Costco Rug Bazzar!

[Mikey P]

Costco was having it's annual rug sale this week end..

The guy guarding the rugs walked the talk. He told me he owns the company that supplies all the Costcos and all the bay area rug dealers with their hand tied rugs.

He will spend two weeks at this location or until the pile is gone. What doesn't sell gets shipped to Mexico to sell for pennies on the dollar.

The guy with the beer gut was the Rug Snob.

He said he has close to a hundred employees doing the same all over the western states.
Rugs that are allowed out on their 90 day "see if you like it in your home" program that do get returned (maybe 6 a year) also go to Mexico.

I was amazed at how many shoppers stopped to look at the rugs.

Lots of ooohs and aahhs. Mrs Pifts were bringing in fabric swatches to match the rug the piece of upholstery. Even some men, one fat biker punk guy, stopped and gawked.

I think some folks just never see real rugs in their every day lives.


I talked to him a bit and took some picture to quiz Randy with.

I told him about the Board and the rug ID thread. He showed me a rug he thought would stump the group here.

Well Randy?

How about these?

To be fair I did hear him tell a couple that the rug they were looking at was a wool silk blend.


I sure didn't see any Silk so he may just be full of it.

 

[rhyde]

It’s a dumping ground for all crappy rugs that are unsalable you’re going to see more of this in the future

1. Shiraz from Iran
2. Baluchi from Afghanistan
3. Appears to be Indo Persian or Paki the ends has been reworked making it harder to ID
4. Pakistan chobi
5. Sino Persian ..tabriz design
6. Indo copy of armenian Kazak or Turkish rug


How did i do which one is the "stumper" ?

 

[Mikey P]

The first one.

 

[Joel D]

Rhyde so these rugs are crappy but they came from iran and countries that make good and expensive rugs how do you tell theyre crappy? how did you know the ends were reworked on the one rug?

Is there any good books to help with ID and other rug help? thanks for sharing knowledge

 

[Walt]

I bought a Shiraz from costco a few years ago. It wasn't too expensive. It seems pretty nice to me. Is it actually a piece of .... ??

I guess I'll have to bring it to get cleaned so you can tell me.

 

[The Great Oz]

These are the type of rugs that probably won't be around in 50 years, but most rugs buyers today don't care about buying something for their grandkids. Their grandkids probably won't want it anyway. This type of rug is the kind that can have the fringes cut off and glued under because they're just commodities.

Rug cleaners that see a lot of investment quality rugs or expensive and well made rugs often fall into the mode of calling everything else junk. Something we have to guard against.

 

[rhyde]

LOL… I don’t mean to offend anyone. In decorative market terms these rugs are junk or duds some of these will wear just fine and last a long time However, esthetics drive the rug market not durability or even quality. There are plenty of poor quality expensive rugs out there so don’t think more money equals better rugs because that isn’t always the case. Some of this stuff has become dated meaning the colors or designs are not appealing to the current decretive market, some wasn’t good from the start and some have condition issues making them unsalable at a profit in a legitimate rug stores. Which is why these rugs end up in a secondary discount market like Costco, EBay, IKEA and 80% -90% off going out of business sales.. Anything is salable at the right price/ marketing.


“How do you tell they’re crappy?” Cleaning, selling new and antique rugs is the answer here is some books I recommend..to start

Oriental rugs, by Murray Eiland
Oriental rugs Today, by Emit Eiland
Tribal rugs, James Opie
Oriental rugs , Charles Jacobson
Oriental carpet design, P.R.J. Ford

 

[Joel D]

thanks !