When did Furniture Flipping become a thing?

 As a distraction, I thought I would take up Furniture Flipping as a hobby.  For those who may not be aware, Furniture Flipping is taking a used piece of furniture and fixing it up to resell, hopefully for a profit.  I did not expect to make a ton of money or even turn into a side hustle.

I actually inadvertently dabbled in FF back in Chicago when I got a couple items off that didn't work out and had to get rid of them.  I don't recall the exact timeline or precise price but going off memory:

The first was a table that I thought could work for something.  I got it for $5 and found that with some good cleaning and posting at a different virtual garage sale, I sold it for a small profit.  

Another was a free table our neighbors had on their lawn the afternoon of the annual neighborhood yard sale.  it had a sign that said, please take it away.  We tried to make it work but Moose and Squirrel were only going to destroy it.  I cleaned it up and sold it for about $50 (at least six months later).

The last piece was a dresser from my mom's house.  I tried to bring it to Salvation Army to give away but because it was in the vehicle upside down, it looked like the drawers were falling apart and they refused to take it.  Again, some clean up, and new hardware sold for around $30.

Had I known about FF in 2020 when I was laid off, I might have tried to make it a side hustle.  People give away a lot of stuff in big cities, especially around moving days.  

Alas, this piece that I found for $12 isn't going to work out.  The time investment is too high. There is just too much sanding involved.  I also let Moose and Squirrel do some work on it and they went overboard.

I might still try to work on it just for practice to take my mind off other things.  We'll see.