Featured Newbie at Selling This: Niels Koefoed Lis Vintage Rosewood Dining Chair Danish

About thirty years ago some friends sold me an old dining room set they had. It turns out that at least the chairs have become serious collectibles. They are, as far as I can tell, Niels Koefoed Lis Vintage Rosewood Dining Chairs, Danish in origin. I have attached a few photos. They are probably not in mint condition, but to my untrained eye they appear to be in very good condition. Checking on the web, they seem to be selling for anywhere from about $700 to $1200 per chair.

I have six chairs, and I can provide a more detailed description of the minor imperfections I can see on two or three of them.

I am not experienced at selling high quality collectibles. I know I can go to a broker, but I am planning to sell directly. I am unsure about the basics on this: I'd like to list on this site (in the "Sell" forum), but I don't seem to be qualified. Where else can I list? How do I assure a potential buyer of the quality? How is shipping, payment, and shipping insurance handled for these kinds of transactions? And whom do I pay to package these professionally, and does the buyer or seller usually assume shipping/insurance costs?

Generally, I could use some guidance here on a process that is fair to a buyer but protects me. I'd appreciate either direct input in this forum, or message me here. Or even just provide links to a decent web page, pdf file, or YouTube "how to" video -- all would all be welcome.

Thanks in advance!

 

Your chairs are teak not rosewood, no matter though, they are desirable.
With no experience in the world of buying and selling, call a local auctioneer and have them sell them for you, lots of candidates in New England.

 

Blooey - why do you say New England? This new member (who has not provided a real name or location) is using the ID Maryland Renaissance Man. Maryland is not anywhere near New England.

 

Shows how much I know the east coast eh? Ok well he should still get hold of a local auction and off them that way IMO

 

I thought that might be the case. I'm not good at the prairie provinces either.

 

I thought blooey was in British Columbia.... (har de har har)

 

Yes, i'm in the BC part of the Praries.

 

Obviously I know where BC is. But I couldn't tell you the order of the prairie provinces, just like Blooey mixed up Maryland with New England.

 

there is no order to those provinces ...they're all just scattered around....

 

Since you are inexperienced in selling high end items, you might want to search out a reputable auction house in the MD/DC area, even PA if you are close. I would Google first and see what came up then go from there. Even one in NY that handles Danish or MCM furniture might be a consideration.

 

I realized that. Credit where it's due. That's what the har de har har was about.

So: Prairie provinces (without Googling)......Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba. Then Ontario, which I guess is a mixture of prairie, rust belt, etc. Then Quebec. Then the Maritimes where the people are strange

 

I don’t know how close you are to Victoria, BC or if you can get there but I would suggest The Fabulous Find. They deal almost exclusively in Danish furniture. Fair and honest people.

 

I live in Victoria BC but the op's chairs are somewhere between the prairies, New England and Maryland so I guess FF are SOL.

 

First of all, asking prices on sites like 1stDibs and Chairish are not a good indication of what items actually sell for. And a word of warning about selling these with an auction house. In my experience, unless you have a rare and highly desirable item, auctions can have some disappointing results. Looking on liveauctioneers.com, I saw two sets of these chairs sold. One set of 4 sold for $900 and a set of 6 (two with arms) sold for $1300. That's about $220 per chair, and then you have to back out the sellers fee, usually around 10-15%. I would suggest listing them first on free sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist, especially if you're in a major metro area. As a private seller, you can also list on sites like Etsy and Chairish too. One nice thing about Chairish is they will handle the shipping for you.

 

Not sure where you are finding those prices. Seem unrealistic to me. I am finding realistic values in the $1000.00 range for a set of 6.

Search "Koefoed chairs" (liveauctioneers.com)

You might try selling locally on facebook marketplace. Decide on a price high enough be willing to dicker a bit.

 

What mark737 said. .... great minds

 

Was about to say the same. Again, great minds.

 

OP: Hi all. Thanks for the replies so far. Yes, I am in Maryland, which is in the greater Washington DC metro area. (Maybe if I post an ad for the chairs I could use the tagline, "How the well-seated Danish view a coup.") For those who are interested, that's considered to be the U.S. mid-Atlantic region, not New England. Thanks also for the lead that they are teak. And for the warning they might not fetch quite as much as other ads seem to suggest. (Though I am inclined to put that to the test.) Follow-up question: Are there professionals who can be paid a relatively modest fee (not sure what that would be exactly, maybe $100, or $150) to visit my home briefly and assess the value of the chairs? What title or professional calling would that be? Thanks again.

 

r there any antique dealers in your vast area who specialize in furniture?

 

Your best indication of value is what others have sold for. Liveauctioneers and Ebay give you actual sold prices. I realize in my search yesterday I spelled it Kofoed, which did return many results, but searching under "Koefoed" and "Koefoeds" returned many more. Some were lower than $220/chair but some were as much as $300. Auction prices tend to be the low end of the range. so I'd say $200/chair is a reasonable baseline.

Another good gauge is what private sellers are asking on sites like Craigslist and Facebook in your area. For example, the set of 7 pictured here is in Potomac for sale on Craigslist for $1800. They wouldn't go for that much in Texas, but DC is probably more comparable to NYC and San Francisco, price-wise.

There is a Danish furniture retail store in your area called Modern Mobler. They have a set of 6 for sale now for $4,875. So, that gives you an idea of what full retail is. Full retail in an expensive city like DC is typically 2 to 3 times private party prices. They do restoration work too, so you could contact them and ask how much they think the chairs are worth now and how much they'd be worth if you had them restored.