Pulse of Radio - lifestyle
If you have some old Ikea furniture in storage, you shouldn't throw it out. Collectors are paying as much as $64,400 for rare vintage Ikea pieces at auction houses around the world. Many of the most sought-after items are ones that flopped when they were first released while others are the result of collaborations between IKEA and well-known designers. Sofas and armchairs from the mid 1950s are worth ten times more than they were at the time while a flatpack shelving unit from the 1970s recently sold for about $3,800. The most expensive example is the IKEA 'mushroom' or 'clam' chair, which was released just a year after the store was founded in 1943. It has appeared at numerous fine art and design auctions around the world, where it has fetched for up to $64,428. The co-founder Barnebys, a search engine that tracks sales from auction houses, says, "Our records show that there is a huge demand, greater than ever before, for vintage IKEA furniture. There has been a big boom within the last year that has been felt in markets all across the world."