NEW/FOUND MARKET — Attraction in San Jose

BUYER BEWARE. I would give this store and its sellers Joe and Liz zero stars if I could. I purchased over $3,500 of furniture and items from this seller. The items I am leaving this review about were marketed--both on their Instagram and on the sales tags--by New/Found as: a "Vintage desk", a "Scandinavian MCM floating corner shelf", and two "Vintage Teak" storage boxes--see attached photos.

The shop is VERY dark, so it was only once I had purchased all my items and we went to load the furniture into my car that I realized the following: --The $300 "vintage" desk was actually made of compressed and plywood boards nailed together, with an orange laminate sheet on the top which was the only "vintage" looking thing about it. On one side of the desk though, the laminate was missing altogether and they had just used orange marker to cover it up so it wouldn't be noticeable in their dark shop, and obviously never pointed it out to me when I didn't see it--they just happily let me purchase it. I could have built it myself for $30, it is a 100% DIY job. --The $800 "Scandinavian MCM" floating shelves are made out of plywood. They are neither Scandinavian which implies teak, or any other similar type quality wood. They certainly aren't MCM--plywood is not MCM. They are scratched and stained on top of everything which is acceptable only for authentic pieces at this price. I am angry at myself for not having paid closer attention and paying $799 for crappy plywood shelves. --The $75 (each) small wood storage units which they advertised as teak are not, and I found when I got home that they have "Made in Thailand" stickers on the bottoms. Enough said.

My mistake was not looking more closely at all of the items in the dark shop since they do have a lot of authentic vintage and MCM pieces. However the fact that they try to make everything pass for that and worse--camouflage inauthentic pieces with false marketing and knowingly covering up an entire missing piece of the desk--is fraud. I exchanged multiple messages with Joe and his wife politely asking them to purchase the pieces back and they just kept saying "we sell 'As Is'" without once acknowledging their false/fraudulent tactics. I had planned on being a return customer as we are building an addition to the house, and I do like some of the other pieces I purchased, but they account for only roughly 50% of what I bought so those are terrible odds, especially for a vintage/MCM price range.

If you do choose to buy here, I recommend you ask that they pull every single piece that you are interested in out into the street into the daylight so that you can look at it under every angle, and if you have a doubt, don't buy it. In hindsight, I realize that though they have plethora of lamps for sale (I bought one), none of them are turned on which is interesting, like they intentionally try to keep the shop in the dark to hide fakes and flaws. However my best advice would be to avoid New/Found altogether and go to Antiques Colony on San Carlos instead which is a treasure trove of amazing, authentic Mid Century and vintage furniture and household items; everything is authentic, no false marketing,...

Really beautifully curated shop with a mix of price ranges and high quality furniture. I don’t know clothing so I can’t speak to that, but if you’re looking to furnish an Midcentury modern style space I’d absolutely include this shop in my buying itinerary.

As for that one-star review, I was an antique dealer back east and I have personally handled a lot of authentic and period MCM (and even Art Deco) that was plywood (plywood and particle board are actually surprisingly old technologies, and also did that reviewer really think they were buying a solid Danish teak shelf for $750? That would have cost $2,500 anywhere else). I don’t know the owner of this shop so I’m not trying to help them out or anything, but I think a little perspective is helpful here from another antiques and vintage professional 🤷‍♂️ I thought the prices were very reasonable and the descriptions looked accurate to me and were in line with industry standard for signed vs unsigned...

New Found market has a well curated selection of mid century items at reasonable prices. Recently picked up an awesome chair there and some great decorations.

Highly recommend to anyone who’s looking for mid century items specifically. They specialize in this style and there’s a high concentration of nice items.

Also, went there during COVID and they were doing a great job of keeping clean and respecting social...