Recently, a customer reached out to us and asked us about a new open-box Steelcase Leap V2 on eBay that was selling for $299.11. Since these chairs retail on Steelcase.com for over $1,000, we thought, wow, is this deal maybe too good to be true? So we decided to buy one and find out for ourselves.
This chair is what they call a new open-box and eBay has specific requirements for what qualifies as a new open-box product. First and foremost, the product has to be in excellent, like-new condition. Generally, these chairs are used for demo purposes in showrooms, so that’s the expectation we are starting with. They did mention in the product description that the chair is in different packaging, but that’s not an issue. In fact, the packaging is from the company that supplied the product.
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Ebay Steelcase Leap Links
1. An Imposter
Once we opened up the box, we found the usual components, including a base, cylinder, and the rest of the chair. However, one thing I noticed right away as I pulled the bag off was the strong smell of spray paint. If this chair is refurbished, a lot of times people will remove the oxidation on the black plastic with some sort of cleaning product, which could explain the smell, but honestly, I think it’s spray paint.
2. The Cylinder and Upholstery
There are some other initial clues that this may not be a new open box chair and we will discuss those shortly, but first, let’s take a closer look at the cylinder. One of the things that I noticed right away when I pulled out the cylinder is that it is a top-activated cylinder. With the Leap V2s, there was the first generation of chairs that were produced for about two years and these chairs used a top-activated cylinder. Eventually, the company moved on to what is called a side-activated cylinder. This cylinder is also manufactured by a company called Suspa, which isn’t manufacturing cylinders any longer for Steelcase.
To get a better idea of the differences, I brought in our own demo chair that we use for videos and is about a year and a half old. At first glance, you might not notice any major glaring differences. Maybe the upholstery looks a little different, but overall, they look similar. However, when you start looking at the details, you can see how the chairs differ. For instance, the arms on the eBay chair are covered in some type of vinyl covering and you can see where it has been stapled in place. On our chair, the arms consist of a single molded piece, which is what Steelcase uses.
When you look at the backs of each chair, we also can see some clear differences. On the eBay chair, it appears that there is something underneath the upholstery. It seems like the upholstery has been adhered to another material. You can even hear and feel the difference if you touch and tap the seat back. We will have to take it apart to figure out exactly what is behind the upholstery, but whatever it is, it is definitely not original from the factory.
3. Taking the Steelcase Apart
Next, I started taking some of the different components apart to see just what we would find. Once I got the back pad and the seat pad off the eBay chair and got a look at the mechanics, it was clear that it had been spray painted, so my first hunch was correct. With the armrests, there is a molded piece, but they are still wrapped in the vinyl material, which is definitely not how Steelcase does it at the factory. This makes it pretty clear that this is a refurbished model and not a new open-box product. I pulled the vinyl off the armrests to figure out what was underneath and found an armrest that is from the very first version of the V2’s. Before Steelcase made the single molded piece, the armrests had pads that were covered in a sort of rubber sock. Around 2008, they made the switch to the current armrest version. On our eBay chair, we found the earlier version of the armrests and it looks like they tried to cover up some wear and tear by covering it in the vinyl upholstery. Again, this is not how it’s done at the factory.
Next, we pulled off the shell to get a closer look at the upholstery and see that if it is in fact, the same as a new chair. Immediately, you can see where the spray paint bled through and marked up the back padding. The other thing we noticed was that the plastic part that ties into the mechanism has been stapled to the seat. Normally, it would be free floating and not attached at the bottom. The stapling is commonly found in refurbished chairs.
When you compare it to our demo chair, you can see that Steelcase uses a completely different system when attaching the upholstery. They cinch the fabric in place and they tack it down in just a few places. In addition, on our chair, you can tell the foam is definitely new and the foam looks a lot different on the eBay chair. With the eBay chair, there is some Dacron draped over the original pad. This may be because the eBay chair is one of the first iterations of the Leap. We’ll find out for sure later when we take a look at the actual manufactured frame.
4. Comparing the Backs
The last thing we’re going to compare are the backs. You can tell that they are clearly different just at first glance. Again, the eBay chair has plenty of staples, which shows that it is actually a refurbished chair. With our chair there are just a few staples where they tack the upholstery, but everything is primarily cinched with a drawstring. When I look at the chair from eBay, it appears that there is another layer of upholstery, which helps to explain why it felt the way it did when I tapped it. You can also see that there is a crease which may have been created by some sort of glue they’re using to tack the new upholstery onto the original upholstery. Right away, we know that this is definitely refurbished, and we now know this is not a new open box according to eBay’s definition.
Bottom Line
After comparing our office demo chair to the eBay chair, it is safe to say that the chair we bought is much closer to a refurbished chair than a new open box. But the last thing we’ve got to look at is the manufacture date on the core chair, which is on the bottom side of the frame. Sure enough, as I expected, it is one of the first versions of the Leap V2 with May 31, 2007, as the manufacture date.
Ultimately, $299 for a Steelcase Leap new open-box chair is just too good to be true. For that price, you are actually getting a refurbished chair.
