Facebook seller frantically asks buyer to return woman’s cheap furniture amid viral restoration: ‘Conspiracy twist’

If you build it, they will come back… again.

A vintage furniture restorer claimed a woman who sold him a mid-century dresser on Facebook Marketplace wanted it back after she began refurbishing it for a profit.

Kandra Sobel, who remodels homes and refinishes antiques for her more than 11,000 TikTok followers, shared the strange experience in a now-viral video, where she said the sellers knew she planned to refinish the furniture.

“When I got it, I said to the salesman, ‘I’m going to refinish this,’ and he said ‘yes.’ My wife looked at you. We know who you are, and we know you’re going to refinish this,” Sobel said on Oct. 10.

The micro-influencer said she had already owned the Kipp Steward Drexel three-drawer dresser for two days and ended up stripping and sanding the piece when the original owner sent a panicked message demanding the item be returned.

“I have never done anything like this before, but my wife is upset and has been crying for 2 days since she sold her wooden dresser,” the seller wrote in the message.

“Is there any possible way I can give you $100 to return it? Or pay to redo it [?] You know you said you’d do it again? But [I’m] not sure what that cost is. I would do anything at this point [.] I didn’t realize how much that meant to him. Please is there anything I can do. Thank you very much.”

“I feel really bad if his wife has seller’s remorse now and doesn’t — and you know, feel bad about selling a piece of her childhood,” Sobel said.

In the message, the seller offered to give her $100 of what she spent, but Sobel knew the item was a collectible and worth $1,500 in a restored condition.

Sobel was torn about whether to sell it back to them because she wondered if the seller’s wife was really upset or if they just Googled the item and realized they could have made big money on the dresser.

“The thing that’s kind of disturbing to me is that he sent me that message the night after I posted, um, a thread about how incredible wood grain is,” Sobel said.

Sobel told the seller that she would not sell it since she had already spent time and money on the restoration project.

However, she said the couple would have the first opportunity to buy the dresser once it was ready to sell.

In October. 24, Sobel revealed that she ultimately “made a deal” with the couple — at a discounted price.

Sobel didn’t regret the decision to miss out on a massive payday after meeting the woman, whom she considers a “ray of sunshine.”

“Now that I’ve met him, I feel very, very good about it. Maybe it’s bad business because I could have gotten double what I sold it for, but it’s not always about the money,” Sobel said.

TikTok users suggested that she sell it at full refurbished price without discount or right of first refusal.

“Absolutely not. All sales final. It’s so weird that he’s even asking tbh,” one person commented.

“Girl, it really sounds like they are trying to scam you. The timing is so random. Offering a discount goes above and beyond of you!!” another person wrote.

Others praised Sobel’s compassion in selling the item to the couple.

“Do the right thing and it will come back to you tenfold! You are a special seller,” one person wrote on TikTok.

“You haven’t lost anything. . .We always WIN by expressing kindness and love! Just wait and see the wonderful rewards you will see from the blessing you gave to that lovely couple!” another user added.