It seems I have a bit of an obsession with rugs in the sense that when I find one I love... I end up posting about it and mentioning it several times here in my little blog world of 9-oh-6. So, in true form, here I go again talking about the chains rug that I've been chattering about for a few days now as part of the big bedroom makeover.
I found an ebay seller willing to give me the 8x11" natural color of the rug "at-cost" for $315 shipped, which is a steal by any means for this particular rug, which runs close to $500 elsewhere on the web. But... it's still $315 which is obviously quite a bit more than the $35 jute rug craiglist score that is unfortunately not going to work in the room like I originally planned. Since I'm a total cheapskate and will find any excuse to save $20 or so, I emailed the seller back and offered to buy it immediately if they could go down to $285. In all honesty, I will probably buy it either way, but I figured the extra little discount was worth a shot.
In all of this negotiating, I've learned a little something interesting - The seller told me they would give me the rug for "my cost plus shipping" - $315. It is typically listed in their shop for $480. As I mentioned above, it is listed at about $500 (without tax or shipping!) at several other locations across the web. I'm not very good at math, but I can subtract... and $480-$315 is an outrageous $165. Are you kidding me?!? $165 is quite a markup, don't you think? Now don't get me wrong, I am well aware of the fact that this is how businesses survive... I guess I just hadn't realized that the increase in cost from wholesale to retail is quite so high. For someone trying to do everything in the world on a major budget, I have to admit that realizations like this make me feel a little bit ripped off. But, I digress. The reality of the situation is that I've been offered a great deal on it, without the insane markup, so I'll end my little rant there.
Now, the title of this posting is what's really important here! I first found the chains rug in a posting from my tried and true favorite - Little Green Notebook. I read through all of the comments and saw one from Melanie, who mentioned scoring the 8x11 on Overstock for a major steal. After a solid hour of getting angry at my computer when I couldn't find it on Overstock, I decided to email Melanie and ask her how she found it, and also find out if she loved the rug as much in person as she did seeing it online. WELL, not only did Melanie write me back, but when I wrote her again today looking for more details she promptly responded with a TON of great info about the texture and fluff-factor of the rug, AND linked me to another blog with a great close up shot to see detail. THEN she signed up to follow little old me, which just made me giddy with excitement because I'm a spaz like that.
Besides being super helpful, Melanie is a mother of two adorable little girls, with a boy on the way! If you're looking for simple recipes, cute kid stories (I especially love the one about her daughter stating that God gave her a cookie), and some decorating eye candy in between, give her a visit over at Joyful and Grateful! And Melanie, a huge thanks to you for being so willing to help a random blogger. It's people like you who make me love the blog world so much!
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