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Home / Kitchen / Vintage Steel Kitchen Cabinets

How and where to buy or sell vintage metal kitchen cabinets

pam kueber - April 9, 2009, Updated: June 6, 2021

how-to-sell-vintage-metal-kitchen-cabinets

 

WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO BUY vintage steel kitchen cabinets? Take these tips in reverse!

 

The market for these cabinets is generally going to be very local. People will want to come look at them before they buy and to be sure, it will be a lot cheaper if they can pick them up rather than having to arrange for a moving company. But, “local” actually means “within driving distance” for someone who wants to buy a set of steel kitchen cabinets. So your marketing and outreach should really extend…3 or 4 hours in a circle around where you live, although I know of folks who have driven further to buy particular brand cabinets they need.

 

Reminder: Be aware that vintage products, materials, and their layers can contain hazards — consult with pros to assess what you are working with so that you can make informed decisions how to handle. For more info see my Be Safe/Renovate Safe page.

 

Here are places to start looking; where online search is involved, I recommend you play around with your keywords. For example, in addition to searching steel kitchen cabinets, also search metal kitchen cabinets or vintage kitchen cabinets or of course, by name/brand:

  1. Craigslist is probably the most common source for cabinet listings when you take into account the entire U.S. — and it’s crafted to serve your local market, which is important when selling huge items like kitchen cabinets.  I think they will only let you list in one city, and if that is their rule, you should abide by it. TIP: Use aggregators such as searchtempest (google to find other such aggregators, I have not looked into them all) to search craigslist into your larger region or even nationally.Note, reader Frank also suggested, in comments, another way to do aggregation quickly:

“For those that may be interested in searching all of craigslist, say the entire craigslist site just to see what’s on the market, it’s quite easy to do. Just use google to perform a power search. Type in the following in the search bar “vintage metal cabinets site:craigslist.org”.”

Note, when I try Frank’s method, I seem to still have to search by specific keyword, but at least I seem to get to the location where the item is or was for sale.

  1. Facebook Marketplace — newer to the scene, I like this source because it’s easy to search, easy to see photos and I think the listings are presented to you based on the locations closest to where Facebook thinks you are.
  2. eBay — I see lots of listing come up, and only one in 10 or seems to sell. However, there may be after-market bidding going on (at a lower price). eBay may work for you if you are in a larger market where there are more potential buyers.
  3. ReStore Habitat for Humanity and salvage places — I see vintage steel kitchen cabinets at my ReStore regularly.
  4. Also — if you are a BUYER — ask your neighbors. They may have old cabinets in their basement or garage that were originally in their kitchen — and yours!

Finally, if your cabinets are in really bad shape — with tons of rust, for example — take a look at the hardware. There is a market for vintage cabinet pulls — in particular old Youngstown handles. And, people with the old Genevas are always eager to connect with the white plastic concave piece behind the chrome pull. And, folks want the knife hinges that connect the doors to the base and wall cabinets. If you have parts, I’d recommend eBay — as they are not expensive to ship.

Click here to see all my stories about vintage steel kitchen cabinets — we’ve identified 90+ brands!

CATEGORIES:
Kitchen Vintage Steel Kitchen Cabinets

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Reader Interactions

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47 comments

Comments

  1. Pam Kueber says

    February 6, 2020 at 10:55 am

    I am closing comments on this story, as they are becoming redundant.

  2. Susan Forman says

    December 23, 2017 at 10:16 am

    I just wanted to ask members a question about the Youngstown Lazy Susan cabinet. Not trying to buy or sell.

  3. Morgan h says

    February 20, 2017 at 3:36 pm

    Can you please direct me to your forum where I can post my Youngstown cabinets for sale? I cannot find it based on other links I’ve seen posted.

    • pam kueber says

      February 20, 2017 at 3:42 pm

      It doesn’t exist anymore — head to craigslist and/or ebay…

  4. Cheyna says

    November 29, 2016 at 6:44 pm

    My kitchen is all Hotpoint. Tags on the inside are somewhat readable. My problem is, they have been painted to look like wood. From what I could actually strip off, it looks like they were originally white, but the paint and stain is very hard to come off the doors. I want them red in the worst way. Help!!!!!

    • pam kueber says

      November 29, 2016 at 7:33 pm

      Chenya, this is not a DIY site per se. To strip the paint, consult with a professional also realizing that the paint on top and/or the paint underneath may contain vintage nastiness such as lead. BE SAFE RENOVATE SAFE https://retrorenovation.com/renovate-safe/

  5. Dale says

    November 22, 2016 at 11:06 pm

    I have Youngstown cabinets that were installed 1950 that were taken out of my kitchen 25 yrs ago and stored…No rust and an end what not shelf included..with yellow counter tops stainless steel trim.. kitchen roughy was 24 x 24 huge..they were repainted.

    • pam kueber says

      November 23, 2016 at 8:27 am

      Cool. Note: This is not a buy/sell set or it would become chaos.

  6. Sharon says

    September 10, 2016 at 10:02 am

    I’m looking for the metal clips to secure the shelves in st Charles cabinets. Any idea of where I should look?

    • pam kueber says

      September 10, 2016 at 4:32 pm

      no…. 80 brands out there…. too many to know the answers to this level of detail…

  7. VLG says

    July 17, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    I have a vintage 1970’s St. Charles kitchen in excellent condition. The top cabinets are solid pecan and the bottom units textured steel.
    The interior of the upper cabinets are Celadon green. We had the bottoms repainted in a body shop and are now a neutral almond color (We did this in 1992)
    I think they have great value, certainly more than $89/unit. What do you think?

    • pam kueber says

      July 17, 2016 at 9:22 pm

      VLG, we don’t do valuations specifically here. It all depends on the market…

  8. Kristin says

    May 4, 2016 at 1:26 pm

    Can’t find a better place to ask this. I am about to embark on buying a full St. Charles set that is still attached. How much work, realistically, am I getting myself into for the removal? It’s 7 lowers and 6 uppers, and there is a soffit above the uppers so they won’t just lift out. I need to hire day laborers to help but have no idea how long it will really take to remove.

    • pam kueber says

      May 4, 2016 at 1:30 pm

      Kristin, I do not know the answer to this – I am not an expert.

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