TL;DR: In 102 real furniture listings from 2026 moving sales, pieces from known makers and premium retailers sold in 9 of 11 listings, while IKEA sold 2 of 7, both at $65 or less. Across all 102 listings, 45 sold. Brand matters, but material and price matter more.
People ask me which furniture "holds its value" as if there's a list somewhere. There isn't one, so here's the next best thing: what actually sold.
These are 102 furniture listings from 18 real sellers on ClearList in 2026. I left out my own sales and test accounts. It's a small sample, and most brands appear only once or twice, so I've grouped them rather than ranking individual brands. Read it as a pattern, not a law.
What sold, by group
| Group | Listings | Sold |
|---|---|---|
| Known makers and premium retailers | 11 | 9 |
| IKEA | 7 | 2 |
| All furniture | 102 | 45 |
The first group is solid wood from a known maker, leather and upholstered pieces from established brands, premium home retailers and branded office furniture. One more premium-retailer sofa was listed at $24,000. I left it out as an outlier.
Known makers sold
The strongest result in the group was one seller's solid wood bedroom set from a known maker: a queen bed, a 10-drawer dresser and an armoire, all listed on the same evening. All three sold within a day of each other, ten days later.
One seller's set doesn't prove a rule. But the same thing shows up elsewhere in the data: solid wood survives a move, it can be refinished, and a known maker tells a buyer a piece was built well before they've seen it in person. Those are the things that make a stranger pay real money for a used dresser.
Expensive IKEA didn't
IKEA was the most listed single brand in this data, from five different sellers, and one of the weakest. Seven listings, two sales, and both sales were small: a bookcase at $25 and a bed frame at $65.
The three IKEA pieces listed at $200 or more, two sectionals and a set of bookcases, didn't sell. A buyer can get the same thing new, on IKEA's site, with delivery. A used one has to be clearly cheaper than new to win.
If you're selling IKEA, price it to go: a fraction of what you paid, and lower than feels fair.
Premium retailers sit in the middle
Inside the premium group, the pattern was the same as everywhere else: smaller, well-priced pieces sold, and big upholstered pieces at high prices waited. A premium-retailer bookcase sold, while a dresser in fair condition from the same brand didn't. A nesting table set sold, while an $800 sofa was still waiting.
How to use this when you price
- Put the brand first in the title. A known maker's name plus "cherry dresser" finds more buyers than "nice wood dresser."
- Say what it's made of. Solid wood, veneer or particleboard. Buyers ask anyway.
- Watch the price on big upholstered pieces. A $550 sectional sold in a day, while sofas at $800 and up were still waiting.
- Price flat-pack against new. If it's still sold new, your price has to beat that by a lot.
- List the best pieces first. They take the longest to find the right buyer.
Not sure where your piece falls? Photograph it and ClearList suggests a price with a low-to-high range and the reasoning behind it.