ncasantini

I've been debating putting this up because it's been a sort of family heirloom.

'73 B-Body Bench, all original black vinyl, originally Buick LeSabre, located in Denver, I'd consider shipping it freight (after all, I shipped it to Denver and no one was paying me). I'm unsure what a fair price is for this because I didn't buy it and everyone wants buckets, so... $150? $200? $500? Make me an offer! Feel free to tell me if I'm being unreasonable or low-balling, Olds community!

So, here's the story: When I was a kid, my dad had two '73ish LeSabres and when he got rid of them, he kept the bench seat from the one because he needed a couch at the time. For a while, then, this sat in my dad's living room as a couch. Eventually, he upgraded to real furniture and this bench was relegated to the attic for about 15 years until I graduated from college, whereupon having taken all of his money and converted it to a piece of paper with some shiny foil on it, I also asked to have this and after he asked, "What're you gonna do with it?" he said, "Fine, but you gotta get it out of the attic."

So it was that it moved with me halfway across the State to my first real job out of college where it became a couch. When I decided to move to Colorado and off-loaded all of my college furniture (futon, unfinished pine table, desk, chair, TV stand, dressers, pots and pans) on family and friends, this was the one piece of "furniture" I shipped out here.

It was my couch for a few months more and in that time, I put it up on cedar 4x4s weighed down with some flowerbed stones. Eventually, I got a real couch. A real ugly one. But it, too, was free. That brings me to today. I've had this seat in my possession for 7 years and for 6 of those years, it's been in my bedroom, mostly keeping other stuff off the floor and giving my cat something to hide and sleep behind. Now I just keep one of my rifles behind it.

I'm not doing anything with it, I'm never going to have a B-Body to put it in (I was always more of an A- and G-Body fan, myself, and while I know this is a Buick seat and this is an Olds forum, it'll still fit a Delta 88 (or Impala, Caprice, Bonneville, etc), but I'll probably march off and go tell this same story in a Buick forum. Is it a family heirloom? Hell, I don't know, and I don't think so. My dad certainly never thought of it as such.

I'd say it's condition is good for 40. It's got a few tears--the front corners and one on the seat, but it's all original and it's been inside out of the sun for 25 years and I don't mean in a barn. While cleaning it up a few years ago, I actually found the build sheet for the car it was in. The paper was so brittle it was mostly destroyed, and I have it around here somewhere, but it came out of New Jersey.

Now for the pictures from my CL ad.

MDchanic

I like the idea of a full-size bench seat as a couch, but don't actually need one myself right now.
Unfortunately, I think your price point is a bit high - I think you might get some bites at 1/10th of that, though, again, even that may be high.

Good luck selling it! If nobody wants it, you could always keep it in case guests come over .

- Eric

ncasantini

Thanks, Eric! A friend of a friend that's restoring a late 60s Impala thinks it may be worth $150-200, so basically, I'm open to any offer from $150-$500.

jaunty75

With a statement like this, I guarantee you your first offer will be for $50.

ncasantini

I forgot a 1. XD

jaunty75

I don't know whether to think of this as charming, or sad. How could a guy own TWO cars but yet nothing in the living room to sit on? Now that's a car guy.

I guarantee you (I'm doing a lot of guaranteeing these days) that you're the first person in the history of the planet who considers a car SEAT as a family heirloom. Many people have considered the whole CAR an heirloom if they got it from their father or grandfather or something like that. But you're the first to so honor a part of the car that I know of.

Of course, I'm forgetting that I once had an unreasonably close attachment to the headlight **** on one of my father's cars once.

jaunty75

Big deal. So now your first offer will be for $150.

Why would anybody offer you $500 for something you say you'll take $150 for? For that matter, why would anybody offer you $151 for something you say you'll take $150 for?

I don't mean to sound like a prig or anything, but you seem to have no clue on how to sell something. Don't give the store away before you have to. Given all that you've said, you might as well just say it's for sale for $150.

ncasantini

Basically, yeah, I'd take $150 to get it out of my apartment. No one thinks it's worth $500 except maybe UPS to ship freight. I am also a very bad negotiator. I welcome the advice, though, on how to sell it. My other stuff, I vaguely have a recollection of what I paid for. This? I never paid for. I guess that means I should do more research before offering it, but the first guys I asked replied with, "Hell if I know," and "$50." Third guy said $150-200 and I can wait to sell because I've been sitting on this thing (pun intended) for seven years, depending on what the market will bear.

Now, as far as it being an heirloom, well, he won't let me have his Lionel trains and vinyl LPs until he's dead and the cars themselves have long since been crushed. Heirlooms have to start being passed from one generation to the next at some point and this was pretty much the only thing to do so aside from my Roman nose. That car and that seat in the house as a couch are some of my earliest memories, so am I little attached to it? Yeah, but it's also outlived my use for it and passing it on to someone else who'll use it--in a car or as a couch--will do more right by it than I have piling my dirty clothes on it.

jaunty75

To be honest, I think your price of $150 is really quite reasonable. The seat is in very good shape. Whoever needs one could bolt it right in and have something quite serviceable right from the get-go and put off having it reupholstered or having those rips repaired until later.

Your problem is that the size of the market for this is probably not very large. You've got to find the guy who needs one. Certainly put it on craigslist as that costs nothing, and I certainly think ebay is a way to go because that has a very large audience. Anybody looking for a seat is certainly likely to check ebay as part of their search. Put a reserve on it if there's a lower limit on how far you'll go.

If you put it on craigslist, and you live near a college or university, mention that you used it as a couch. Some college student might like the idea of a car seat for a couch, and they'll go for it.

ncasantini

Maybe I should put it on CL under furniture, as well. XD I actually do live quite close to a University, so it's a possibility. Same with eBay. I also just put it on a Buick forum and there were no other B-Body benches out there, so... maybe?

RAMBOW

In 10 years you will regret getting rid of it and wish you had kept it and found someplace to store it.

I had a very similar story, bench seat out of our neighbors truck that had been in our "playroom" as a kid- eventually my room in HS & went with me to my first apt. When i had money coming in and wanted nice things i tossed it.

Now i have my own house, family... and man i would love to have that old bench seat sitting in my office next to my desk. Eventually i'll have one of some sort in there since i actually do seats now as a hobby- but would have been much cooler if it were that same one.

Just sayin.

ncasantini

That's sort of why I've been hesitating on selling it. If nothing else, it needs something better to sit on than a couple of 4x4s! And it could do to recline a little.

Right now it basically has a place where it's stored: in my bedroom along the wall. I don't have anything else waiting to slot in there, so it's not at risk of getting tossed any time soon. This is more testing the waters to see if anyone is interested and so far, no, no one's interested.

MDchanic

+1.

- Eric

m371961

In my neck of the woods, it would be a porch swing.

ncasantini

I suspect y'all are right. Hey, these benches recline a bit, right? How do I get it to do that?

MDchanic

Nope. One position. That's it.

- Eric

jaunty75

But they go back back and forth, so you can get closer to the TV!

ncasantini

So, to get it to lean back a bit I just have to put blocks under the front. 8D