Does your offer include the cabinet? The issue with refusing to sew might have to do with timing, or the needle. Have you tried turning the needle a different direction when inserting, or threading from the other direction? I have a Singer 201 that refused to pick up the bobbin thread, and for years I thought it just didn't work. That is, until I found a manual and discovered I was threading the needle from the wrong direction!
Now that 201 sews like a champ.