentury lamps and Victorian woodwork. Meanwhile, eBay is a grab bag that offers everything and anything you might ever want alongside plenty of things you’ll probably hate.

As someone who doesn’t drive, I have a soft spot for Facebook Marketplace. Filtering the posts by location gives me the information I need to decide which pieces are worth picking up, and which might be too far. That’s not to say transporting furniture by train, tram, and foot is impossible—I’ve been caught trundling through inner-city Berlin with rattan plant stands under each arm on more than one occasion—and I’d do it again!

Once you’ve picked your platform, spend some time getting to know the interfaces and algorithms that govern each. Does the homepage offer suggestions tailored to your taste, or do you need to search for what you want using specific terms? How are posts categorized, and what is the easiest way to find pieces that are similar pieces? Are prices fixed, or do vendors accept bids? How wide is the standard search radius? If you’re looking at listings across the country or abroad, where can you find out more about long-distance shipping costs? If you find a seller whose taste (and budget) matches your own, can you view their other listings? These are just a few of the questions that will help guide your searches, and help you decide what you want and how to find it.

Master the art of human error

Shopping for second-hand furniture could test the patience of a saint: To find a good deal, you might have to parse through thousands of posts with bloated, inaccurate descriptions like "teak Scandi mid-century MCM vintage retro dining table desk." More frustrating still: Low-quality photographs can make some of the best treasures indistinguishable from literal trash.

Second-hand marketplaces are often bulky, inconvenient, and overwhelming when compared to their commercial counterparts. They feel almost amateurish—so use this to your advantage. Look at it this way: Popular web-based retailers and shops are necessarily sleek, with user experience experts who work hard to make sure spending money is as effortless as possible. Copywriters create SEO-friendly captions that rank high on search engines, category managers catalog every piece in an ergonomic flow, and photographers capture every piece from all the best angles. Finding what you need is easy and straightforward, with little room for error or excitement. If anything, nasty surprises arise when a sleek product shot upsells low-quality furniture.

But human error is a wonderful thing, and something of a secret when finding the best bargains on second-hand furniture. Try misspelling common search terms to see what popular products might be out of sight for casual shoppers. And don’t be put off by an ugly photo or two either: Commercial websites have rules that govern which professional photos to use on a product page, but photos uploaded on classified ads are mostly taken, selected, and uploaded by people like us. I’ve spent hours sorting through clear and pretty pictures only to find what I needed in a bare-bones listing with photos that were taken by a Motorola Razr. Pieces that have been mislabeled or poorly photographed are perfectly fine, but the lack of footfall on these posts can lead vendors to cut the asking price in half or more.

Practice makes perfect—and patience is key

If you can make time to source second-hand furniture, it’s worth remembering why you’re doing it. Is it for the lower prices, or the wider range of designs? Is there a specific look you hope to achieve, or are you just interested in exploring what’s out there? Regardless, pace yourself and be patient with your purchases. As you browse listings, pay attention to the posts that are within your personal presences even if they’re out of your price range or shipping radius. At first, it can be daunting to define or even just describe your taste in interiors, but taking note of what pieces, which makers, and what features appeal to you offers an easy inroad. You might even surprise yourself: I was never a fan of pottery until I found a post-War ceramics studio from West Germany that finished every vase, plate and saucer with a glaze so smooth and satiny that I bought six pieces in as many months.

Give yourself the time and space to understand what you want, and why you want it. Chances are that there’s a name for your favorite features, and paying attention to how these features are described will help refine your search. It might be worth expanding your platform selection as well: There’s nothing wrong with window-shopping at upscale vintage retailers like Pamono or auction sites like 1stdibs. Over time, you’ll develop a vocabulary for your desires, and the language necessary to describe what it is that you want. 

Sourcing second-hand furniture is a labor of love, and the bargains on offer are unparalleled. But the feeling you get when you find that perfect piece – the one that’s decades old, but still looks and feels like it was made for you? Now that’s priceless. 

Photo by Cavan Images via Getty Images

Related reading:

Interior Designer Keren Richter’s Tips for Scoring—and Styling—Vintage Furniture

The Smartest Way to Buy Furniture Online