juropat

I'm looking for website to sell my sewing machines. I read it somewhere on some site that better for selling them? How can I find out how much they are worth now? Need to sell 2 machines n be able to purchase a new one. Thanking in advance for any advise. Have a lovely day!

Macybaby

I have bought almost all of mine off either eBay or Craigslist. The others I know of are etsy- but I rarely look there, and Goodwill (which you could not use to sell). I'd like to know if there are others too - because I still have a few machines I'm searching for.

Best way to find out what they are worth is to try to sell them. If you get no takers, you are asking too much. You can look at completed sales on eBay (not active listings, what the seller hopes for and what they get are often far apart). Craigslist - you have to watch and write down prices and then see how quickly they are removed. Note how long ago active listings are posted. Ones that are still there a month later may have too high a price . . . ones in demand at acceptable prices will be sold and probably deleted in less than a week (though some sellers never delete their adds after the item is sold . . .)

If you want to sell on Etsy or eBay and do not already have a reputation as a reputable seller, you can expect that what you sell won't go for as much as what a seller with a good track record can get.

I am dreading the day I need to worry about disbanding my collection. I'm hoping it won't be for another 10-20 years, and then I'll be glad if they go to good homes and not to the junk yard.

KalamaQuilts

Unless you want to spend hours and hours double boxing them for shipping, Craigslist is probably your best bet.
There aren't very many vintage machines that are worth very much, if you have one that is you probably already have it.

if they are newer computerized machines watch ebay for awhile for those particular machines.
Good luck!

oldtnquiltinglady

Really great advice, Macybaby. My son is an ebay seller with a 3-star rating, and has been years even getting to this point, ebay is hard to deal with (lots of persnickety rules) money problems with PayPal, but he just keeps on keeping on because it is the lesser of the evils out there for selling the merchandise that he spends every Saturday looking for and finding, researching and labeling, pricing, etc. Attempting to sell locally is difficult, too, because the audience you may be dealing with has probably already seen what you have found and now want to sell.

BTW, his latest acquisitions are a Singer 128 in a coffin cover carrier, and a beautiful Kenmore in a 4-legged cabinet and brought them over to me to figure out what to do with them. I had a fit over them, but I have more machines than I have space for anymore--so I am still pondering on that one.

Rodney

Craigs List is your best bet locally. The others have already given you good advice on pricing.
Rodney

Quincunx

I swear the different Craigslists have different rules about postings and how long they can stay up. On my local one everything older than a week is gone and you have to remember which ads were posted before. The nearby ones hold onto postings much longer. Or is that true of every CL that the "local" one cuts off ads that are older than a week?

There are selling groups through the major email/group services like Yahoo for sales with shipping and selling groups on Facebook for local sales.

Macybaby

I've heard before that Yahoo ahs some selling groups, but since I don't "yahoo" I have no idea how to find them. I do have a yahoo account, and belong to a few groups that others sent me info on, but I don't' know how to find anything on that myself. Facebook - I pretend it does not exist.

Skyangel

There is a yahoo group called "sewitsforsale" for selling personal sewing items. Most likely you will be shipping so be prepared by googling how to packing a sewing machine properly.

dc989

I took the machine I shipped to UPS and had them pack and ship. It was a little spendy, but well worth the money. The price included insurance.

KyStitcher

oldtnquiltinglady, I would like to look for your sons machines on e-bay. Can you reveal his e-bay seller name? I'm always so leary to make a sewing machine purchase from just anyone on there selling a machine and saying it works great. Although I have had very good luck with my past purchases I know of others who have not!!! I appreciate good sellers 'cause I'm a good buyer