Fabric Galore

Our woman's club was cleaning out and we found a 221-1 Singer in the original leatherette case with the original instruction book and accessories. It has the Egyptian face place and it looks brand new. I went online to see what they were worth and some of the prices were over $500 to $795 which I consider out of line. What would be a realistic price for this machine. It sews beautifully.

bkay

Ones in pretty good shape sell here for about $250.00. If it is really pristine, you might get $450.00 for it. You'll have to show it and wait for the right buyer to come along, though. The white, beige or light green ones can go for more, but again, you have to wait.

A 222 in good condition may bring the $750.00 figure.

jmo

bkay

BonnieJP

You might check what the "sold" 221s have gone for on Ebay. Some of them have sold for more than $1,000!

bkay

OK. Maybe so.

I really don't know the answer to the question if it is just about ebay. Ebay generally generates a higher price than a local sale. Many of the Ebay sellers are professionals. They get special deals that you and I do not get. My friend sells on Ebay all the time (not sewing machines). Fairly often, he gets a short time frame (2 days, I think) to post whatever he wants to "buy it now". He doesn't pay any upfront fee, he can leave the item up as long as it takes to sell it and only pays when it sells, even if it takes 3 months. You and I don't get that kind of deal. The Pros do, however.

Often, the real selling price is not disclosed. If an item is listed as "buy it now" for $1,000, but someone offers me $700. and I take it, the sell price is still listed as $1,000.

Ebay is lots more complicated than it appears to be. I just caution people that what appears to be on Ebay is not necessarily fact.

This is not taking into consideration the prices brought by those featherweights that are being totally refurbed and repainted in non-traditional colors such as this.

ube quilting

If you go to the Feather Weight Shop you will see a range of prices up to and over 1k. It all depends on condition and rarity. The prices you are seeing is what people will pay and personally, if you have the $, they are worth every penny. It took me over twenty years to find the one that I care for now.

mindless

Lucky find!

Make sure you look over the accessories. If it has an original walking foot (sometimes called a penguin because of it's looks), that alone can be worth more than the machine.

The machine itself, in good shape with the case & manual will sell for a wide range of prices depending on whether you are willing to ship it, and what the going rate is in your area.

I live in the Northwest, and 221s go for anywhere from $350 to $450 depending on shape, and never stay on the market for long. They seem to be real popular here. Of course, they show up a lot on Craigslist at much higher asking prices too. Those probably get negotiated down a bit.

222s are harder to find, and go for lots more. From $1200-$2000 and up is not unusual. Again, here there are a lot of collectors and not many 222 machines available.

What ever you decide, it never hurts to start high and negotiate down.

Good luck to you!

bkay

I had forgotten that. Some of the accessories are particularly desirable. I found some part that was unique to the featherweight in a 201-2 that I purchased. They had engineered some hand made part to make it work on the 201-2. There were also some featherweight bobbins as well. I figured I'd get a featherweight one day, so it's still in that machine drawer with the other 201-2 accessories.

As far as I know, many of the accessories are the same as for the other Singer short shank machines. The bobbin and bobbin case are unique to the 221, 222 and 301. The original bobbin cases go for at least $50.00. They are routinely stolen from machines that are in estate sales and antique stores. So remove the bobbin case until you have the money in your hand, as some lookers have sticky fingers.

Again, good luck.

Fabric Galore

Thanks for your tips mindless & bkay. I will be sure to check the accessories and remove the bobbin case when I show it. I hope to take it to my local quilt shop tomorrow and she will service it and make sure everything is working. We have an active quilt guild in our are and I'm hoping someone in the guild will want to buy it so I don't have to ship it.