Even with antique/vintage stuff the supply is so huge that the market in places is horrible. Around Pittsburgh, as families have gotten smaller and things have been passed down to fewer and fewer people, a lot ends up stored in attics or where-ever and its just an absolute glut. My MIL, when we had to empty her house, had enough to furnish several houses and then some and a lot ended up basically just being salvaged for the wood. And this wasn’t beaten to death cheap in the first place stuff; this was some nice things. But around here there is just so much and it wasn’t worth my time to try to haul it somewhere else.
Yep - as the older demographics downsize/die off there are fewer people to leave the stuff to, a lot of younger folks either don’t have a large enough living space for all that stuff or have completely different decorating sense, and way more used furniture winds up homeless than in previous eras.
This is why I don’t buy a lot of used stuff. I am particular picky about keeping things clean and treating my stuff well. Every time I go to see a “used” item, it looks like they shipped (and dropped it a few times) through a garbage dump. Smells, scrapes, rips, stains. Cat/dog hair embedded in the fibers.
Same for a lot of used cars from private parties. Exterior looks fine. Inside it is a dump.
Out of curiosity, I looked at my local Craigslist - lots of furniture there, some quite $$$ - especially “executive desks” - some listed for thousands. Other listings that could be reasonable, but without actually looking at the items, who knows??
We bought our granddaughter’s crib and changing table from a CL ad and got an excellent deal - comps were in the $600-$700 range new, and we paid less than $200 for Bassett that just needed a good scrubbing. We also got a corner desk/hutch unit recently that was lots cheaper than we could have gotten new.
I’ve also sold a few things myself - most recently, some bedroom furniture. It wasn’t the greatest, but we priced it accordingly and the buyer seemed pleased with it. I expect it all depends…
My inlaws live in Ocala, FL, which is a very popular retirement area. The consignment stores there are full of good-quality but taste-specific furniture. My BIL furnished his apartment with rather nice second-hand furniture for pretty cheap, but he didn’t care about style. So unless you share the tastes of the 80-90-something crowd, you’re probably not going to shop in their second-hand shops.
I think a lot of the comments underestimate just how difficult furniture is to store, sell, and buy. Things like jewelry, high end silver/china, or firearms have similar value to furniture, (typically a few hundred dollars, high end items in the thousands) but tend to sell much better because it’s easy to store them until you find a buyer. Those can just go in a box or safe that easily fits under a bed or in a closet. If I have a spare couch in a normal house, I’ve got to block off a room and keep working around it until I find a buyer. And I can’t leave it in the driveway the way I can a used car, because it won’t take well to getting rained on. That’s a significant cost/difficulty that other items don’t have. Also I have to let people into the house to look at it, I can’t just meet up in a parking lot with it in my trunk. So even if theoretically my couch is work $200, I’d probably be better off selling it for $50 so it gets out of my living room quicker and with fewer people looking at it.
Meanwhile the buyer has a lot of pain in the ass, as he doesn’t get any options on the furniture the way he would in a furniture store. And once he finds the furniture he’s got to coordinate with friends to move it, borrow/rent an appropriately sized truck, and hope you haven’t sold it out from under him while he arranges this. Plus he has to worry about bedbugs and other vermin. And in a lot of cases he’s got an existing couch to get rid of once he finds the new one, you can’t just store couches in a jewelry box the way you can, well, jewelry. If he’s only saving a small amount of money, it’s just not worth the hassle when he can pick exactly what he wants at a furniture store (with no vermin risk) and have it delivered for around the cost of renting a truck.
The answer to the original question is easy.
OP, I really do have some used furniture. Including a piano. Will you buy it?
No? I didn’t think so. That’s why. There you go. 
Well, that, and the OP hasn’t been seen here for three years, so there’s that, too. 
Oops.
They can still buy my piano. 
When we moved into this house, we said they could leave furniture behind if they wanted to- they were pressed for time and budget. Among the things they left behind was a old but not quite antique solid oak roll top desk. It wasnt worth moving. :eek:
I helped my ex furnish a home when she moved from Ca. to the south. She had budgeted about $5,000 to furnish her new place. This was to include appliances and kitchen ware. I found her everything she needed in much better quality than she could have bought for about $1,200.00. Most of it was done in one purchase.
We did a similar thing when we bought this place. Among the stuff they left behind was a fairly new LaZBoy sofa, and older rocker/recliner, tables, chairs, lamps, cast iron yard furniture… We gave some to our daughter, donated some to the local women’s shelter, and sold a few things. Luckily, nothing was ridiculously bulky.
I don’t think the concrete deer in the front yard counts, tho.
I think that used furniture doesn’t have a lot of value because people think in terms of upgrades, not in terms of replacements.
By that I mean that in the main, everyone already has furniture except for people who have just moved out on their own. So they tend to think in terms of upgrading what they have with something nicer, instead of lateral moves. If they wanted used furniture, they’d just keep their old stuff. At least they know where those stains and rips came from.
I wouldn’t be surprised if first-apartment people do buy a lot of used furniture. I know college students do, and so do recent grads. But that’s only a small part of the overall furniture market.