I have accumulated 5 Vintage Singers recently and all for very little money.
I got my Featherweight from Freecycle, that means it was FREE! It works and is in great shape, with case, attachments and manual.
I then picked up a 66-16 from Craig's list in a table for $10. The lady upgraded to a more modern machine and had no room for it. It works great and the cabinet is in perfect condition., with original manual and attachments.
CL again had a listing for an old singer in a cabinet. It was $40, and turned out to be a working 201 in an Art Deco Cabinet with stool and tons of attachments, but needs rewiring. It has not been used in 26 years
I again saw an add on CL for $50 for an old singer in a great cabinet and it is just missing the power cord, but in excellent shape and this turned out to be a 15-91 with tons of attachments, the manual and matching stool. Only the top of the cabinet shows wear.
My last was my sought after 301. This is also in a cabinet in pretty good shape, is Mocha in color, and WORKS! It belonged to an Aunt and although they were asking $50 for it, the guy told me to just take it and get it out of his garage.
I found all of these by searching Craig's list daily and using the search word "Sewing". I saw tons of expensive vintage machines in bad shape, but there are those who are just trying to clean out the "junk".
For a total of $100 and about 40 miles of driving, I have 5 great machines. I will work on refurbushing them with the help of the yahoo vintage group, and this is something all of us can do!
Time to get your Vintage machines!
Diane