Cat trees and cat furniture

I'm not sure if I put this in the right section, I figured it might be related to care.

Where do you guys get your cat trees/cat furniture? I currently have a hand-me-down cat tree that my 2 cats absolutely love, but it's getting worn and they're tearing the carpet on it to pieces and I'm dying to get them a new one to play with. I live in a small one bedroom apartment so I really want them to have as much vertical space as possible since they don't have a ton of space to run around and be crazy.

My problem is the cat trees I find in any store are so expensive! I'm afraid to drop $100 on a toy that my cats might not even like, so I was just wondering if you guys had any secrets or tips to finding a cheaper solution?

I don't have the space or equipment to build my own yet, or else I would be all over that.

I have found several small ones in thrift stores. Ritz doesn't mind the smell, though I would suggest airing them out first.
Also, a friend of mine bought a nice one at a SPCA yard sale for $2. If you think about it it makes cents (sic): SPCA gets lots of donations, they only have so much room for cat trees, so they end up selling extras for cheap.

EBay! The pet stores sell the same ones, but at a ridiculous price. We bought one off eBay just before we got our new kitten, and it was $88 AU. It is 190cm tall (over 6ft), has platforms, a sleeping box bit, and a hammock. Similar style in a pet store was around $200 or more dollars, and the quality was no better. I was skeptical about getting one off eBay without being able to check the quality, but it had a ton of great reviews, so we took the risk.

You could also try Zooplus.com, they have some at reasonable prices. Hope this helps.

i bought my cats their first cat tree on ebay -- paid 99 cents for it (i bid on it) and the shipping cost was $115. i've bought 6 or 7 more cat trees over the years, and those i bought from amazon (free supersaver shipping). these ones from amazon actually cost a bit less than the one from ebay (after the shipping cost was added in). i always buy armarkat cat trees because i can buy replacement parts for them as needed, though i've never needed a replacement part (to date). i've moved and brought our cat trees, and was able to easily partly disassemble them for the move.

We bought ours off Craig's list for 70$. It took about a month of looking to find a decent quality one for a reasonable price. A lot of the ones people listed were just 20 or 30$ off retail! For a used tree! We made sure to check it out well in person (clean, in good shape, etc...) before buying. The cats love it and are relaxing on it now.

I also buy off eBay. The trees are of ok.quality but if you have large or heavy cats i would suggest you actually go to the store and see them. My cats cannot fit into the houses

I buy our trees from either Wayfair.com or Amazon. We by Armarkat and Kitty Mansion trees mostly. Shipping is free on Wayfair and I use Amazon Prime and only buy when free shipping is available.

I just bought *my* 7th tree from Wayfair. We have purchased about 2 dozen or so for the rescue. I've only had 1 tree arrive with a damaged piece and they were very quick to get a replacement part sent (for free.)

Etsy.com is good, too! They are handmade, individually, so you would also be supporting an artist!

Me, I desperately want to make the Nintendo cat climber posted to reddit (Google Nintendo cat climber). So easy, and would look awesome in my industrial geek living room!