Hello all. Thank you for the great forums. I have relied on them heavily in the last few weeks looking for a sofa. In a way however these forums have been depressing. I go to a furniture store, find a comfy sofa that I like, then come to the forums to learn how crappy it is!

I live in somewhat of a wasteland of sofas. Almost nobody sells the higher end stuff, and craigslist gets maybe 3-4 new listings a day, usually of very cheapo stuff.
I actually found one place that sells Bradington-Young, but the salesman was some guy in his early 20s who knew less about sofas than I have learned just in the few weeks I have been doing research. This was supposed to be a somewhat ritzy place that carries only USA made brands, but when he was showing me some Rowe sofas, and I asked him what the frame was made of, he said he did not know! I had to turn my heard so he would not see my jaw drop. Quite disappointing.

Anyway, It does appear that in order to get a really good leather sofa, I would have to pay quite a lot more than I am really able to ($4k range?). The only leather I have found that is within my range is the lower to mid tier stuff, so it looks like that is what I will need to get.

I was initially thinking of a flexsteel, but after reading everything about how bad things have become with their quality, I decided to look around more, and found a Lane leather sofa that I liked.

Both are made in China, although Lane assembles in the US (does that even mean much of anything?). Also, the Lane has full top grain leather all around, while the flexsteel has bonded leather on the sides and back. From all the horror stories I have read about the Chinese bonded leather coming apart, it seems that the Lane may be the way to go.

I suspect the majority of opinion here will be of the "well they are both crappy so it doesn't really matter" variety, but I had hoped someone could nudge me in the right direction.

thanks much!