EXCERPTS:
"How much would you spend for a good night's sleep? Some people might say $33,000. That's the price of E.S. Kluft & Co.'s hand-tufted, king-size Palais Royale mattress and box spring, currently the most expensive American-made mattress set on the market. The company says it has sold about 100 since introducing it in 2008.
At $69,500—roughly the price of a Porsche Cayenne S hybrid SUV—there's the Vividus king-size mattress set from Hästens Sängar AB, of Sweden. Hästens says it takes 160 hours to assemble this mattress entirely by hand, which has a Swedish-pine frame with thick layers of horsehair, cotton, flax and wool inside. The company says since introducing the mattress in 2006, it has sold 250 of them world-wide.
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... bad sleep was what drove Scott Kimple, a 44-year-old hedge-fund manager in Dallas, to invest $27,500 in a king-size Hästens 2000T mattress set two years ago. "I've had problems sleeping in the last couple of years, and I thought well, maybe a mattress might help," Mr. Kimple says.
"When I heard there was a $20,000 mattress out there, I thought it was kind of ridiculous." But Mr. Kimple is a convert. "It's light years better than anything I've ever slept on. It's like you're floating on air." An added plus: "They will come to your house and flip the mattress for you," Mr. Kimple says. The Hästens store in Dallas offers the monthly service to local customers for the first year; Mr. Kimple had it done.
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For some, the eye-popping price is part of the appeal. "For any luxury brand, there has to be a perception of scarcity," says Dean Crutchfield, senior partner at Method Inc., a New York brand consulting firm. "If everyone was running around buying these beds, they wouldn't be as special.
"Let's be honest, not everyone can have this. Not everyone can afford this. That's what this is about," Mr. Crutchfield says.
