IKEA Buyback gives used furniture a route back onto sale

When cutting down what to take on a move, you may be left with a perfectly good chair. There is no room for it in the new home, but it still works as a seat. Throwing it away feels wasteful; selling it secondhand means preparing photographs and a description, then arranging transport. Keeping furniture in use involves these practical hurdles too.

IKEA’s buyback service takes used IKEA furniture back at its stores for resale. The place you once visited to buy new furniture can also receive an item that no longer has a place in your home.

Check eligibility before transporting it

IKEA Korea explains the buyback service at stores nationwide and sells used products received at the resource circulation hub within the store. Not all furniture is eligible, however. Products that are not included in the buyback calculator, products from other brands, products that have been modified, or products that pose hygiene or safety risks are excluded.

Finding out that a large, heavy item cannot be accepted after hauling it to the store is frustrating. Checking eligibility and condition comes before transport. If its actual condition differs from the preliminary assessment, the store’s decision may change too.

Wear is not the same as damage

Years of use leave marks on a bookcase, but those marks alone do not stop it from holding books. On the other hand, a wobbly structure or missing parts can also be a problem in your next home. Checking the condition during the resale process reduces the gap between the person handing over the item and the person receiving it.

You need to consider separately whether it looks like new and whether you can continue to use it. For those looking for used furniture, dimensions and use may be more important than minor flaws. A bookcase that is too large for one room may be just the size needed for another room.

On the way to the next house

In person-to-person transactions, you are responsible for explaining the product, finding a buyer and arranging a time. Buyback provides a place within the brand’s stores to assess and resell furniture. Transport and eligibility checks still take effort, but there is an established destination and a route back onto sale.

The life of furniture itself does not have to end just because it does not fit into your new home. For someone else to use it, there needs to be a workable process for passing it on. The chair returned to IKEA's resource recycling hub is an object that has gone through that process. The chair that lost its place in the first home can again take up a place in front of the table in the next home.