How much should a mattress/box spring cost?!?

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurencewill But what I lack in quantity, I make up for in quality! Right honey? Why are you laughing?

As my dad (who grew up on a farm in the 30's) would say, "It's not how deep you plow, it's how long you stay in the field."

REW

[haha]

Dory, thanks for the coffee method.

Mikey

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laurencewill But what I lack in quantity, I make up for in quality!* Right honey?* Why are you laughing?* *

Laurence, you got great confidence. But give a listen to "Old Dan"

Well listen here girls, I'm telling you now.
They call me lovin' Dan.
I'll rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I'm a 60 minute man.
And if you don't believe I'm all I say,
Come up and take my hand.
As soon as I leave you go you'll cry
"Oh Yeah, he's a sixty Minute Man!"
* There'll be 15 minutes of kissin',
And then you holler "Oh please don't stop!"
There'll be 15 minutes of teasin'
And 15 minutes of pleasin'
And 15 minutes of blowin' my top! MOP MOP MOP!
Well if your man ain't treatin' you right
Come up and see your Dan.
I'll rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I'm a 60 minute man.
** 60 (Minute Man)
Well they call me (lovin' Dan)
I'll rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I'm a 60 minute man.
** Repeat
* Repeat
Well if your man ain't treatin' you right
Come up and see your Dan.
I'll rock 'em, roll 'em all night long
I'm a 60 minute man.
Oh yeah! 60 Minute,
Rock'em, roll'em, rammin', jammin' all night long

This song was released by the Dominos in the spring of 1951. The lead singer is a deep bass named Bill Brown. It hit the R&B charts very quickly, then that suimmer became a big dance hit for young white audiences. By the time I got to college in the late 50's it was still very popular, 'cause, you know it is kind of a timeless theme. My main college GF loved this '45; but it created a pretty high bar for me! She always wanted to play it around midnight, likely to show me who was in charge.

Mikey

[Martha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JWV I buy a lot of pillows, too because I can't find a good one. What have you found that you like, Martha? Judy

I have found I am fairly pleased with the midprice Target pillows--don't know the brand. Medium, not firm. I used to buy the cheapest possible given that I ditch them so fast. But the quality was too poor so I upgraded.

[laurence]

Martha, those are my pillows, too! They really are the best bang for the buck.

Mike, I'm glad my DW never heard of that song, I've got enough pressure on me already!

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWanabe As my dad (who grew up on a farm in the 30's) would say, "It's not how deep you plow, it's how long you stay in the field."

Only one thing is for sure.

Dad had a short plow.

[HFWR]

Have four pillars on my bed.

[Martha]

Well I like the Pointer sisters' "Slow Hand":

I want a man with a slow hand
I want a lover with an easy touch
I want somebody who will spend some time
Not come and go in a heated rush
I want somebody who will understand
When it comes to love I want a slow hand

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martha Well I like the Pointer sisters' "Slow Hand":

Martha, when Anita sang that song you really believed she knew what she was talking about. I've been listening to Pointer Sisters a lot lately, because my drum teacher recommends studying the funk drumming on some of their songs using a live drummer.

Probably more useful for any man to listen to that every few days than to read 100 books about how to get along with women.

Mikey

[laurence]

I won't even pretend to be Mr. "Thunder Under Cover". I just make sure her needs are taken care of first. I've kind of become a teenager/jackrabbit again since she's become a mother, which she finds alternately amusing/flattering and annoying. Maybe it's a phermone thing?

[saluki9]

We spent like $600 delivered for a Sealy queen set. I had a friend who used to work in the industry. He said to avoid costco and wait for a sale at one of the big bedding places.

Now the kicker is that last year my wife and I got a $700 set of sheets as a wedding gift. They are so comfortable I can't sleep anywhere else.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki9 I had a friend who used to work in the industry. He said to avoid costco and wait for a sale at one of the big bedding places.

Any reasoning behind that? Reason being is I've bought mattress sets from both costco and sams club and found them to be of similar quality at lower prices than the big bedding places.

Just wondering why I'd wait for a sale to pay more.

[haha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki9 Now the kicker is that last year my wife and I got a $700 set of sheets as a wedding gift.* They are so comfortable I can't sleep anywhere else.

Care to share the thread count on those? Man, I bet it is worth every penny of the $700.

When my wife moved out a few years back she took the sheets. I went down to Target and picked up the cheapest set I saw.

Put 'em on the bed, climbed in, and felt like I somehow got the mosquito netting under me rather than over me. At first I though that somehow just having a woman in the bed with you made the sheets feel good.

Finally I learned about thread count; and that I didn't want to go below "All Cotton, 300Ct."

Haha

[saluki9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by th Any reasoning behind that? Reason being is I've bought mattress sets from both costco and sams club and found them to be of similar quality at lower prices than the big bedding places. Just wondering why I'd wait for a sale to pay more.

Because the point is I didn't pay more. Again, from somebody working in the industry, he showed me how to compare different models between stores (Mattress companies rarely sell the same model at 2 stors, they often give them different names so you can't compare prices)

He then showed me a flyer from a local mattress store that was having a sale. I would up with a pillow top mattress that was 2 grades over what costco was selling for a little less than I would have paid at costco.

As for the sheets, they are an Italian brand called Legna. They are 1000 thread count sheets made from cellulose yarn. They are so comfortable, my wife and I are worried what we will do when they wear out. Getting into bed is like heaven around here.

[cute fuzzy bunny]

I guess I have a short amount of trust for industry insiders who direct me away from the low-cost warehouses to a retailer. I've had a couple of 'insiders' tell me the warehouse clubs carry inferior merchandise. When that happened, I asked a friend who is a VP at Costco about it and he's had a senior manager at the manufacturer email me that the product quality they sell through the warehouse stores is as good or better than available at retail.

I also have a pet peeve with the mattress makers for their sleight of hand in naming the same product under different models to prevent you from making a fair comparison. As a former marketing guy, that screams at me that there isnt any difference, and they dont want to be commoditized.

The two exceptions to that as far as I know are clothing and some tools. Some makers produce a 'warehouse' version of their shirts or drills that carry the brand name but are lower quality.

According to the last objective study I saw on mattresses, excepting the really cheap, really crappy no-name brands, other than firmness there isnt a lot of difference between any two mattresses other than price and marketing fluff.

If you can specifically point out some models along with prices and where they can be bought that are superior to and cheaper than what can be bought at a warehouse club that would be helpful. I may be buying a mattress in the next few months.

At this point, I was either going to try the "cheapurpedic" route or go buy one of the nice brand name mattress sets at sams club or costco. At ~$500-600 for a pillow top california king mattress that feels very comfortable to me, I find that hard to turn down.

[saluki9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by th I guess I have a short amount of trust for industry insiders who direct me away from the low-cost warehouses to a retailer. I've had a couple of 'insiders' tell me the warehouse clubs carry inferior merchandise. When that happened, I asked a friend who is a VP at Costco about it and he's had a senior manager at the manufacturer email me that the product quality they sell through the warehouse stores is as good or better than available at retail. I also have a pet peeve with the mattress makers for their sleight of hand in naming the same product under different models to prevent you from making a fair comparison. As a former marketing guy, that screams at me that there isnt any difference, and they dont want to be commoditized. The two exceptions to that as far as I know are clothing and some tools. Some makers produce a 'warehouse' version of their shirts or drills that carry the brand name but are lower quality. According to the last objective study I saw on mattresses, excepting the really cheap, really crappy no-name brands, other than firmness there isnt a lot of difference between any two mattresses other than price and marketing fluff. If you can specifically point out some models along with prices and where they can be bought that are superior to and cheaper than what can be bought at a warehouse club that would be helpful. I may be buying a mattress in the next few months. At this point, I was either going to try the "cheapurpedic" route or go buy one of the nice brand name mattress sets at sams club or costco. At ~$500-600 for a pillow top california king mattress that feels very comfortable to me, I find that hard to turn down.

Well, to each his own. MY friend and neighbor ran a furniture store for 35 years and is a good friend. I trust his opinion. I don't suddenly doubt a friend simply because fails to worship sam's costco, etc.

All I know is I paid less that I would have at Costco. In addition, I had a chance to lay down on several different models, which I would not have been able to do at costco. The costco near me had a couple mattresses in stock, all of which were wrapped in plastic. (didn't do me much good)

As for you research, I barely have time for my own. If you're somehow trying to insinuate that i'm either lying or making this up (Which I presume you are) well, don't be mad just because I got a good deal. Also, trying to figure out what is comfortable for somebody else is pretty hard when it comes to a mattress.



Oh, and the store can be found at http://www.americanmattress.com/ I figure that with around 50 stores they probably sell more mattresses than the large discounters anyway

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saluki9 As for you research, I barely have time for my own. If you're somehow trying to insinuate that i'm either lying or making this up (Which I presume you are) well, don't be mad just because I got a good deal. Also, trying to figure out what is comfortable for somebody else is pretty hard when it comes to a mattress.

Not at all. You suggested one could get a better deal or a better product for a comparable price. I dont know how to do that. If you could offer a suggestion, that would have been a lot more helpful. But thanks anyhow.

[wabmester]

We recently bought a new mattress.* *We ended up going with the Sealy plush king that Costco sells (I think it was around $480 delivered).* * Seems fine to me.

As mentioned in this thread, mattress makers change the name of their mattresses at different stores to make it more difficult to comparison shop.* *But you can pretty much tell which is which by coil count, coil gauge, and other attributes that the maker publishes in their spec sheets.* * The Sealys that Costco sells are the low-end models, but they're Good Enough.

Sealy also makes Sterns & Foster (their Lexus brand), and the construction is pretty much the same as the normal Sealy brand.

As far as I can tell, there are really only three parameters that matter in mattress construction:

1) How much fluffy stuff you want on top of the coils.

2) What the fluffy stuff is made from.

3) Whether the matress has a foam casing (no flip) or wire binding (flip).

All the rest is noise, including coil count, gauge, etc.

Ultimately, our preference was for the "plush" (which has pre-compressed fluffy stuff), none of the memory foam or urethane (which doesn't breath well and will make you sweat like a pig), and for the no-flip casing (which doesn't sag around the edges as much as the other kind).

[saluki9]

Quote:

Originally Posted by th Not at all. You suggested one could get a better deal or a better product for a comparable price. I dont know how to do that. If you could offer a suggestion, that would have been a lot more helpful. But thanks anyhow.

It was not too hard. I went to a bedding store and sat on a couple of the floor samples that they had until we found one we really liked. (other than the $4000 model which was really really nice). Once we found 2 models which we could live with we went home to the computer and sat down with my friend to compare them.

Because the model I wanted (from the bedding store) was a Serta, and Costco sells sealy, we had to do a little more research. MY friend who was in the business, called one of his former competitors who is still selling beds and asked him to compare the Serta I wanted with the Sealy Costco was selling. It turns out they were the same, but the model I wanted was $50 more at the local place than at Costco.

As I said before, costco had no beds set up, so I would have to buy something I would be sleeping on for 5+ years having never felt it. At that point, I was a little confused as to what I should do.

Then we were told that if that was the bed we wanted, just wait for the sale. I guess they don't sell a lot of beds in mid July, because 3 weeks later we got a fllyer in the mail from American Mattress that they were having a summer sale. ( i believe that due to the huge margins beds go on sale almost every week)

Anyway, we went in and the bed we wanted was marked down from $799 to $599, and when I told them I was thinking of buying at Costco they gave me free delivery and set up. Total came to $649 with tax compared to $799 at Costco. I just looked at their website and the price at Costco is still $799

All that and they gave me a stuffed sheep! :P

[Martha]

Just got the new Consumer Reports which did a report on mattresses. Basically, it said you don't get a lot more by spending more and all but the cheapest mattresses will wear well. Importantly, the magazine emphasized that mattress comfort is largely a matter of individual preference. The magazine recommended trying a mattress you are interested in for about 15 minutes. If you like the mattress in that period of time, odds are you will continue to like it.

This I suppose is the downside of Costco and purchasing mattresses over the Internet. You can't try the mattress. And because how companies brand their mattresses, it is hard to try out a mattress one place but buy it in another.