Hacker News Reader

Comment by needSomeCoffee | Hacker News Reader

One lamp featured was a "mini Tizio". I bought the full-size one many, many years ago. (E.g. uses a Halogen bulb.) This article prompted me to think... So I just Goolged it. My vintage Tizio is now selling for about $1,200. (Cannot remember what I spent, but very likely my <$150 filter kicked in when buying.) So if you like these lights, maybe consider the cost an investment. If after a few decades you may want to sell, and you might do well. Note: My Tizio is not for sale as it is a superb desk lamp.

View on HN

Alas, a good-condition Tizio usually sells for around $200-$350 used, depending on the exact model. First-generation models may go a little higher, like $500-$600. I bought mine a couple of years ago for about €250.

If you browse sites like 1stdibs or Pamono, you're going to see dramatically inflated prices, but I don't see why anyone would ever buy there. Ebay, Selency, Vntg, etc. are more likely to sell at actual market prices.

Thanks for the correct info. I must admit to a very hasty Google search, and the highest number likely caught my eye.

The real price of anything you see on 1stdibs is about 40-50 percent lower than what you see. Their fees are egregious and if a piece is unique or the seller name has enough info it's almost always very easy to find the seller and contact them directly via instagram. Also, if you want more market price information go look at sold prices on liveauctioneers (just keep in mind buyers premium is about 25-30 percent)

Yep, agreed. I don't really understand why 1stdibs even exists, since I can't imagine anyone ever pays these prices. Chairing and Pamono (now owned by Chairish) also is generally inflated.

My go to sources are Selency, Vntg, Instagram, Catawiki, and then a bunch of online stores across Europe I've bookmarked, including auction sites like Bukowskis in Sweden. The smaller vintage stores are the ones to go to generally.

I sold a few vintage Tizio lamps, with the old style halogen, for €130 per piece last year. Took a few weeks to sell them. In all fairness, they were missing bits like the glass panel and one had two paint splatters on the head.

Nice lights, but not the easiest to move, a bit fragile and not very power efficient. The LED ones don't power on when you apply power to them which is a strange choice and makes it difficult to integrate with wall switches.

I wrote about this concept recently. Secondhand objects can be good purchases!

https://arun.is/blog/pinned-value-goods/

Reply on news.ycombinator.com