[nelaboras]

I think by trying to find evil in their scheme you miss the pretty obvious business logic:

- IKEA will only accept things in decent-ish condition and will (if necessary) refurbish and resell them.

- you get a voucher, not cash

So an assumption that they try to kill the second hand market seems absurd - on the contrary they become a marketplace for good-condition second hand products AND get people into the store with a voucher in hand (which means they might spend even more to buy something and like many vouchers may also end up unclaimed).

So no nefariousness here, just good business sense. Nonetheless having used options in the store, allowing you to decide to take that shelf new for 130 or that used one for 70 seems to me as a net gain for everyone.

[TeMPOraL]

This does look like it could kill the second-hand market, though. A voucher ties you to spending it on more IKEA, and if enough people exchange their used furniture for vouchers instead of selling it themselves, it'll discourage people from looking for the used furniture outside of IKEA - seeing second-hand IKEA furniture on sale you'll be asking yourself whether it's a lemon, because if it wasn't, then presumably the owner would sell it back to IKEA instead.

"Good business sense" seems to rarely correlate with benefits for society these days, so it's wise to be skeptical.

[sumedh]

> then presumably the owner would sell it back to IKEA instead.

Why? If you get a better price in the second hand market and someone will pick it up from your home, why would you sell it back to Ikea.

[fogihujy]

It looks more like being an attempt at getting a slice of the second-hand market and not to kill it.

[m463]

They are nefarious. They lower the price of umbrellas when it rains!