[Dopetrackalistic]

I don't get it. Some spring steel rolled into a few coils, some cheap L beams, a bit of hardware and wire, and some cotton and filler.

$1000!?!?!??!?!?!

WHY!? Does anyone have the slightest clue why a padded area to sleep on costs so freakin much? I'm of the opinion it costs that much because that's the amount people are willing to pay for, and they can use hte arguement "well a mattress lasts and lasts so it's really just pennies a day!" to trick people into thinking they're getting a good deal for a padded square of steel and cotton for over one thousand ****ing dollars.

Seriously. Does anybody know why they're so expensive? I'm going to try to use the internet to price the materials as a rough estimate, and my hypothesis is it won't even be above $300.

[Axo1ot1]

I got a foam mattress for like $200. I don't get the spring mattress thing. Foam is cheaper and more comfortable. Why is everyone so stuck on springs?

[Dopetrackalistic]

Where at? New or used?

[vmarks]

Once upon a time, bending springs was a big deal, and the work was all US and done with care.

Now the big mfrs do it cheap and make bigger margins.

The Original Mattress Factory http://www.originalmattress.com/ proudly claims to still do it the old way, do it better, and still cost less than the big mfrs.

Or, if you're enterprising, you can do a sleep number bed. Build the 'foundation' (not a box spring, but a solid firm top platform that doesn't give) and then buy their mattress and system. They sell for 499 if you don't do it as the set, just the mattress.

You can also go to a sam's club or bj's warehouse club and get a traditional mattress there.

[demograph68]

My layered cardboard mattress isn't so bad. You should look into getting one as well. Put some hay underneath for added comfort.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by demograph68

My layered cardboard mattress isn't so bad. You should look into getting one as well. Put some hay underneath for added comfort.

I'd honeslty be fine with that. It's the missus that's hankering for dropping a grand on a squishy square made of cotton and steel. I think it's retarded. When I was 21 I slept on some egg crate foam and a few sleeping bags, laying on the floor, for an entire year. Zero back problems.

[Ozmodiar]

$1000? I bought a queen-sized plush top last summer for like $400. Not that bad considering how comfortable it is.

[simonjames]

Supply and demand

low volume items tend to cost more than high volume. Each person in the supply chain has to make a living. If the bed shop sells 5 beds a day and employs 2 people then the margin on those 30 or so beds has to cover their wages and the cost of running the business.

Same goes for kitchens, toilets and bathroom fittings - the shop markup tends to be above 120% - and thats just the end of the food chain

Plus - you get what you pay for - pure and simple - thats why we all have Macs

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by simonjames

Supply and demand

low volume items tend to cost more than high volume. Each person in the supply chain has to make a living. If the bed shop sells 5 beds a day and employs 2 people then the margin on those 30 or so beds has to cover their wages and the cost of running the business.

Yep. This is the correct answer.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Axo1ot1

I got a foam mattress for like $200. I don't get the spring mattress thing. Foam is cheaper and more comfortable. Why is everyone so stuck on springs?

Ech.

You'll be spending between a quarter and half of your entire life on the mattress.

A really good latex-core mattress will last you twenty years and can be had for $1000-1500.

How much will you have spent on shoes in twenty years without giving it a second thought?


Do your back a favor and get a decent latex-core mattress. Foam is way too soft.

[Mastrap]

If you're buying in the US make sure that the mattress hasn't been treated with flame retardant chemicals.

Here's why:

For the past 30 years, flame retardants have been found in every Canadian home, added liberally as a safety precaution to everything from mattresses and carpets to stereos, televisions and computers.

Now Canada is poised to add flame retardants — or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) — to its toxic-substances list.

If a draft proposal it is circulating is any guide, the federal government is expected to virtually eliminate some varieties of the chemical and place tight controls on others.

Regulators are considering drastic action because laboratory studies using animals have linked the chemicals to behaviour changes that bear an uncanny similarity to attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorders common in children. Some researchers believe PBDEs could offer a clue for the sudden rise of these childhood disorders in recent years.

The animal findings on their own would not be a major concern, except for a second disturbing discovery: Flame retardants are not staying put in consumer products. They have been migrating from mattresses and computers, in ways that are not completely understood, into the environment and into people.

It's been a strange odyssey for flame retardants — from lifesaver to possible health hazard.

When the chemicals, known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers, were tested in the 1980s, they seemed to have few drawbacks. They weren't excessively toxic because huge exposures were needed to kill test animals. They also didn't appear to be a cancer risk and were given a clean bill of health for such uses as preventing TV sets, computers and mattresses from catching fire.

It took nearly two decades of their widespread use before scientists began conducting new tests on chemicals, checking whether they had hormone-like properties — a field of science that only started to develop in the mid-1990s after discoveries that many industrial compounds once deemed safe exhibited this unusual attribute.

This new research has found that flame retardants have an ability to mimic thyroid hormones; it is thought that by following that hormonal route, the chemical plays havoc in laboratory animals, where exposures have been linked to hyperactivity, impaired learning and decreased sperm counts.

Society has been “blindsided by product decisions that were made before this new science started to come out,” said Pete Myers, co-author of Our Stolen Future, a book that describes how many everyday chemicals behave like hormones.

Researchers are finding that flame retardants don't obey traditional rules of toxicology, shedding light on the novel ways that some chemicals may still hold dangers, even though they aren't outright poisonous or don't trigger cancer.

The traditional mantra of toxicologists has been that the dose makes the poison, or that exposures have to be large to have an effect, with larger exposures packing more punch than smaller ones.

In experiments with rodents, effects have been noted on the offspring of rats given only one exposure of 60 parts per billion, an amount that a few decades ago scientists would have dismissed as too low to have an impact. To get an idea of the amount involved, a part per billion equals a single drop of water in a gasoline tanker truck.

The pups born to exposed rats were found by motion sensors to be 24 per cent more active in their cages than unexposed control animals.

When researchers upped the dose to 300 ppb, there was hardly any increase in activity; it went up only 27 per cent compared with the controls, despite the fivefold increase in exposure.

The amounts used in the rat experiment, the lowest seen to produce effects, are approaching levels seen in some people in North America, and were thousands of times smaller than the amounts found to kill test animals.

“There was a lot of surprise that these compounds could produce some effect at concentrations like that,” said Dr. Thomas Zoeller, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts who is studying flame retardants for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

What is more, the behaviour effects persisted as the animals aged, indicating that whatever the chemicals did was permanent. “It means that you can't go back and fix it,” Dr. Zoeller said. “You either prevent these [effects] or you cope with them.”

In another experiment, using newborn mice, researchers found another unusual property. Sometimes it isn't the size of the dose that makes flame retardants harmful, but the point in an animal's life when the exposure was given.

Young male mice given traces of the chemicals four and 10 days after birth exhibited behavioural abnormalities, but the same dose given to 19-day-olds caused no changes at all, compared with control animals.

Scientists theorize that the flame retardants had their effect by interfering with hormones during the period of rapid brain growth in the rodents in the first two weeks of life. In humans, this brain growth spurt lasts from the final part of pregnancy through the first two years of life.

The amounts of flame retardants given to the mice was low, in the parts per million range, but what is more remarkable is that the quantity that made its way into brain tissue was the scientific equivalent of almost nothing, only 10 parts per trillion. A part per trillion is the equivalent of a grain of salt in an Olympic-size swimming pool.

IKEA is one of the few mainstream manufacturers to follow European guidelines on these chemicals - and in Europe they have never been legal.

[Zeeb]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

I don't get it. Some spring steel rolled into a few coils, some cheap L beams, a bit of hardware and wire, and some cotton and filler.

$1000!?!?!??!?!?!

WHY!? Does anyone have the slightest clue why a padded area to sleep on costs so freakin much? I'm of the opinion it costs that much because that's the amount people are willing to pay for, and they can use hte arguement "well a mattress lasts and lasts so it's really just pennies a day!" to trick people into thinking they're getting a good deal for a padded square of steel and cotton for over one thousand ****ing dollars.

Seriously. Does anybody know why they're so expensive? I'm going to try to use the internet to price the materials as a rough estimate, and my hypothesis is it won't even be above $300.

I sympathize, I went shopping for one myself last year and ended up calling that 1-800 mattress place. I bought a frame and headboard from a furniture store and ended up paying about $800 total. Its pretty comfortable and getting a real bed rather than just a frame gives me something to put my pillow against.

What really irritated me were the $3000 temperpedic mattresses for sale when I was shopping. Not much more than a giant piece of squishy foam marked up unbelievably. Very, very comfy though.

[The Godfather]

Add to all reasons above: they are not made in China or Mexico.

What are you sleeping on now?

[f1000]

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by The Godfather

Add to all reasons above: they are not made in China or Mexico.

What are you sleeping on now?

A 12 yr old mattress.

I'm fine with it. Wife isn't. Wife wants to blow a shitload of cash on one of hte most overpriced things I've ever seen. I'm honestly considering MAKING a mattress. It wouldn't cost NEAR $1000.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

I'm fine with it. Wife isn't. Wife wants to blow a shitload of cash

Welcome to being a married man.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Well, to be fair she is still driving the 89 accord with 239,000 miles we got for $500. I just think it's weird to spend money on a mattress when we have one already. I'd rather go on vacation, or buy a supercharger for my SVX.

[Mastrap]

A 12 year old mattress is ripe for the garbage, your wife is absolutely right. Would you wear underpants for 12 years without washing them? I don't think so. Every night you lose about 1/2 -1 liter of water. Where does it go? Into the mattress. Add to this that you'll have a thriving population of dust mites living in that old thing (dust mite that eat and digest and excrete and die and decompose) and I think you'll find a grand a small price to pay for some comfort and sanitation.

A good mattress is the best present you can make your back. You might be ok sleeping on egg crates when you're 21 but trust me, the damage is accumulative and you'll pay for it later in life.

PS: I am not suggesting that you are in any way unhygienic. Dust mites are in everybody's house and in every single bed. There's little that can be done about them except changing mattresses every 6 years or so.

[ghporter]

My current mattress cost about $80. It's a water mattress, though...

[Allenzi35]

Mattresses are ridiculously priced. I recently moved and had to buy a new bed. Until I could get a bed, a friend loaned me his Coleman air mattress and I must say, I have never slept better. I was amazed that it was so comfortable. I was looking at $1000 to $2000 mattresses until I slept on the air mattress.

I went to Walmart and bought the Coleman Queen Air Mattress for $20. I was given a bed frame for free so I put a piece of plywood on it, then dust ruffle, air mattress, sheets and comforter, and when the bed is made, it looks just like a regular bed.

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/...114614603_.jpg

This is the exact one that I got from Walmart for $20. It is honestly the best bed I ever had, all for $20. Try it out before you spend thousands of dollors on a mattress.

[Buckaroo]

Look in the local Pennysaver or similar paper for deals. I got a fulll size for less than $200 with frame. New of course.

Personally I recommend you buy the cheapest mattress and foundation and put one of those memory foams from overstock.com for only $179. It is great. I tried the 2", but I would recommend the 4".

http://www.overstock.com/?page=proframe&prod_id=1657609

I also recommend cotton T-shirt sheets. They are much more comfortable than linnen.

[Buckaroo]

You are sooo right. I posted before I read your post, and I remembered back when I moved in and set up a cheap air mattress from colman, and it was the most comfortable bed EVER.

Because of it, I thought I'd buy an expensive air bed, and it was no where near as comfortable as that cheap coleman. The 2" of foam I recently added has helped, but not as nice as that cheap coleman.

Originally Posted by Allenzi35

Mattresses are ridiculously priced. I recently moved and had to buy a new bed. Until I could get a bed, a friend loaned me his Coleman air mattress and I must say, I have never slept better. I was amazed that it was so comfortable. I was looking at $1000 to $2000 mattresses until I slept on the air mattress.

I went to Walmart and bought the Coleman Queen Air Mattress for $20. I was given a bed frame for free so I put a piece of plywood on it, then dust ruffle, air mattress, sheets and comforter, and when the bed is made, it looks just like a regular bed.

http://ec3.images-amazon.com/images/...114614603_.jpg

This is the exact one that I got from Walmart for $20. It is honestly the best bed I ever had, all for $20. Try it out before you spend thousands of dollors on a mattress.

[Allenzi35]

You are sooo right. I posted before I read your post, and I remembered back when I moved in and set up a cheap air mattress from colman, and it was the most comfortable bed EVER.

Because of it, I thought I'd buy an expensive air bed, and it was no where near as comfortable as that cheap coleman. The 2" of foam I recently added has helped, but not as nice as that cheap coleman.

I know, right. When my friend loaned me the Coleman, I was so amazed at how soundly I slept all night and I couldn't remember the last time I slept so good. So I went out and bought a $200 AEROBED airbed thinking that if the coleman was good, this would be great. I was wrong and returned it for the $20 Coleman. Sometimes you DON'T get what you pay for.

$20 > $1000

[jebjeb]

My wife and I got a Tempur mattress a few years ago. Money well spent.

Extremely comfortable, no noise from springs moving, does not disturb your partner when you move and gives you a fantastic nights sleep. Nice and cool too which the normal foam ones are not.

[hey!_Zeus]

Expensive mattresses are made from the finest of Corinthian everything.

And if you drop a bowling ball from six feet you won't disturb your sleeping partner.

That's worth big centablos.

[Eriamjh]

Please see the 1.5 million dollar bed thread.

[zerostar]

you can get a decent set (mattress/boxspring) for under $900 on 1800mattress.com and they will deliver/setup/remove as well.

If you just need the mattress (you can throw a couple sheets of 1/2 plywood on top of your old box spring to perk it up, then cover with a dust ruffle..) you can get a great deal on that site, and my delivery was something like $35 last time...

We spent a little over $1000 on just our mattress about 6 years ago, we should have shopped around more because I am ready for a new one now. It is a sealy pillowtop model the softest one they made at the time.

[ghporter]

That's still too damn much for a bed! My current bed, a king-size waterbed, is 26 years old. We've had to replace the matress twice and the liner about four times. I think we're using the second heater, but I may be wrong there. The whole thing by itself hasn't cost $500. We spent a lot more for a headboard/mirror/drawer system for it because we like the underbed drawers so much but needed a few more drawers. I expect the headboard to last as long as the rest of the bed does.

[Railroader]

I'll happily pay a grand every few years for something I spend almost 1/3 of my life on.

Maybe that's why you're so OCD and angry all the time rob. You aren't sleeping well.

[Mastrap]

Agreed. And if you read the article on toxicity in mattresses it makes even more sense.

[ghporter]

I've always thought that the key to World Peace® was shoes that fit right all day. Just picture Kim Il Jung in Nikes that fit-how could he oppress his people with shoes like that? So maybe it's more than just shoes... Maybe it's shoes that fit right AND a good quality mattress. Hmmmm. This needs study.

[davesimondotcom]

My wife and I both love our Sleep Number bed.

I've got back problems here and there (pinched nerve) and she suffers from a connective tissue disease and MS, but we have both enjoyed sleeping in the Sleep Number.

It's helped with her overall soreness and with my back. I'd say it's well worth the money to have energy all day long.

[simonjames]

In Australia it is impossible to do comparison shopping on mattresses. We have a handfull of mattress manufacturers that label each mattress in their product line-up with a different name for each large retailer. So you go to retailer 1 and look at Sealy Posturepedic X, Y & Z and the go to retailer 2 who does not have X, Y nor Z but does have Sealy Posturepedic A, B & C.

I'm sure this has to be illegal. It is certainly anti-competitive from a retailing-only point of view.

Does anyone use a feather topper on their mattress? They are so hard to come by in Australia and they're expensive. I stay at the Marriott when I travel business to Brisbane and they have feather toppers in their deluxe rooms - *very* nice.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by Railroader

I'll happily pay a grand every few years for something I spend almost 1/3 of my life on.

Maybe that's why you're so OCD and angry all the time rob. You aren't sleeping well.

Sweet. Send me $500 for a super pillow. I'll build an attachment to suck you off.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Mastrap

Agreed. And if you read the article on toxicity in mattresses it makes even more sense.

Agreed.

Unless you have your mattress cleaned regularly, you are sleeping in basically clothes you have worn for years without washing. Clothes you had sex repeatedly in and sweated profusely in. Ewwww....

Maybe I need to go mattress shopping again soon...

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

Sweet. Send me $500 for a super pillow. I'll build an attachment to suck you off.

I knew you were gay from the first post I read of yours. Your obsession with me is another CLEAR indicator.

Quit thinking about my dick!!!

[torsoboy]

Originally Posted by Railroader

Unless you have your mattress cleaned regularly, you are sleeping in basically clothes you have worn for years without washing. Clothes you had sex repeatedly in and sweated profusely in. Ewwww....

Maybe I need to go mattress shopping again soon...

Doesn't anyone use sheets anymore?? Or a bed liner? We use a soft bedliner (1/4 inch thick) under our sheets, and both the sheets and liner are cleaned every week. My wife also sprays lysol on the bed before replacing the liner and sheets. I don't think the mattress is doing so bad. We've had it for four years and it seems pretty clean to me.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by torsoboy

Doesn't anyone use sheets anymore?? Or a bed liner? We use a soft bedliner (1/4 inch thick) under our sheets, and both the sheets and liner are cleaned every week. My wife also sprays lysol on the bed before replacing the liner and sheets. I don't think the mattress is doing so bad. We've had it for four years and it seems pretty clean to me.

Kilbey drives a chevy and works at GM. I highly doubt his hygiene is up to snuff.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

Kilbey drives a *chevy and works at GM. I highly doubt his hygiene is up to snuff.

No I don't. You're a complete utter moron.

*Actually, TWO chevys.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by torsoboy

Doesn't anyone use sheets anymore?? Or a bed liner? We use a soft bedliner (1/4 inch thick) under our sheets, and both the sheets and liner are cleaned every week. My wife also sprays lysol on the bed before replacing the liner and sheets. I don't think the mattress is doing so bad. We've had it for four years and it seems pretty clean to me.

My wife washes the sheet twice or more a week. We have a couple mattress pads we rotate out.

You sweat don't you? Do you think those sheets and mattress pads keep out sweat (and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or semen(and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or don't you have sex?

And lysol? You like sleeping on a chemical buildup?

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by Railroader

*Actually, TWO chevys.

1. I'm sorry to hear that. I feel your pain.
2. Do you own two because the resale value is so bad you could afford two? Or is it because when one's in teh shop you have something else to drive?

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by Railroader

My wife washes the sheet twice or more a week. We have a couple mattress pads we rotate out.

You sweat don't you? Do you think those sheets and mattress pads keep out sweat (and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or semen(and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or don't you have sex?

And lysol? You like sleeping on a chemical buildup?

Apparently you didn't read the word 'bed liner'. Those keep **** out of your mattress.

[Corpse of Chewbacca]

I bought a queen size air mattress and LOVE it. $20 at Target™.

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

Apparently you didn't read the word 'bed liner'. Those keep **** out of your mattress.

Does wittle robbie still wet the beddy and need a "liner".... awwww....

Who the HELL uses a plastic liner on their mattress?!?!?!

[Railroader]

Originally Posted by Dopetrackalistic

1. I'm sorry to hear that. I feel your pain.
2. Do you own two because the resale value is so bad you could afford two? Or is it because when one's in teh shop you have something else to drive?

Let's compare the down time on your SVX and my chevys.

So far, I have had ZERO repairs. You?

Kepp dreaming robbie podell.

[torsoboy]

Originally Posted by Railroader

My wife washes the sheet twice or more a week. We have a couple mattress pads we rotate out.

You sweat don't you? Do you think those sheets and mattress pads keep out sweat (and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or semen(and the resulting bacterial infestation)? Or don't you have sex?

And lysol? You like sleeping on a chemical buildup?

I don't sweat enough to soak through my sheets and the matress pad. Maybe you should use air conditioning? And when I have sex, I don't usually miss the target... maybe you should get some help with that?

The lysol is on the bed under the matress pad and sheets, so I am not exactly sleeping right on it. And let me guess, you don't use laundry detergent either because it has chemicals in it and you don't want to be so close to a chemical build-up. You sound a bit paranoid.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by Railroader

Does wittle robbie still wet the beddy and need a "liner".... awwww....

Who the HELL uses a plastic liner on their mattress?!?!?!

I don't. But he said he had one. I think it'd make you sweat more since it wouldn't breath much.

PS: Example # 518,425,830 of you attacking me.

[torsoboy]

Originally Posted by Railroader

Does wittle robbie still wet the beddy and need a "liner".... awwww....

Who the HELL uses a plastic liner on their mattress?!?!?!

Maybe all of the people that have waterbeds or air beds?

But I was wrong, it isn't a liner it is just a mattress pad.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by Railroader

Let's compare the down time on your SVX and my chevys.

So far, I have had ZERO repairs. You?

Kepp dreaming robbie podell.

I had a mouse eat my injector wiring, which could happen to any car, so that doesn't really count. I also had a dealership (which is MAINLY a GM dealership, but also does subies on the side) botch up a timing belt install, so that doesn't really count either since it was GM monkeys who ****ed up my car in the first place.

Other than that, none. It also has 193,000 miles, and runs a 15.5 at 89mph.

[Dopetrackalistic]

Originally Posted by torsoboy

Maybe all of the people that have waterbeds or air beds?

But I was wrong, it isn't a liner it is just a mattress pad.

Careful, that would ruin railroaders attempt at his 981,831,852nd personal attack on me.