If you build it, they will come … back.
A vintage furniture restorer claimed that a woman who sold her a mid-century dresser on Facebook’s marketplace wanted the piece back after she had started refurbishing it for a profit.
Kandra Sobel, who remodels homes and refinishes antiques for her over 11,000 TikTok followers, shared the bizarre experience in a now-viral video where she said the sellers knew she planned to fix the piece of furniture.
“When I picked it up I told the seller like, ‘I’m going to refinish this’ and he said ‘yep. My wife looked you up. We know who you are and we know you’re going to refinish this,’” Sobel said on Oct. 10.
The micro-influencer said that she already owned the three-drawer Kipp Steward Drexel dresser for two days and finished stripping and sanding down the piece when the original owner sent a panicked message wanting the item back.
“I have never done anything like this before but my wife has been upset and crying for 2 days that she sold her wood dresser,” the seller wrote in the message.
“Is there any way possible that I could give you 100 dollars to get it back? Or pay you to redo it [?] I know you said you were going to redo it? But [I’m] not sure what that cost is. I would do anything at this point [.] I didn’t understand how much this meant to her. Please, is there anything I can do. Thank you so much.”
“I feel really bad if his wife has seller’s remorse now and didn’t- and you know, feels bad about selling a piece from her childhood,” Sobel said.
In the message, the seller offered to give her $100 of what she spent but Sobel knew the item was a collectible and worth $1,500 in a restored state.
Sobel was torn whether she’d sell it back to them because she questioned if the seller’s wife was genuinely upset or if they just Googled the item and realized they could have made big bucks on the dresser.
“The thing that’s kind of sitting uneasy with me is that he sent me that message the evening after I posted, um, a reel showing how incredible the wood grain is,” Sobel said.
Sobel told the seller that she wouldn’t sell it back having already spent time and money on the restoration project.
However, she said the couple would have the first opportunity to buy the dresser once it was ready to sell.
On Oct. 24, Sobel revealed she ultimately “made a deal” with the couple — at a discounted price.
Sobel didn’t regret the decision to lose out on a massive payday after she met the wife, who she considers a “ray of sunshine.”
“Now that I’ve met her, like, I feel really, really good about it. It’s probably bad business because I could have gotten double for what I sold it to them for but it’s not always about the money,” Sobel said.
TikTok users suggested she sell it at the full refurbished price with no discount or right of first refusal.
“Absolutely not. All sales final. It’s so weird that he’s even asking tbh,” one person commented.
“Girl it really sounds like they’re kind of trying to scam you. The timing is too much of a coincidence. Offering a discount goes above and beyond on your part!!” another person wrote.
Others praised Sobel’s compassion to sell the item back to the couple.
“You did the right thing and it will come back to you tenfold! You are a special seller,” one person wrote on TikTok.
“You LOST OUT on nothing . . .we always GAIN by expressing kindness and love! Just wait and see the wonderful rewards you’ll see from the blessing you bestowed on that nice couple!” another user added.
