question about Vickers
 

I went to see one with the intention to buy it, but could not get it to pull up the lower thread. I am not even sure whether I am supposed to do this before starting to sew. I remember my grandmother doing it on her Singer, but the Vickers has a long bobbin, as opposed to round bobbin.
I did watch Muv's videos on threading the long bobbin type machine and I think they hold for the Vickers.
I plan on going again this evening and testing it armed with her advice.
In short, should I try to pull up the lower thread beforehand or should I go ahead and start sewing?
Thank you very much.

If the machine is correctly threaded, the needle set properly (threading from left to right), oiled and cleaned and undamaged, there is no reason why the bobbin thread should not come up. If it doesn't come up before you put the material in it won't come up when you try to sew.

Have the front slide plate open and try one turn of the wheel to get the bobbin thread up. If the top thread doesn't loop itself over the shuttle, so the shuttle passes through the loop, that's the problem. It could just be loads of compressed fluff and other rubbish clogging up the works.

If you can't get the bobbin thread up then it's up to you whether you want to give them a knowledgeable look, tell them the machine will take time and effort to fix, and that they should halve the price.

Thank you so much, Muv!