the couch
i was driving through pico union — somewhere around normandie, near washington blvd. and there it was, right in front of some multi-unit apartments that were once large single-family homes. a 2 couch set sitting on the curb. one was a love seat (2 seat), while the other was a 3 seat sofa. worn down pinkish-beige, torn up leather, clearly dumped with the hopes of trash pickup but the culprit couldn’t care less if it never got picked up.
i pulled over.
upon a closer look at it, and i knew immediately it was designer level.. some handcrafted type shit. probably italian-built, maybe 80s or 90s? only because the design style was unique, i don’t think it could be mass produced. steel frame, hardwood bones. the kind of craftsmanship they just don’t do anymore. the leather was cooked but the structure was perfect. i called my older brother since he was the only one with a vehicle capable of transport. he came through with the SUV and loaded it in.
we drove it straight to a reupholstery shop in silver lake. Moti Roma is the name. didn’t even go home first.
the guy at the shop laid out swatches for me. while i was checking them out, he confirmed it was italian made but couldn’t tell me the exact year. i landed on a chocolate brown tweed. it was the only chocolate color he had and i had just seen la flame’s brown lambo on ig (this was ~2019).
$1200 for the complete reupholstery on just the 3 seater. i didn’t even shop around for quotes, looking back i probably should have but the result made me forget all about it. it was one-of-a-kind. structurally above anything from ikea or the sort, and truly my own—knowing this would be another chit chat story i can tell.
the rug
around this same time i was always hunting for pieces. not like a full-time thing, just when i’d spot something good on marketplace i’d move on it. flipping furniture here and there, buying and selling… i actually used to have this dream of myself: selling furniture out of a fully restored ‘78 el camino. ik it’s super silverlake but this was 2019, so the silverlake aesthetic wasn’t close to peak yet…it was just a phase anyway…
one day i went to see a danish designer rug — those small raya rugs— that this older lady had listed from her loft in LA. she invited me in and we just started talking. i was looking around at the pieces she had in her place, asking her about them, asking why she was letting stuff go. and the conversation just kept going.
eventually she showed me this rug that wasn’t even listed for sale. a reverse peruvian flat weave by jonathan adler. it was so sick i couldn’t not ask. she didn’t want to sell it at first — wouldn’t budge at all. but i was pretty incessant and eventually she came around.
i kept that one for a while. and the wassily chair i found on marketplace. some pieces you hold onto longer than others.
the point
i ended up selling the couch about two years later on marketplace. at a loss too — maybe $600. at the time i didn’t care, it was taking up space. looking back i kind of wish i still had it. that thing was so sick.
but here’s the thing i’ve noticed about myself. i’ve always moved like this. i see something that looks like nothing to everyone else and i can see the other side of it. what it could be. and when i see it, i don’t care to sit around weighing options. i’ll make a call or 2, then quickly make a decision. (writing this out loud makes me remember the white van scam i fell for a few months later. ~$500 on a random wednesday. but that’s a different story.)
the couch. the rug. marketplace flips. it’s always been the same instinct: spot value, move fast, figure the rest out later.
the exception
the one time that instinct stalled was when i started my agency. i wrote about it in my first post — it took a conversation with mitch at a conference in vegas to finally get me moving. and it wasn’t because i doubted myself. it was because the agency was the first real public thing i was doing. everything before — the flips, the trap, all of it — i moved without thinking because the terrain was familiar and i didn’t need approval of anyone. but selling digital services is for sure diff, people evaluate u along with ur product.. not just a piece of furniture or recreational substances. the potential was obvious but the path wasn’t.
turns out the instinct is the same though. see the value, move fast, figure out the details after. whether it’s a couch on the curb or a business you haven’t built yet.
