Help - donated sewing machines
 

Two sewing machines were donated to our church yard sale and we don't know the best way to sell them. One is an old Singer in a nice wooden case. Number on it is AD 366549 which is not listed on the Singer "date your machine" site. Wires and belt need replacing but the finish and decals are quite good. Includes accessories and book.
The other is a Ward's Deluxe Round Robin made in Japan that looks to be in excellent shape. It has a wooden cover with handle, not in good shape. Very heavy machine. Chrome is still shiny, etc. I have more pics if that would help in identification.
We would like to sell them and get what they are worth. They did not sell at our sale, but think it's just because no one interested in old machines came along yesterday. I took several pics of each, but can't read the numbers on the Ward's ones. Can anyone help us out? Is there anyone nearby Chester VT who might like to buy them? [ATTACH=CONFIG]476778[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]476779[/ATTACH]

I don't buy vintage machines and have no idea what anyone would want to pay. No one in our group knows anything about it, so I said I'd ask the vintage machine community to help us figure out a way to sell these.

Probably the best thing you can do is take a look in your local Craig's List to see what similar machines are selling for there.
The Singer is a model 66 and takes class 66 bobbins and standard sewing machine needles both of which are available just about anywhere. Running machines are worth more than ones that need work. Around here you might get $25 to maybe $50 on a good day for the Singer and around $35 to $50 for the other. In my market portable machines sell better than cabinet machines but that may not be the case everywhere.
Rodney

You can pick them up in that condition from $5 to $25 - if you have them serviced you might get more.

At a local club I was a member of years ago I set up a table with three items on it for a 'Silent Auction' for fund raising .

I put a clip board in front of each item and started the auction at .99 cents. The bids went up in $2.00 increments (that was more fair because some of the women had deep pockets and could easily have outbid everyone else and ruined the fun of it) and you could come back and write your name down as often as you wanted and you HAD to be present ( in the building to hear your name called) at the end of the two hour auction to win.

What a blast that was! Everyone loved walking by the tables and writing down their name and I set the end time for when the meeting would be over. Two hours later and there were about 60 signatures on all three items. We also got a lot more for the items. I donated the money generated to the club library. Maybe you could try something like this?

The 66 serial number is in the group that was allocated May 1931. If the cabinet is in good condition and you have the stool, you could ask $50, without the stool, then $25 - $30. I'd say $25 for the second one. IMO - neither fall in the range of "collectable" though the Singer is in very nice condition. Or you could ask $100 and hope someone is willing to purchase because it's going for a good cause. I've been known to pay over what I know is market for something that a charity was selling.

Now - if you happen to have got some of the less common attachments with the Singer - then you could be talking some serious money sold on eBay.

A word of warning about looking on Craigslist - it's more likely to shows you what they ARE NOT selling for. Those priced to sell get sold and deleted (usually, unless the seller is lazy about it) those still listed are usually priced over market - especially if they have been there several weeks.

Where I live the ASKING price is NOT what they sell for. Most people think "antique" sewing machines are worth at least $100, and often ask even more. They never sell. If you will scroll to the oldest ads and inquire as to the availability of the machines you will find that they have not sold at least 98% of the time.

Earlier this year I listed, on CL, a perfectly working 70s Kenmore, all steel, complete with cams and feet. I showed a sample of the ss and zz in the ad. The machine was clean and looked good. NOTHING....I could not even get $50. I was foolish enough to pay $30 for it, and it needed $50 in parts and needed to be re-timed (which I did myself). I believed the seller when he said it, "worked". Yes, the needle went up and down when the pedal was pressed. I live 25 minutes from a fair sized city in central NY. I still have the machine. I have to assume that my nice, useful machine is not even worth $50, so what could a machine needing work sell for?? This would probably be different in other areas, but the NE has a glut of old sewing machines.

"Probably the best thing you can do is take a look in your local Craig's List to see what similar machines are selling for there.
The Singer is a model 66 and takes class 66 bobbins and standard sewing machine needles both of which are avail

Thank you all for some good ideas! We priced the newer machine at $10, the Singer $25 and did not get any takers. I think they may go to the remainders guy for a lump sum. You just never know on a particular weekend and we did pretty well on our tag, plant and bake sale otherwise.

if you have a feather weight you need to get rid of I will take one or you know somebody that wants to sell one please let me know I want one bad