Buying Used Display Kitchen Cabinets

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Updated December 10, 2014.

I did not know about the business of selling and buying used display kitchen cabinets until recently when I was trying to find the absolute cheapest cabinets--yet ones that had never been installed in a home. While used showroom cabinets can require detective work to locate, you can expect deep savings and lots of perks if you do find them .

New cabinets are clean, virginal, functioning, and expensive.

Used kitchen cabinets are dirty, beaten up, often non-functional, yet very cheap.

Display kitchen cabinets, on the other hand, fall in a kind of twilight area, between new and used. They are beaten, but not nearly as beaten as cabinets that come from real kitchens. They can be dirty, but never dirtied with cooking grease and food residue. They are not rock-bottom inexpensive, like the ones that have just been pulled from a kitchen demo, but they are not as expensive as new.

When you visit a home improvement store or a local kitchen/bath remodeling showroom, you will see between two to eight kitchen cabinet displays mocked up to look like real kitchens.

Since homeowners usually buy an entire kitchen worth of cabinets, not just one or two, these displays can be full-size 10x10 kitchens (an industry pricing standard), along with sinks, faucets, and even lighting. More often, the displays approximate something smaller--an L-shaped or a one-wall kitchen .

When a showroom needs space or goes out of business, it sells off the display kitchen cabinets.

You will find quality brand-name cabinets with lots of accessories. I have seen major brand names such as Kraftmaid, Merillat, Wellborn, Quality, StyleCraft, and more. I have found lovely farmhouse-style white/glazed pantry and base cabinets. with pullouts, glass door inserts, cutting board. and fixtures--marked down 75% from its original price.

I have seen maple cabinets with soft-closes, including a farmhouse sink, copper faucet, quartz counters. and cabinet lighting, marked down 50% from its original price of nearly $10,000.

You will find those accessories, plus breadboxes, wine racks, spice racks, and you-name-it. The reason for all these accessories? As these are display models, the manufacturers and retailers want to show off (and sell) as many extras as possible.

The cabinet displays for sale can be dated. If a kitchen cabinet showroom is getting rid of a display due to changing trends, then by definition the display is stylistically outdated. If you dont care about following trends, you can ignore this.

Keep in mind that these cabinets have gotten use, but not cooking use. Customers open and close the doors and drawers thousands of times and let their children use them as play-toys while they talk to the service representative.

Showrooms like to store heavy items, such as granite countertop samples, in the drawers. But in general, it benefits the showroom to keep those cabinet displays looking as good as possible.

Tip: Get more ideas for cheap kitchen cabinets from About Budget Decorating. Consider Habitat for Humanity ReStore, thrift stores. and freecycling websites.

By legwork. You will find some kitchen cabinet displays for sale listed on Craiglist.org or eBay; that always a good place to start. But it pointless to purchase kitchen displays unseen, because you have no idea of the condition of the items.

Plus, any money you save will be off-set by the huge shipping costs. And that if you can even convince the showroom to ship. Showrooms want the sale to be as easy for them as possible, preferring a local buyer who can take receipt with a delivery truck or pick them up. So, local is the only way to go.

Your best bet for finding display kitchen cabinets that are for sale--or will be for sale soon--is to contact showrooms by phone or in person. Ask to speak to the Showroom Manager. By shaking enough trees, you will find showrooms willing to part with displays for large price reductions.

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