There doesn't have to be anything wrong with them sometimes other than cosmetics. The singer is pretty beat up but the Brother might clean up fine. The singer also has a weird free arm system. Not really even a free arm. The dials are beat up, paint is chipped all over and there are other things also you can't see in the pics, but sometimes I just have to take the least of two good machines to make one a really great machine. Then the one used as a parts machine may sit awhile until another parts machine comes along to make it the good one. It is just my system. Works for me.