Christmas machines?
 

This Summer was awesum for stocking up and finding some great machines. Yard sales rock! But now... :( with the rain and cold yard sale season is pretty dried up. The thrift stores haven't had much at all to offer, I think the local GW has a beat up Toss 'N' Throw for 30.00 gah.

Prices on CL and ShopGoodwill appear to be higher. Is that just me seeing it that way?

Then all of a sudden, I am seeing my local on-line sales group people suddenly advertising vintage machines and wanting high dollars for them. They NEVER have vintage machines for sale. I remember someone here mentioning something about machines around Christmas time. Is it normal? Is it because they found it in the attic when they pulled out the decorations? Is it to make room for a new store bought sewing machine? Are they just trying to sell stuff to make money for Xmas?

it's when people have to stay indoors - they might as well sew.

People with these old machines think that they will sell at higher prices during the holiday season for sentimental reasons and as a gift will bring more money. They are thinking the unusual gift for the sewer in the family. You know remember when. People do spend more money at this time of year.

I noticed that this weekend especially. None of the goodwills or the thrift stores in Panama City had any machines. And the craigslist down there was nuts. These machines are not made of solid gold. There was one that the salt air obviousely had got to. I think it was the worst I've ever seen and they wanted 150 for it. It was a model 66 for pete's sake.

I thought this was going to be a post on how to decorate your machines for Christmas! I was thinking of adding a small wreath to the red eye, but it lives where the tree goes and I guess the tree is going to have to take precedence.

DH has come up with a clever plan for camouflaging some of the sewing machines. He's going to put them together in a corner and drape with the snow batting, then set up the houses for the Christmas village on top. We are using every corner (and double parking) the rest of them.

The first year I was fixing machines, I think I had 10 machines for sale around Christmas. I sold most of them by the last weekend before Christmas. A few for kids to learn on, a couple were coincidental - theirs crapped out and they needed something else, and three to guys up "in the patch"... I guess for something to do on days off?

The next year, I tried to make sure I had a few around this time of year and they went too. The year after that, I think I didn't have any.

This year my patience is a little too thin for the typical local buy and sell buyer ("I'll give you 1/3 your asking price and would you deliver it 40miles to where I am, then unload it, carry it up 3 flights of stairs and teach me to sew?") and the time I took with each customer the first 2 years just wore me out. All 3 of my guys learned to sew from me, and all machines were fully demoed and everyone had unlimited time to ask questions. I think I averaged 2 hours with each person and scheduled them 3 -4 a day at one point.

yup - you have to add it in to the price

Well, that makes sense I guess they would sell better. Silly me I have a couple I will be re-homing but I am far too wrapped up in planning for Christmas and 3 birthdays this month, and trying to scout fabrics for my next quilt project!

I don't do the "l/3 your asking price" and DH gets mad at me because of that; but I know how I feel when I put a price on a machine and know that it is fair for all the work I have done on it, etc. and when someone does that to me I feel like saying, "no the price just went up that much"......that's when you can watch this little Southern gal get disgusted and give someone the "mad eyes". If a machine is priced at a price higher than I want to pay, I just pass on by, hoping it will be there, marked down the next time we stroll through.

At 1/3 you'll insult the person every time. What really makes me nuts is that when I have machines available, they're fully serviced and being sold for less than the going rate for a service, and I mention that in the ad. They still pull that.

If a person started at 2/3 I'd still say no because of how I price, but at 33cents on the dollar, I want to use all those words I've been told not to use in polite company.

I do negotiate on machines I Want that are priced too high. The Frister and Rossmann for instance. I set a price I was willing to pay and made an offer. That said, I started at 80% of asking price. And I showed up to ask. If I'd started at 33%, as far as I'm concerned, she'd have been totally in the right to throw my rear end out on her porch.