Town hall sold designer chairs on eBay for £5k... but they’re worth £42k!

TOWN hall bosses sold designer chairs on eBay for £5,000 only later to learn they were worth £42,000. Darlington Council put 60 bespoke vintage chairs, made by a renowned British designer, on the site for just £100 each – selling most and netting £5,000. But buyers spotted a bargain and snapped the seats up, reselling them with price tags of up to £695 on websites specialising in vintage and designer furniture. If the council had sold all 60 for that price it could have made £42,000. The retro cream leather and rosewood chairs were made specially by Peter Hoyte and embossed with the town’s coat of arms. The designer was commissioned to make 60 of them in 1969, a year before the town hall was opened by Princess Anne. The £5,000 proceeds from selling the chairs went into refurbishing the council chamber which will now also be used to host weddings.

Town hall chiefs said the furniture had been valued by an auc- tioneer beforehand but one dealer in Bath, Cilla’s Vintage, bought six of the chairs and said some buyers ‘would be willing to pay up to £1,000’.

Chloe Westley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: ‘Every penny counts. In future the council should be conducting its business more openly so that items can be sold at the highest possible price.’