Just curious as well, while the goldbond is more expensive, I called the ecosleep people when I was doing my research and while they normally don't sell direct to the public, they did put me in touch with 2 dealers who would ship me a mattress at a "special price". Actually what would have happened is that ecosleep would have drop shipped an order I placed with their dealer. The best price of the 2 dealers I talked to was $1439 (including shipping). What did they quote you at Verlo?

Was it the triumph you tried?

Phoenix

Added: The price I quoted above was one of the dealers and in looking at my notes it wasn't the best price of the two. The other one quoted $1350 including shipping. The mattress was (from top to bottom) 2" 19, 2" 24, and 5" 36. All Talalay. This was for either the Cassidy or the Sundance (different covers).

Also corrected virtue and triumph which I had mixed up

The ones we tried at Verlo were the harmony virtue - 5" Talalay 35 ILD core and 2 - 2 inch talalay ILD 19   price $1668  queen

The other was the harmony - 5" Talalay 35 ILD core and 3" talalay ILD 24  price $1538  queen.

Also the talalay is a blend and I was looking at more organic type products. I realize they are more expensive and I'll have to set a budget but would like to have a sound product.

Appreciate your insight. Looks like fall brings on some pretty good sales. So the search will continue and we need to try out some of the different lines out there.

                                                                  sy

Your thoughts on Habitat Furnishings and OMI. I know OMI is very high price but their product looks excellent.

                                                  sy

About OMI and "organics" in general.

There is a lot of misinformation here and this misinformation was part of a long conversation I had today and has also been the topic of other long conversations with many others.

In general, people are misusing the term "organic" and confusing it with "natural". People are also putting organic covers on mattresses that have all natural materials like 100% natural Talalay or Dunlop and then calling the mattress organic. This is absolute misinformation.

At the moment (and this may soon change) there is only one type of latex that has been certified as organic latex and it comes from Latex Green. It is dunlop latex. They also make a 100% natural dunlop latex.

Up till now, I and many others believed that the only major difference between the two was that the organic version came from rubber trees that had been segregated for a few years and didn't use any pesticides in the early years of the rubber trees' growth. This (and some other things as well) was part of the process that was required to label it as "certified organic". The consensus was that other than that it was pretty much the same and it certainly felt the same as the 100% natural. Some information I found out today is that it may be a higher quality than their 100% natural latex. It apparently doesn't "flake" when you cut it into layers and this was surprising even to the person who told me (Ken from a previous post). This indicates that there is some difference in how it is made but of course that is an assumption and not yet proven. It may after all be worth the extra cost over the 100% natural version even if you are not an organic purist. I doubt I would use it but there at least seems to be some evidence that there is a qualitative difference in it

Having said that, all the dealers for OMI will tell you that they are the most "organic" company out there and that they for example don't ever mix any of their natural products production with their organic products production and don't even ship them in the same trucks as their organic products ...  that you can "eat off their floors" ... etc etc. This may or may not be true ... but I certainly am not as sure as I was a few days ago. One thing that is for sure is that they use Talalay in their mattresses and there is currently no Talalay in the world that is organic. This means that other mattresses that do use organic dunlop latex covered with organic wool and/or cotton or other certified organic materials in their mattresses are certainly more organic than OMI, no matter how clean their production is.

What I also know is that their beds are very comfortable and beautiful and you can read more about my feelings about them in another thread. I also know that they are not the only "mostly organic" option and that I believe that their beds are way overpriced compared to other "mostly organic" options. They are way way overpriced compared to mattresses that are a combination of 100% natural and organic ingredients (which is really what OMI is). If someone can show you the certification for the organic latex in their mattress and they also can show you the certification for the other materials, then they can reasonably call their mattress organic. Technically it is still not an organic mattress since even if every ingredient in it has been certified organic ... including the fire barrier ... it is not completely organic until the mattress itself has been certified as a complete unit. There is currently no mattress that I am aware of in the world that has done this. So an absolute correct description of the current most organic mattress out there (which is not OMI) would be that they are selling a mattress which only contains 100% organic materials. An Oeko-Tex certification (which many have for their latex) is not the same as an organic certification http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeko-tex_standard

In my other thread (where I listed a bunch of links), there are links to sites that have every bit as "organic" a mattress as OMI and they are considerably less expensive. There are also many more that I didn't include that are well worth looking at. It was not meant to be a comprehensive list of every place that had great value. I would not buy an OMI no matter how important "organic" was to me as there are many other options where you will end up with at least as nice a mattress with the same or better level of "organicy" (in the true meaning of the made up word) for much much less.

My feeling about blended Talalay as I mentioned in the other thread is that especially in the lower ild's that it is a slightly superior product to the all natural Talalay. This is true whether the blended latex comes from Radium or from Latex International IMO. The all natural Talalay from LI is a "green driven" product which is very nice and more natural obviously than the blend (whether from Radium or LI) but in terms of it's quality or properties, it is very questionable that it is a "better" product and the testing indicates that it does not have the same ability to resist compression in the lower ild's. If more natural was important to someone, then the 100% natural Talalay latex may be worth the extra cost. Dunlopillo also make a 100% natural Talalay but I don't know of any mattresses in North America that use it in an all Talalay mattress. If someone does then let me know. I did talk to a manufacturer in Canada who was using Dunlopillo but they could only get it in one firmness and were using different poly layers to adjust the firmness of the mattress.

Regardless of the truth of all of this, it is clear to me that all of the reliable Talalay producers are making very good product regardless of the more "minute" differences. The reliable Dunlop producers are also making very good product regardless of the differences here as well. The only producers I would really question are the Chinese ... not because they are definitely bad but because most people just don't know and there is evidence that they could be inferior. There is apparently (at least) one Chinese producer of Talalay latex that used to only produce pillows but is now apparently producing cores. Don't have a lot of information about this. There are also Chinese factories that are now partly owned by American manufacturers (Sleep science and Classic brands are two) that are producing mattresses to American specifications for American manufacturers but I'm guessing that the cores themselves don't come from China. There are also other producers of latex ... including from India ... and this may be an interesting area to watch.

There very well may be more additions to this story over the coming weeks and months.

Phoenix

Phoenix

I believe that harmony  model (5" & 3 ") will be phased in time due to the new line they just released. The owner said they still have it listed in their inventory.  I have been researching your suggestions and I like the tomorrow's world and latex mattress shop. Will continue reading thru the others tomorrow.

                         sy

I didn't include these guys in my previous list but you can get an idea of how far some stores will go in their search for something really organic. They actually do third party testing on their materials apparently (not just rely on manufacturer specs and testing).

http://www.purerest.com/Mattresses/100-Organic-9-Pillowtop-Mattress

Queen with 8" of organic Dunlop latex is $2378

http://www.purerest.com/Mattresses/10-Certified-Organic-Rubber-Mattresses

Queen with 9" of organic Dunlop latex is $2548

They also have a mattress which has 9" (3x3) of Dunlop latex which is identical to the 9" organic except the Dunlop is only 100% Natural and it is on "special" for $1399.

The outer stuff (cotton wool etc) is the same they told me.

http://www.purerest.com/Mattresses/10-Budget-Mattress-Comparable-to-Other-Suppliers

and then if you look here:

http://www.mattresses.net/queen-organic-latex-mattress.html

You will find the same 8" of certified organic latex from the same latex manufacturer with a certified organic wool/cotton zippered cover for $1699.

I don't think they have 3rd party testing but the level of organicy (there's that word again) and the ingredients are the same for about $700 less.

They also have here http://www.mattresses.net/100--natural-latex-green-bed---watch-video.html

an all natural version (8") with a basic cotton cover and your choice of the Latex Green 100% natural Dunlop or the Latexco (from Belgium) 100% natural 7 zoned Dunlop which sells for $1049

or  here http://www.mattresses.net/queen-adjustable-ultra-plush-latex-sleep-system.html

6" blended Talalay and 2" blended Talalay with a wool (1.5") and cotton cover for $1095

Upgrade to 100% natural Talalay and wool and bamboo cover for $1249

and they will customize the thickness or type of any layers any way you want and alter the zippered cover to fit.

and then if you look here

http://www.sleepez.com/latex-mattress-sale.htm

You will find 6" 100% natural Dunlop and 2" natural Talalay with a basic cotton cover for $995

All examples are for a queen size. Shipping costs vary from site to site so don't forget to factor that in when you are making comparisons (the Pure Rest is the most, Arizona mattress is a lot less and Sleepez is free)

All of these sites have many other options as well and all of these can be customized to differing degrees.

Nothing here is meant to exclude some of the other links I mentioned before or sites I haven't even mentioned that have different levels of "customization" and "organicy" or "naturalness" and depending on what's important to you ... equally great value.

There's lots of choices out there

Phoenix

My wife and I will be traveling around testing out the various latex combinations this weekeknd. With you knowlwdge and expereince, how much mark up is there in mattresses? Have you found you can negotiate prices within reason?

Thanks!

                                               sy

Gallery, Select Comfort lead in performance

By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, May 28, 2008

High Point — High Point— It's getting to be a broken record, but Gallery Furniture again took the crown in two out of three Top 100 performance categories, duking it out with Select Comfort, which was tops in the third.

The Houston-based Gallery, No. 56 on the Top 100, was the sales-per-square-foot leader, reporting an average of $1,600 — blowing away all comers as well as the $289 median for the 49 companies for which estimates were available.

Gallery's stock turns also were tops (again) among the Top 100, turning an average of 28 times.

In both categories, No. 12 Select Comfort was second again with sales per square foot averaging $1,264 —the only other retailer to top $1,000 — and stock turning an average of 23 times.

The Minneapolis-based airbed maker and retailer was the leader in the gross margin category with a 59.4% average, followed by No. 91 Domain at 52.1%, and No. 3 Pier 1 Imports at 51.6%.

Gallery tied for fourth with No. 72 Norwalk — The Furniture Idea and No. 64 Dial-A-Mattress, all with 50% average margins.

Gallery and Select Comfort were the only companies to appear on the Top 10 of all three performance categories — again — while No. 1 Rooms To Go, No. 64 Dial-A-Mattress and No. 75 Sit'n Sleep made it on two of the three lists.

RTG posted the third-best sales per square foot at $900 and the 10th-best stock turns — averaging 8 times.

Long Island City, N.Y.-based Dial-A-Mattress tied for third with an average gross margin of 50%, and was fourth again with stocks turning an average of 16 times.

Gardena, Calif.-based Sit 'n Sleep, which appeared twice last year and the year before, posted the seventh-best stock turn rate, an average of 11 times, and the ninth-best sales per square foot.

The median inventory turn for the Top 100 was 5.6 times based on 33 estimates, an improvement over the 5.4 median turns for last year's Top 100. With 25 estimates, the median gross margin was 46%, up from 45% for the Top 100 last year.

Despite Gallery's strong sales-per-square-foot performance — bettering its number last year by $230 — the median of $289 in sales per square foot for this year's Top 100 was below the $300 median for last year's group.

When a product is certified organic it really means the covers themselves, what you want to look for in an organic mattress with regards to rubber cores is simply 3rd party certification testing for polymer content (ratio of NR to SBR) and VOC, PBDE, heavy metal content.  I am actually also a dealer of Natura product, and they have been using latex green natural dunlop cores in their organic mattresses for the past year or 2.  The rubber is fantastic quality and has always had 3rd party certification for the natural content, I was told recently that they are seeking organic certification and maybe already have it...however the product has not changed...their natural rubber IS what they are seeking to label as organic rubber.....personally I believe that to be a little bit misleading from the sense that there are a couple different makers of the same quality and purity of natural rubber cores and the companies for good reason do not label the rubber as being organic.  Saying it is organically grown is really the proper terminology.