Sell your vintage furniture to LAPIERRE | LAPIERRE MARKET

Sell your vintage designer furniture to LAPIERRE

If you own one or more pieces of vintage designer furniture you wish to part with, LAPIERRE MARKET offers a structured resale solution. We regularly buy from private individuals, estate heirs, collectors rebalancing their ensembles, and dealers wishing to release a specialised inventory.

This page details what we take, what we do not take, at what price levels we buy, and through what procedure. It is deliberately explicit: we prefer that you have a fair sense of what to expect before writing to us, rather than chaining exchanges that conclude in price disagreement.

What we buy

Our buy-back perimeter matches our sale catalogue. We concentrate effort on brands and designers we know how to document, authenticate, restore and resell at a level that bears comparison with established players.

USM Haller all years. Single modules, office configurations, storage-living configurations, in all RAL colours. Rare colours (yellow RAL 1023, red RAL 3020, green RAL 6018, anthracite, petrol blue) are priority and bought back at higher levels than the rest of the range. Wood configurations (USM Kitos with wood top) are also systematically reviewed.

Ligne Roset sofas, particularly the Togo collection by Michel Ducaroy in original and recent editions, and Pumpkin by Pierre Paulin for Ligne Roset. See also our dedicated Pierre Paulin page.

Cassina — original editions and documented re-editions. LC2, LC3, LC4 chaise longue, Maralunga, Soriana, Feltri Bellini. We strictly distinguish original editions (1965-1990) from late re-editions, which carry a different value. See also Vico Magistretti and Le Corbusier.

Knoll — American and European editions. Pieces by Harry Bertoia (Diamond, Bird, Side), Eero Saarinen (Tulip all versions), Mies van der Rohe (Barcelona, Brno), Warren Platner. European Knoll International editions and 1960s-1970s American Knoll Inc editions are systematically eligible for buy-back. See also Harry Bertoia, Eero Saarinen and Warren Platner.

Castiglioni brothers pieces. Arco, Toio, Taccia, Snoopy, Gibigiana lamps; Mezzadro and Sella stools; Flos editions signed Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. Original editions are priority, modern re-editions reviewed case by case.

Pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Pierre Jeanneret. Domestic and institutional furniture (Cité-Refuge, Maison du Brésil, Chandigarh) priority for buy-back as soon as provenance can be documented by an identifiable third party.

Pieces by Vico Magistretti. Carimate, Selene chairs, Maralunga armchairs, Eclisse, Atollo, Snow lamps.

Italian mid-century 1950s-1970s. Beyond major signatures, we review pieces from editors Tecno (Borsani, Sapper), Artemide (Aulenti, Magistretti), Oluce (Colombo), Arteluce (Sarfatti), B&B Italia, Arflex, early Poltrona Frau editions.

Scandinavian and Nordic modular furniture. Carl Hansen & Søn (Wegner), Fritz Hansen (Egg, Swan, Series 7 Jacobsen), Gubi, String Furniture modular shelving.

What we do not buy

For catalogue coherence and gallery viability, several categories are excluded from buy-back, even when individual pieces can be beautiful.

Mass re-editions post-2000. Re-editions produced in large series after the 2000s, with no particular provenance interest or special finishing, do not enter our catalogue. They are available through official distribution at new prices close to second-hand prices, which destroys any resale margin. This rule applies to most current mass-market editors.

Copies, counterfeits, unidentifiable pieces. Any piece with absent, falsified or inconsistent markings is refused. We regularly turn down attractive pieces lacking sufficient documentation. This discipline is what makes the catalogue defensible against an informed buyer. See our verification process for the detail.

Heavily damaged pieces beyond viable restoration. A piece whose refurbishment exceeds seventy per cent of expected resale price is not bought, except for special heritage interest (absolute rarity, documented provenance, signed and dated piece). On standard catalogue pieces, the trade-off is strict.

Generic mass-market Scandinavian furniture. Pieces from contemporary worldwide Scandinavian retail chains, however well preserved, do not enter our perimeter. We exclusively handle pieces signed-dated-edited by identifiable producers.

Furniture without design interest. Generic 1980s-1990s pieces without signature, without notable materiality, without premium use value. Simple test: if the piece does not deserve a three-hundred-word editorial text placing it in design history, it does not enter the catalogue.

Indicative buy-back grid

The following grid gives an indicative range, to be adjusted piece by piece based on condition, rarity and current market value.

Firm buy-back. We buy at a price corresponding to roughly thirty to fifty per cent of the expected resale price. The range reflects our full assumption of resale risk, transport cost, possible restoration cost, cataloguing and photography cost, and time-to-sale. For a piece whose probable resale we estimate at three thousand euros incl. VAT, firm buy-back typically sits between nine hundred and one thousand five hundred euros. Highly demanded pieces (USM Haller in rare colours, Pierre Paulin original editions) are bought back higher in the range.

Consignment. You remain owner until effective sale; we charge an agreed-in-advance commission, in market range for specialised signed-furniture consignment. The public sale price is set jointly at intake, with a progressive markdown policy if the piece does not find a buyer within a defined timeframe (typically two to three months for a first markdown). Settlement is wired to you within thirty days after effective sale. This option typically allows recovering a substantially higher share than firm buy-back, in exchange for accepting time uncertainty and markdown risk.

Brokered sale. For very rare or very high-unit-value pieces (above ten thousand euros), we can act as intermediary between you and an identified buyer, without catalogue intake. The economics differ: lower commission, shorter lead time, but a narrower target and more committed negotiation.

None of these mechanisms operates blind. Everything starts with a documented evaluation of the piece, which then determines the most suitable formula for your situation.

Step-by-step procedure

The procedure is built to be fast as long as it stays honest. Four steps structure the exchange.

1. Sending photos and history. You write to `infos@lapierremarket.fr` or via the dedicated form, attaching: overall views (front, back, three-quarter), photos of markings and serial numbers, photos of any wear marks (scratches, stains, tears, oxidation), approximate purchase or family-entry date, acquisition context if known (new purchase, estate, second-hand purchase). Photo quality directly determines first-estimate precision.

2. Estimate within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. We come back within forty-eight working hours with an indicative range of probable resale, and a firm buy-back and/or consignment proposal. The estimate is conditional on visual confirmation in situ: we state this explicitly and avoid overpriced opening estimates that would retract at transaction time.

3. Inspection appointment. If the estimate suits you in principle, an appointment is set for physical inspection: in Paris (by appointment at our workshop-depot), in Auxerre (Burgundy secondary depot), or at your home for high volumes or pieces hard to move without proper handling. Inspection confirms or adjusts the initial estimate, leading to a firm offer or a consignment contract signed on site.

4. Immediate payment or consignment contract. In firm buy-back, payment is made by bank transfer the day of the cession deed, or at latest within forty-eight working hours. In consignment, the contract is signed and the piece moves to protected storage pending listing. No cash payment is practised above legal thresholds (one thousand euros for French tax-resident individuals).

To pitch a piece

The fastest channel is email with photos and short description to `infos@lapierremarket.fr`, or via the dedicated form. To understand the authentication criteria we apply to every piece before catalogue entry, see our sourcing process. For the economic and ecological dimension of vintage resale, see our circular economy page.