SteveH

We are not supposed to sell machines on here... But I agree it is the best source for the right folks, so, I made a "album" with my "tradable" machines. Folks can PM me if they are interested in one.

ArchaicArcane

Well, thanks to you Steve, I learned something today!
I have never seen the albums before.
Now that I've learned something, I can go back to bed, right?

J Miller

I have used CL to sell machines, but recently I've gotten no response for the three I have listed. Once their listings expire I won't relist them again. They'll go back on the shelf for a while and I'll list something else. I don't want to ship if I can avoid it due to the cost and labor factor in packaging them.

Other than that I don't know of any way to sell them quickly.

And I'm not in a hypothetical situation. I do need to part with some of them.
I'm not smart enough to make a web site or a blog so that method is out.

Selling them here on the forum is against the rules unless you sell them for yard sale prices. In other words you pay the buyer to take them off your hand, then ship them and pay for that yourself too.

Joe

jlhmnj

Only way I could make a little money on the old machines was selling Singer 15-91', 201-2, and the older 15 Tiffany, 66 Redeye, 27 sphinx heads with decals in very nice shape on ebay and ship. Surprisingly the 301 and 401 didn't do very well. Never could find the foreign machines (necchi, pfaff, Bernina...) with excellent reputations at a reasonable price around here to try out the market. Local CL market is pretty bad unless I want to donate. This is just my experience and may differ elsewhere. I collect Davis' which seem to have very little value which is good for buying. Seems the money is in servicing rather than selling the old machines but the "horse trading" is great fun and rather inexpensive.

Happy buying, trading, and selling

Jon

path49

Don't rule out having a yard sale. I don't know about other areas but, I've sold MANY $100+ items at yard sales....antiques, collectibles, & sewing machines. I just make sure that put in my ads (local papers, bulletin boards in grocery stores, & craigslist) what types of items I'm selling & price range. My last yard brought in over $1100! It's a LOT of work but easier than packing, shipping, & worrying about a safe arrival.

But still, ebay (even with the packing, shipping, etc) is the best place to get your asking price quickly. And people WILL pay shipping from Canada. Actually, once a Canadian seller told me that it costs less to ship to the US than it does to ship within Canada.

Sunflowerzz

If I needed to downsize for space I would list them with one of the local consignment shops I do business at. I also would try my local auction house and realize I would probably only get half of what I wanted, but those would be my choices to move them out quickly.

ArchaicArcane

Joe, I wonder what's up with the buy/sell sites lately. It's like they're only full of spammers and scammers. What's the next evolution I wonder?

if you're serious about setting up a website, it's really easy. Wordpress and blogspot, etc make it dead easy, and there are free options. Having said that, I'm not sure why my own site didn't come to mind. Duh.

I've been finding the same with the 301 and 401 machines. You practically have to talk a person into them. 411G are a little easier, maybe only because I love them more than the 401, and the enthusiasm rubs off. I have people contact me very frequently to ask me about the 201-2 and the 15-91. If I could, I'd always have one on standby.

The 2 best "foreign" machines I've found here have been at a thrift store similar to the Habitat for Humanity. The Pfaff 130 and an Elna Su. Both in cabinets. Both needed an obscene amount of cleaning and more than a little servicing (the Pfaff was seized -almost- solid)

This is true. I had a garage sale this summer and made about $700. It was $600+ worth of sewing machines and the rest was other things. DH said we'd probably never have another garage sale, but I could advertise a sewing machine sale any time I wanted. It wouldn't have been worth the time without the machines. Unfortunately, I think we're past garage sale season here. It's pretty chilly and snow is coming very soon, so says most of my joints. That said, the financial crunch isn't so bad that I have to give the machines away. DH said not to, that for the $50 each some of them would be worth, I should keep my babies.

I will look more seriously into eBay then. It strikes me that I sent a package to bearisgrey for a similar price as something I sent to BC and the BC package was lighter and smaller. You may be completely right. I think that Canada Post's pricing has changed too though.

ArchaicArcane

Thanks sunflowerzz, those are two venues I hadn't considered at all. We went to an auction a few weeks ago, and a FW went for about $120. It was a bit rough, but still not a terrible deal. We didn't stay long enough to find out about the two treadles though.

J Miller

My wife has talked to several auction houses here in recent months and they've told us the only machines that sell are the newer plastic wannabees and computerized machines. They have trouble giving away the old(er) machines.

We haven't done a yard sale here. This is a pretty dead city for anything but give away items.
It's gotten so bad we can see adds for yard sales on CL for one weekend and then the next Monday the same people put in a Freecycle add for the next weekend. My wife has gone to a couple of the Free-For-Alls and been told they couldn't sell a thing at their yard sale, but they were cleaned out during the Free For All. Her theory is the resellers are hitting the FFAs and taking stuff back to their shops.

Joe

Cecilia S.

Okay, Tammi, so you can't advertise to sell here. But you can trade.

Now, do you have a Pink Atlas and an Green Grasshopper?

If so, mail 'em to me and I'll trade you. A boiled egg, a pack of hockey cards, three pairs of socks, and an Aero bar. Deal?