Since the turn of the millennium, finding a lamp to purchase second hand has proved difficult; type “Ikea Visjo” into Google and see what you get…not much eh…
…though this post will now fix that.
Of course anyone with a Visjo wouldn’t know the lamp was called that unless the sticker on the base was intact and the owner realised that Visjo was the product name.
Over the years, I would periodically Google the name and then descriptions like “Ikea lamp, red, black, white, polo pattern, circles pattern” etc. Nothing relevant ever seemed to come back in the search returns...though headlamps for small Volkswagens were easy to find.
Once a lamp appeared on Gumtree but I couldn’t justify a trip to the big smoke in a timescale that suited the owner’s need to move house.
Nothing showed up in any of the charity shops I have wandered into over the years and that’s quite something bearing in mind that I have been into thousands.
Sometimes though the internet is marvellous for finding stuff.
Whilst at a loose end on Wednesday evening this week, I typed a descriptive search term into Google and up popped a match on Ebay (though Visjo was not mentioned in the advert description at all). What’s more, the lamp was located just a handful of miles away from me and there was a “make an offer” option on the listing. I duly made an offer (saving myself a tenner in the process) and minutes later it was accepted. A trip to Rugby, via a cash point, resulted in the lamp being in my home within an hour of the point of offer acceptance. After all the waiting, it could hardly have been more straightforward. Awesome.
I finally had a lamp I really didn’t need, that the Mrs really didn’t want and that I wasn’t even sure where to put…but I felt “epic”. The quest for a Visjo has ended and I’ll die happier for owning one.
With certain purchases, especially the more status symbol orientated type things, I have found that the desire for them is much more stimulating than the actual ownership experience - if you like, the chase is better than the catch. But with this innocuous, unnecessary, inexpensive, non-vintage, non-complementary (unless I ever find another one and they can complement each other), mass produced, furniture store lamp, the novelty will take ages to wear off. In the meantime, I am going to smile every time I switch it on.
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