SEWBEADIT - Have you test drove any of the new sergers out there? I did for a brief time and they are TOTALLY different that the sergers from 27-30 years ago...when I bought mine for about $100. Some of the fancier sergers today run upwards and over $800.00. Lessons would surely be included.
I 'collect' older Singer sewing machines and use some of them regularly...in different rooms...depending on the season, time of day and fabric sewn.
I look at them as investments too because almost all of them were purchased at sales for well below market value. If I sold them for $10 more than I paid for them, I'm still making money, right???
I always thought that if a friend were interested in sewing I could give them a machine that would work beautifully. That situation came up just this week and I will be giving one to a friend who has a non-Singer old machine that's on it's way out the door.
I'm also 'thinking' about thinning my collection down to just a few machines but I can't make up my mind which 'few' machines to keep. :(