I spent a lot of time as a batchelor and tend to think of luxury items and toys (more than one or two sewing machines moves them into the luxury/toy category to me) in terms of beer money. $50 works out to 2 cases of good beer and the machine will outlast the beer by a good long while. I don't think $50 is an unfair asking price. Especially here on the west coast where truly old stuff can be a bit harder to find.
That is one thing I'm beginning to realize. With very few exceptions there seems to be almost no interest in these old sewing machines. You can pick up some pretty cool machines for next to nothing. Shipping will often exceed the selling price of a complete machine if bought online. I just bought a running Singer 66 in the original walnut cabinet for $20 at my local Goodwill. All it needed was a bobbin and a few drops of oil. You can't even buy the hardware in the cabinet for that these days. I wonder how long these rock bottom prices will last before people once again realise these things have value and interest increases. Hopefully I will have all the machines I want before that happens.
Rodney