[EdFNJ]

Originally Posted by Pairadocs

our adult children got extremely expensive lesson on "leather". Apparently, it is legal to sell "genuine" leather furniture in the thousands of dollars, as long as there is some tiny microscopic layer of true (animal source) leather. They wanted to invest in the "real thing" as it would last a life time. In three years, the micro leather covering had begun to peel off the "vegan" leather that comprised 99.9% of the upholstery. Make a note of that, I have seen this very same type of "leather" furniture in many area stores. Like a genuine leather belt (which will definitely run $100 at the very least, unless laminated with something else), a genuine leather couch is going to be MANY thousands of dollars. If you still would like to have a genuine leather belt, check out the area stores that sell riding equipment and accessories, I've noticed their genuine leather belts are not all western design. When someone offers you a genuine leather belt, or wallet, etc. for $25-$30, as mom always said, if it sounds too good to be true, it is !

We experienced the "bonded leather" failure about 7-8 years ago and learned a lesson as well. Cheaper (a relative term of course to what one can afford), or "super sale" leather furniture is almost always "mostly bonded or very thin leather." "Vegan leather" (AKA PU leather AKA polyurethane leather AKA vinyl AKA plastic)" has been around for a number of years as well. It started out with the cheap cell phone cases years ago then moved on to clothing and furniture. Even "pure leather" has many varieties (not unlike gold) based on thickness. We looked at an $8000 leather reclining sofa recently just for the fun of it at that furniture store on 441 in Lady lake (would never buy it) but the difference was so obvious and the minute you sat on it you KNEW why it was $8G's! I could have sat on it all night. Gotta be an educated consumer these days and in most cases you get exactly what you pay for.