I wanted to share a craigslist post from St. Louis. If this is one of this group , good job.
[h=2]Tips For Selling Old Sewing Machines - $1[/h]
So, you're cleaning out grandma's house and you find an old sewing machine. "This must be worth a lot of money!" you think, so you decide to post it on Craigslist. You check out what machines that look like yours on eBay are listed at and price accordingly. And yet, oddly, you get no takers for that machine that hasn't seen the light of day in decades that you listed for the bargain basement price of $300. Sound familiar?
I'm here to help. I collect old sewing machines. I have over 40 of them. I buy them in all conditions and rehab them to get them running again, and then I sew with them. I know what it takes to get them running, I know how rare (or not) they are, and how much collectors like me are willing to pay for them. I'd love to see you sell your machines to someone who will appreciate it (doesn't have to be me) rather than see them end up in the dump. So, here's some of the problems I see in Craigslist ads for sewing machines:
1) YOU OVERPRICE IT: Yes, there is one like yours on eBay for $500. But did the one on eBay sell? I have no idea why people price things like crazy on eBay, but they do. eBay can give you a general idea of the availability of a machine, but it's an unreliable gauge for the prices. First, eBay is a worldwide market. If you're posting on Craigslist, you are dealing with a smaller market. Secondly, if you're posting in St. Louis, you are posting in a buyer's market (there are a lot of machines around here and people literally give them away). Any basic machine priced over $100 is going to be hard to sell (there are some exceptions, like Singer Featherweights). Anything over $300 (again, there are a few exceptions) will probably posted on a Vintage Sewing Machine collector's page where everyone will laugh at the crazy price. Then there are the people who post them for over $1000; I can't even deal with those people. My personal favorites are the ones who overprice the machine and then include "I know what it's worth!" in the ad. No, you don't, which is why your ad has been up for months. Face the fact that this machine is not going to make you rich and, at best, you can maybe get someone to pay you $40 for the pleasure of hauling it off.
2) YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT MODEL IT IS: the first sign that a seller is making this mistake is the old "ones that look like this sell for X!" Just because it's a black machine doesn't mean it is worth the hundreds of dollars one particular model fetches. Some makes and models are more popular, some are more rare. If you don't know what it is that you have, ask someone or do some research on Google. There are plenty of vintage sewing machine groups on Facebook, and the people there are generally happy to help with identification and pricing. They'll even let you know when the machine you were going to throw in the trash is worth hundreds of dollars. It doesn't happen often, but it happens. I saw one on here a while back where the "seller" gave away a machine that was worth hundreds. Then I've seen ones posted for $500 that are worth maybe $30. I've seen a lot more of the latter.
3) YOU TAKE ONE PICTURE OF THE BACK OF THE MACHINE: Vintage machine collectors often rely on pictures to help us identify machines and determine their condition. Sometimes sellers don't make that easy and we have to email back and forth with a bunch of questions, which is probably annoying for you. So, here's what pictures you should include: if the machine is in a table or case, a picture of the front of the table/case; pictures of any damage to the table or case; a picture of the front of the machine; the back of the machine, the top of the machine; the ends of the machine; close ups of any wiring; a picture of any accessories that come with the machine; and a closeup of any serial numbers or any numbers that appear on the machine (we can figure out which ones we need if you are not sure). This will answer most of our questions. To be totally honest, the lower the price, the fewer pictures you'll need.
4) YOU OVERESTIMATE THE CONDITION OF THE MACHINE AND UNDERESTIMATE THE COST TO REPAIR IT: Don't say it works if you haven't sewn with it. A lot of these machines sit for a while with no use or maintenance, which is bad for them. The big things we'll want to know:
- Has it been professionally maintenanced in the last year?
- does the hand wheel turn or is it stuck in place?
- when you turn the wheel, does the needle go up and down?
- Is there rust or missing paint?
-Where was it stored?
- Are any of the wires frayed/cut? If so, please don't plug it in. If not, have you plugged it in? When you stepped on the pedal, did the motor work and cause the needle to go up and down? Did the motor smoke or produce any weird smells?
- Is it missing any parts? If you don't know machines, this can be hard for you to answer, but the most common missing parts are the plates that cover the moving parts (these tend to be silver in color). If you can see the guts when the machine is sitting on a table, you're missing parts. Also commonly missing are the spool pins (little sticks on the top of the machine that hold thread).
Why do we want to know these things? Because bringing these machines back to life costs money. Bad wiring can cost $40 to repair; missing covers can cost $20, depending on which machine you're talking about. Rust is a pain to get rid of, and requires a lot of elbow grease and time. So, while you don't calculate that stuff into your price, we're adding it. Suddenly that $40 machine is a $100 machine that in reality is worth maybe $50.
Some people "part out" machines, which means they take them apart and sell the parts to people like me who need them, because they don't make 'em like they used to. These folks might be less picky about the condition of the machine, but they are going to be concerned about overhead so they'll go for low prices.
Other people take these beautiful machines and turn them into yard art. We won't talk about these people.
Okay, that's about it. I hope you can find a new home for your old machine or, even better, decide to keep it and sew with it.