Monroe we all make that sort of mistake. I had what seemed like good reasons at the time but so far I passed up what I'm sure was a Bernina 830 Record (complete with red case) for $16 at Goodwill and a black Singer 301 for $50 at another thrift store.
Jeanette I know what you mean about a lot of Ebay sellers. A lot of their ads could be worded like "I don't know what it is but I think I can get this much for it." Craig's List ads read like this: "I don't know what it is but I saw one on Ebay for $700."
We educate ourselves by doing things like read this forum and though I don't belong to any there are also Yahoo groups for old sewing machines. There's also ISMACS and probably a bunch others I don't know as well. We also watch the auction sites and sites like Craig's List or Kijiji often so we at least get an idea of asking prices. They're not the same as actual selling prices but after a while you at least develop a feel for what's crack-headed or not. Every now and then there is a knowledgeable seller out there too but for the most part people need to do their own research and come to their own conclusions. Too many variables to just name prices. For example I've been watch Craigslist locally for most of a year now and there are still some machines on there that were there when I started watching. One is a $10 Kenmore maybe 30 miles from me that doesn't look much worse than a lot of other machines out there. It's a plain jane white one from sometime in the 70s. I haven't wanted to drive that far to get it. It's not just overpriced ones that don't sell. I found out I just won a local auction for a beat up old Singer 66 in a cloth covered case. I put in an absentee bid of $5-the minimum amount. On the other hand I've seen people on the goodwill site pay some prices that seemed absolutely ridiculous to me too. Especially when you throw in the cost and risk of shipping on top.
Apparently I'm talkative this morning.
Rodney