Office Chairs

Where the manager’s chair sits between secretarial and executive:

it is the middle step that confuses buyers. A secretarial chair is the plain task chair: mid-height back, gas lift, a simple tilt and usually fixed arms. An executive chair has a high back, often a headrest, thicker padding and arms that move. The manager’s chair in between is where many mesh chairs on Panamanian shelves land, with adjustable arms and a price closer to the secretarial than the executive. A counter chair is a task chair on a tall cylinder with a foot ring, built for till height. Gaming chairs look generous in their racing-style PVC but rarely adjust as well as a plain mesh task chair. Check it against the desk it will roll under; chairs for the dinner table are under dining chairs.

Fitting an office chair to a full working day:

the adjustments are what you pay for. The seat should go low enough for your feet to rest flat with your elbows level with the desk. A synchro mechanism, which tilts seat and back together at different rates, is the line between a real task chair and one that only rocks. Arms that move up and down earn their place if they let the chair slide under the desk. Read the weight rating on the label: budget chairs are often rated low, so heavier users should look past them. Mesh breathes; faux leather wipes clean but peels. On tile, soft rubber or polyurethane wheels roll quietly and do not scratch, while hard nylon wheels are made for carpet.

Office chairs that hold their value, and the ones that do not:

a basic secretarial chair costs under $100 new in Panama, and most mesh manager’s and executive chairs fall between about $120 and $250. That low shelf price sets the used price. Once a chair in that range has a tired cylinder or a sagging seat, a buyer weighs it against a new one still in its box, and it sells for little more than the cost of putting it right. Herman Miller and Steelcase chairs are the exception. They cost well over $1,000 new, their parts are made to be replaced, and a good used one keeps much of its value, which is why the Aeron is so widely copied.

The one-minute sit test for a second-hand office chair:

raise the seat to the top, sit for a full minute and watch whether it creeps down. If it does, the gas cylinder is spent, but it is usually a standard part, so negotiate rather than walk away. Try the tilt lock in every position. Turn the chair over and look at the five-star base where the legs meet the hub: a crack in a nylon base only spreads, and the base must be replaced before anyone sits on it. Mesh gives way first along the frame, faux leather at the front of the seat and on the armpads. A genuine Aeron carries a label under the seat with its model number and build date, and comes in sizes A, B and C. A batch with no labels at all is almost certainly a batch of copies.

Office chairs coming out of a refit, singly or by the floor:

say whether you are selling one chair or a lot, and whether buyers can take part of it. Name the grade and the brand, photograph any label, and list what adjusts and whether it still works. Be plain about a seat that sinks or a cracked armpad. Shoot one chair from the front, side and underneath, then the whole group. Chairs from a call centre or any office that ran shifts have worked more than one shift a day, so say so up front. A company emptying a floor in Obarrio or Panamá Pacífico should give the date by which everything must be collected, and anyone coming for the whole lot should bring a panel van or a pickup, not a hatchback: office chairs do not stack.