You can drop way more than $1k and be stuck with something that's really kind of crappy.

You have to know enough to know who is actually building the good stuff, and who is building good-looking marketing.

I have bought things online and been burned by the not know the who part. I'm now to the point that if it is anything I will be spending a lot of time on, I'm not buying it unless I can see it in person. One vendor's medium firmness might be another's firm. Other furniture is less critical to me, so I haven't put the in-person only rule for that stuff

In-person seems like it should be a hard requirement for anything a person will sit on. There is no way to tell anything just by looking at a picture.

The sofa I got had one in-store that was cut in half at all levels, so the construction and materials could all be seen. Any company doing that is probably going to be pretty solid, and if not, it should be obvious.

> In-person seems like it should be a hard requirement

should but yet online sales of furniture is not a small market

A lot of people these days are into the mode of order online. Certainly there are a ton of podcasts that offer deals on some of the online furniture companies. I don't think I'd personally do it but then my parents probably wouldn't have ordered a lot of stuff online that I do. (But furniture and big electronics appliances are arguably much more of a hassle to return than other things.)

I’m actually much happier ordering appliances online vs furniture- because appliances I can evaluate in multiple ways that don’t need me to sit on it.

Unfortunately some very comfortable furniture turns out to not be long lasting, as I discovered, even when moderately pricey. Steel frame sofas can bend and break under repeated use because the steel is so thin - if you can bend it by hand, it will fail eventually.

Well, yeah, appliances. Even if I order one at my local Lowe's, as I just did, it's not like I'm going to run a bunch of controlled dishwashing tests with it.

Durability of furniture is harder to measure even if you try it out.

YMMV also includes adjusting for today's $. My $300 is today's $1k. So it still stands

Did you last buy a couch in 1982?

Me? I haven't bought a couch. I'm on the same couch I grew up on at my parent's house that was bought circa 1978, so essentially, yes. Solid wood frame. Re-stuffed cushions. My couch can be found in those "If you recognize this, you're old" memes. AKA, I'm old

Edit: re-reading almost reads if I'm still at my parent's house couch surfing. I'm not a zillenial. I'm in my place with that furniture from back then.

I ask because $300 -> $1000 is roughly 1982 to today.

I bought a leather sofa in 2012 that was priced at £389. Today (2024) it’s priced at £899. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And it's not only sofas. People still conflate price with quality, and this is massively exploited.

You can see that from the number of "small brand" insta-entrepreneurs. People will readily shell $80 for the latest trendy item they saw in a sponsored insta-ad, believing they're buying a branded product. In reality, it's the same $20-$30 item sold on TEMU, with a brand name slapped on it.