ArkiStan

Hey guys. Can I get some advice?

A good friend of mine is moving away and is selling a Sealy Posturepedic Queen-size (firm) bed (mattress, boxspring and frame) for $170. She says it's fairly new and in great condition.

I'm moving soon so I was looking for a firm queen-size bed anyway, and she's giving me first dibs if I want it. Just wanted ask you guys if you think this is a decent price for this item?

thanks!
Stan

Daedalus

Depending on which model it is, you would pay at least $500-1000 for the mattress and boxspring, maybe $50 more for the frame. JMO I would be wierded out sleeping in someone else's bed everyday. Worse than borrowing underwear. Mattresses never get washed, heh.

johnnymk

Yes, that's a great price and I would buy it.

ArkiStan

I agree. It's really funny how used beds are such a commodity here in NYC. When people are moving in and out of homes that are the size of an average walk-in closet, your bed is one of the first things you can change to accomodate your new small home. In fact a quick search of "mattress" on the NYC craigslist will bring up hundreds of listings every day. Check it out:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/search/sss?query=mattress

I was quite grossed out at first. My current bed is one I bought from a complete stranger off craigslist. But it was super cheap and he delievered, so on a student budget and with no car, I couldn't resist. I got used to it pretty soon though. This time around it's a girl that I know very well so it's not as wierd. LOL

Jah Rulez

There's always Febreeze.....

The Happy Squirrel

as far as is it a good price yes would i buy it no way!!!
i ahve worked as a saleman for two different mattress companies and i know all there is to know about beds. Sealy sucks!!

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The Happy Squirrel

i would go new, look for a coil count of 600 or higher and a continious wire, independent pocket, coilsystems, helical wires that tie head to toe avoid bonnells like the plague, go with a setra perfect sleeper, simmons beauty rest, king <cant remember the line in king koil but anything that falls into the parameters> if you are thinking of buying used then i am guessing a budget is an issue so i would go with a king koil, a mattress is a huge decision adn not one to be skimped on, you spend a third of your life in bed and a huge portion of your health and well being is based on how well your body is able to rest. if you ahve questions or would like more info feel free to PM me

ArkiStan

Woah!! LOL. I knew i could count on GA to have a knowledgable professional in every field imagineable. I was 99% settled on contacting my friend to buy that mattress and thought "why don't i check that GA thread one more time," and here I am stopped dead in my tracks.

I'll look into those brands and I'm gonna contact you first if I have questions. Thanks so much.

ArkiStan

THS, until I decide on a mattress, here's a starter question that I've always been curious about. Does the boxspring serve any purpose other than elevating the mattress to a higher level? How is using a box spring better than having just the mattress on the floor or using the mattress on a solid platform frame?

I prefer to have some storage space under my bed and having a bed frame instead of a box-spring helps.

DarkFury

Hmmm... I wonder how much mileage the previous owner put on the springs...

<cue the squeaky spring sound from the song... "Some Cut" by Trillville>


Honestly, I generally wouldn't want someone's used mattress... considering how much "stuff" could be going on there. But hey, if its a good price and if you can't afford to buy new, then go for it!

Just be sure to deodorize and sanatize the hell out of it prior to use.

</end music for "Some Cut" >

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renovation

me and the wife payed like $1500 for are Sealy Posturepedic Queen-size a couple of years ago. this may sound weard. but before you buy it ask if you can sleep on it. we got a firm because of the wifes back. i wanted the one just below it in firmness. it took a while for me to adjust to it. but it helped her back so i lived with it. we also got a pillow top unit and they do cost more.
as for a used mattress personally i don't think i buy a used unit .but being a friends and i know her/he well i might. if i know she/he was clean and not sleep around !

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cruelpupet

Well mr bed expert...what are your thoughts on the tempurpedic?
And ditto to the box spring question.

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ramazank2

I would not buy a used mattress for this reason:

We live surrounded in filth. Sorry, but it's a fact. All humans shed about 5-10 grams of dead skin each week. About 80% of the material seen floating in a sunbeam is actually flakes of skin.

House dust mites are nearly universal in occurrence - a typical bed mattress may have contain anything from 100,000 to 10 million mites. Ten percent of the weight of a two year old pillow may be composed of dead mites and their droppings. Carpets and household upholstery also support high mite populations. What do house dust mites eat? Human and animal skin flakes (Dermatophagoides - "skin eater"). So in some ways house dust mites are a good thing - they help stop us drowning in our own filth.

House dust mites are 0.2-0.3 mm long and translucent. Because of this, they are essentially invisible to the unaided eye. A dust mite's tough, translucent cuticle has deep striations that can be seen from both the dorsal and ventral views, with long setae (hairs) extending from the outer margins of the body and shorter setae on the rest of the body. There have eight legs, no eyes, no antennae and mouthparts in front of their bodies (resembling a head):

The Happy Squirrel

it all depending on what type of coil unit the bed has, the box spring should be designed to take must of the pressure and work off the mattress its self.

Simmions beautyrest uses whats called a triton foundation which is very solid very little give. That because they need a harder base for the individual pocket coil system to work well if you went this route you could forgo the box and get a captains bed for it or somthing. maybe go grage saling for a old waterbed foundation


kingsdown in some of thier passions line use a full working box soring which has a foil coil unit in the box and the matt

the cheaper beds use whats called a orthopedic foundation <wood box fancy name> these matts will wear faster.

the box is definetly a big part of it and you should always buy in sets and buy new

finace if you ahve to but this is really not an item you shouild skimp on

The Happy Squirrel

not a big fan of the tempurpedic.

they are more "trendy" then anything

they use a visco elastic memory foam it is an oep cell structure that responds to tempature changes.

what this means is as you sleep in it, it absorvs your body heat and softens up, but it onyl softens where you lay. so that in effect you end up in a divot. This make it difficult to change positions without bringing your body out of the sleep stages a bit becuase your need to actualyl reposition your body. this can cause you to lose out completly on the deeper stages of sleep. and eliminate REM all together.

another item is becuase they retain heat, they tend to be hot, people who are warmer <exothermic> sleepers can find these beds hellishly hot at night.

on the flip side there are folks who like to keep thier bedrooms cold at night <or who ahve poorinsulation. the bed reponds to cold tempatures as well where it will harden. <if you take a chunk of the foam and put it in the freezer you could easily put it through a window>


back to the warm thing people who tend not to be warmer sleepers often will not find the confomrity of the bed.
dont ahve data to support this lat itemjust hearsay, but hae heard that they tend to smell as well.

The Happy Squirrel

the average life of a quailty innerspring mattress is 10 years
the average innerspring mattress double in wieght in ten years

you tell me where the extra weight comes from <yuck!!>

cheapie

ugh. getting freaked out reading this thread. and yes, i did bust out the golden shovel.

anyhoo....what about memory foam mattresses? bad? good? simmons beatyrest still a good option?

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Napoleon54

Golden Shovel!!!

I don't understand the hype around mattresses, they seem highly over-engineered IMO. Like toothbrushes. I sleep on a crummy old mattress that came with the bed when I bought it used from a classified ad. Maybe if I had sleep problems it'd make a difference, but I sleep like a rock. *shrug*

I wonder if there's a significant amount of chemicals that a new mattress can expose you to. Kind of like how New Car Smell is made up of all sorts of volitile organic compounds, plasticizers, etc. Another example is the leaching of BPA into water bottles and how that's supposedly linked to health effects X Y and Z. I bet that kind of thing is much more common than we realize. Why not mattresses? There's a lot of plastic, foam, rubber, in those things.

And about the mites, they're harmless. Dead skin is harmless. It's a fact of life. I dunno... I think getting freaked out about mites is like making a point of closing the lid on the toilet so that you can pretend that poop didn't just come out of you. *shrug again*

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InfiniteNothing

I've been sleeping on a temperpedic knock off (I think it's like 2" of 2 lb memory foam with another 4 inches of 5 lb memory foam and then another 4 of regular foam) for 5 years. I absolutely love it, especially the nearly non existent motion transfer. It was still rather expensive but I justified it to myself as an investment saying I'll have fewer back problems when I'm older (I also justify expensive shoes the same way).

The only downside is that I'm spoiled now and guest beds and hotel beds can be rather uncomfortable in comparison.

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