Macybaby

They are selling on eBay for $750 -$1000 right now, actually lower than I've seen them in the past. Most FW are selling for less, and if a person watches, they can easily pick up a black 221 for around $250 including shipping. Prices have been steadily falling on them for over a year now. There are still a lot of dreaming sellers - but they aren't the ones selling machines. I don't know if they'll go much lower because the painters can get a premium, so they probably buy up anything really cheap to paint and resell - since painted ones do sell for a lot more.

Most of what I watch on eBay is selling for less now than it was when I started looking almost two years ago. I saw a decent increase in prices around Christmas time 2012/2013, prices stayed high until about April 2013 and then started going back down, and I did not see any increase like that this last Holiday season.

KLO - the whole reason I have money to spend is because you can't take it with you . . . so in a way my Parents are financing my collection. It's one of the things that makes my collection very special to me - that and all the wonderful people I've met

miriam

I say ditto...

Rodney

That's what's so great about just starting out. There are so many to choose from compared to someone who already has most or all that they want.
It's going to be a long time before my options get down to just 1 or 2 machines to finish off my collection.
Rodney

KLO

Yes, Cathy, I get your meaning. My parents were so conservative but then they grew up in the depression and never really mentally left it. When they passed away, there was definitely too much of their hard earned money left to distribute. They should have been spending it. Both my dh and I grew up mostly poorish but did not know it because we were happy and had a roof over our heads and food on the table every night. When we had kids, we did not buy the $125 sneakers for them to outgrow in 2 months and we never over bought on a house, only what we could actually comfortably afford. We did not go into debt for any of our educations. My dd often thanks us for her "free to her" college education so she did not have a tuition debt to contend with in adulthood. Not so sure my one son gets that. So now my dh says he wants to be spending his last dime when he dies but of course that is impossible so we have a budget and still get to buy some things for ourselves that we just plain "want". Plus we have set up education funding for our two grandboys because education is so important and their parents will never be able to afford two college tuitions when it's time for them to go. Wow, look what you got me started on, Cathy. Sorry! Yep, so spend what you can on what you want as long as you are comfortably able. No one know how long they have on this earth.

liking quilting

Congratulations, Cathy! Enjoy it.

Mornigstar

Cathy, I hope you bought a van like those "American Pickers" have on that tv show because then you would have
lots of room for machines. Wow, a 222 Enjoy ! We owned a KIA Sedona van and I could get l o t s of stuff in it
while traveling.

quilt938

awesome! I'm thinking of getting one of these for my collection but a friend keeps telling me I need to sell some machines to pay for it (kinda strains the friendship LOL since I get kinda defensive!) just found this forum and it's awesome reading! I was interested in the old vintage Singers several years ago - maybe 10 years ago - and managed a couple of featherweights, 301, 201 that needs oiling a lot(or so I was told by seller -I haven't played with it yet!), a cute 99 and 66s I think- black and one redeye? then my mom got interested and started buying bunch at estate sales, etc so I sorta let her have at it. I lost both parents in 2011 and inherited my mom's sewing machines and she had even more than I thought - through the years of her collecting she passed on to me a bernina record (think it's one of the collectible ones), 15-91, 301 and now I have a bunch of others I'm trying to learn how to use and see if they're keepers or not.
I work shiftwork and have little patience so those are the main reasons I haven't played with these machines yet - I like to quilt when I have time and don't really like sitting down with a new machine and face failure but man when they work the first time out (like the 15-90 she had) it's so awesome! I had to make myself put that one back up and pull out another but unfortunately the one I picked out (403) needs some help with the cams- they're not looking like any kind of stitch LOL - the straight stitch is pretty decent though...so my patience ended after about 10 min so I need to find a friend interested in these old machines so we can sit down and fiddle with them together. I do have one friend but she lives a couple hours away...

oldsewnsew

Quilt938. Welcome!! Sounds like you have an interesting and fun situation to work out. You may want to say the general area of your location, in case there's a willing and able QBer nearby.

Macybaby

Quilt938 - would love to see/hear more about the machines your Mom collected.

My newest "baby" showed up in the mail today - very nicely packed with all the neat goodies.

quilt938

thanks! I managed to forget my password so took a bit to figure out how to request it LOL! must've had caplock on or something...anyways I'm back!
i'm still going through my mom's machines and ones I picked up many years ago - so far the 15-90 is my favorite but I know there's a featherweight in the bunch and at least 2 301's though one has been modified- It's black but has a short tan bed so I'm thinking it may have originally been a nice longbed..sigh..but was changed to fit in the cabinet. wish it were a black longbed!
I have 2 friends and 2 others lined up waiting for me to start selling and I told one yesterday that I dont' even know IF I'll sell let alone when if I do decide. i'm thinking the one friend makes sense in that I dont' really 'need' a bunch of the same model machine but the other woman interested said she has 6 featherweights and doesn't see anything wrong with keeping everything if that's what I want LOL!
I know she gave me an older bernina several years ago and there's one in the bunch I got from her - think one is in the 800s and the other in the 900's - records? she got me I thinka 401 and 15-91 but her collection has a 403 and 15-90 - can't get the cam stitches to work in the 403 but need to read up on it more. 301s and a featherweight. fashion mate..think 328j? one has a J at the end and I think it's the rough finished greenish looking one. read somewhere that it's not a popular machine but I think it's appealing (haven't tried sewing and one new friend said if it's the one she's thinking of that she has one in a different color and it's very loud but she likes hers)..had a Kenmore but gave it to another friend since it was the first machine she ever had and her sister got rid of it years ago. some are newer and I think they get into the plastic-y ones that I've heard negative things about - one's missing the foot pedal but another will probably work on it. and I think there's a 503 in cabinet. basically any machine she found cheap she picked up -luckily there weren't machines at every single sale LOL! as it is the cabinets are gonna be challenging space-wise and I left one huge sewing desk behind that I've been thinkign where I could put it - I dont' want to be crowded in my living space but I do like seeing the machines and some of the cabinets are nice to look at. She had resorted to filling my old bedroom with them and it was dicey trying to walk around the foot of the bed and the other side! and I had no closet - it was full of stuff including another machine in a cabinet! right now everything is piled in the back of my house waiting for tile to be installed in the front (this weekend hopefully!) so then I can start moving furniture back to the front and free up the sewing area I'm turning the back section into!

loving this board- stumbled across it and spent a lot of time reading through the threads - kinda bad 'cause now I'm wanting this Kenmore I saw mentioned LOL!