Good Luck Trying to Resell This West Elm Coffee Table
Like anyone living in a New York City apartment with limited space for furniture, I sometimes scan Facebook Marketplace just to feel something. That passive shopping habit recently led to the late-night purchase of a half-off Castlery dresser and a Turkish rug, so naturally, I decided my Target coffee table needed an upgrade too.
On a recent weekend scrolling the platform, I noticed a listing for the West Elm Industrial Storage Coffee Table, priced around $200. Then I saw another. And another. I quickly realized Facebook Marketplace was overrun. Like the Peggy Sofa before it, the Industrial Storage Coffee Table seems to have gone from must-have to must-get-rid-of overnight.
On the West Elm site, the table bears the brand’s “best seller” badge and retails for $699 to $849. It isn’t cheap, but it feels like two, or even three, pieces of furniture in one: It offers a lot of storage, and one-half of the tabletop can pop up to hold a laptop or food, like a desk or a dining table. It’s exactly the kind of multiuse furniture New Yorkers love.
I dug into the various Marketplace descriptions and found similar descriptions: “had it for a few years,” “good size,” “convenient.” But over and over, one problem jumped out: “The magnet doesn’t really work.” Reddit and Craigslist also had a variation of this: “Top is lifted ever so slightly” reads one listing from Brooklyn.
