Originally Posted by
J Miller
I have used CL to sell machines, <snip>
Other than that I don't know of any way to sell them quickly.
And I'm not in a hypothetical situation. I do need to part with some of them.
I'm not smart enough to make a web site or a blog so that method is out.
Joe, I wonder what's up with the buy/sell sites lately. It's like they're only full of spammers and scammers. What's the next evolution I wonder?
if you're serious about setting up a website, it's really easy. Wordpress and blogspot, etc make it dead easy, and there are free options. Having said that, I'm not sure why my own site didn't come to mind. Duh.
Originally Posted by
jlhmnj
Only way I could make a little money on the old machines was selling Singer 15-91', 201-2, and the older 15 Tiffany, 66 Redeye, 27 sphinx heads with decals in very nice shape on ebay and ship. Surprisingly the 301 and 401 didn't do very well. Never could find the foreign machines (necchi, pfaff, Bernina...) with excellent reputations at a reasonable price around here to try out the market.
I've been finding the same with the 301 and 401 machines. You practically have to talk a person into them. 411G are a little easier, maybe only because I love them more than the 401, and the enthusiasm rubs off.
I have people contact me very frequently to ask me about the 201-2 and the 15-91. If I could, I'd always have one on standby.
The 2 best "foreign" machines I've found here have been at a thrift store similar to the Habitat for Humanity. The Pfaff 130 and an Elna Su. Both in cabinets. Both needed an obscene amount of cleaning and more than a little servicing (the Pfaff was seized -almost- solid)
Originally Posted by
path49
Don't rule out having a yard sale. I don't know about other areas but, I've sold MANY $100+ items at yard sales....antiques, collectibles, & sewing machines. I just make sure that put in my ads (local papers, bulletin boards in grocery stores, & craigslist) what types of items I'm selling & price range. My last yard brought in over $1100! It's a LOT of work but easier than packing, shipping, & worrying about a safe arrival.
But still, ebay (even with the packing, shipping, etc) is the best place to get your asking price quickly. And people WILL pay shipping from Canada. Actually, once a Canadian seller told me that it costs less to ship to the US than it does to ship within Canada.
This is true. I had a garage sale this summer and made about $700. It was $600+ worth of sewing machines and the rest was other things. DH said we'd probably never have another garage sale, but I could advertise a sewing machine sale any time I wanted.
It wouldn't have been worth the time without the machines. Unfortunately, I think we're past garage sale season here. It's pretty chilly and snow is coming very soon, so says most of my joints. That said, the financial crunch isn't so bad that I have to give the machines away. DH said not to, that for the $50 each some of them would be worth, I should keep my babies.
I will look more seriously into eBay then. It strikes me that I sent a package to bearisgrey for a similar price as something I sent to BC and the BC package was lighter and smaller. You may be completely right. I think that Canada Post's pricing has changed too though.