Haggle while you furnish
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1stdibs.com
If the hunt for this season’s must-have gift has taken you from Malibu to Manhattan Beach in heavy traffic and still left you empty-handed, this website might appeal: You can peruse furniture and decorative arts on a fuel-free world tour.
Billed as the world’s first marketplace where you can search for and, in most cases, negotiate purchase prices with furniture and decorative arts dealers in six locations -- New York, Paris, New Orleans, San Francisco, the Hamptons and, most recently, Los Angeles (with London on the horizon) -- 1stdibs.com lets you browse by category of furniture, city, designer and manufacturer, country of origin and period.
A test search of “table lamps” narrowed to Los Angeles yielded 22 lamps in nine shops with prices starting at $480. Search results appear as pictures on a grid, with dealer name, a brief description and, if you have registered (which takes all of 30 seconds), usually the cost. The website also will help registered users negotiate prices and arrange shipping for 20% above the final sales price.
But it’s the value of time saved, knowledge gained and the number of goods on view that makes 1stdibs.com a favorite place.
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