Hypothetically, if you needed to downsize your collection ...
 

and preferably fairly quickly, how would you go about it?

The local buy and sell is full of tire kickers and lowballers who don't appreciate a cleaned and serviced machine. Ebay has a lot of fraudsters and I don't know if I want to handle that sort of experience at the moment.

What about with relatively limited time to devote to it? (i.e. an hour or so each to box a machine for shipping may be unrealistic... though that may be less than the time to "host" people in the house to look at the machines and want me to teach them to sew.)

I created a bit of a space crisis by making a purchase that will be arriving in 3 weeks that I would love to finance a bit this way and want to see a bunch of these machines that I brought back to life go to good sewing homes.

I'm going to put out some emails to some vintage machine lovers around my area to let them know that some of the machines are going, but I don't expect a lot out of that.

Maybe craigslist? Although Ive never been on craigslist but I know people that have with very good success. Good luck to you.

Phew. I'm glad you're having a space crisis and not having to leave the country in a hurry ;)
What about ebay, local pick up only? Ebay.com is free to list -- not sure about ebay.ca -- so it may be worth a try. It may cost an extra .10 to promote your items on ebay.com. I think the fraudsters are less likely to do local pickup, but make out 2 receipts and ask them to sign yours, just in case.

Isn't anyone going to ask what the purchase is???

OK, spill Tammi. What is it? :o I'm very excited for you, and have little advice about getting rid of machines in Canada. Here, I put them in Gumtree as classifieds, and they usually sell.

Tammi, you have two options and only two options:

1) Open a cafe. No wifi. A sewing machine on every table.

or

2) Invite Mike over from Australia. (And since you elected not to open a cafe, then get him to bring some coffee from Oz. It's good stuff there.) Send him back with all your stitchers, and he can sell 'em on Gumtree.

Also, congratulations on your new pet kangaroo! They do take a lot of room. I know why it is taking three weeks... Mike has to bring it all the way from Australia for you! Those things take time.

How come you don't post the machines on the board for sale? Might be some of us that would like to see and maybe buy. Do you have a Bernina or a Pfaff oldie?

:D I vote for Cecilia's answer.

I would say craigslist. There is a local sewing shop here(ish) that isn't just quilting. They do random upcycling and and vintage patterns and the like and as far as I know, they don't have a machine brand they sell. I have considered offering them a consignment deal on cleaned up machines. Or maybe they have a bulletin board or something.
I'm just thinking out loud, obviously.

I'm with Amyjo, Post them here you might sell them all.

Kijiji is Canada's CL, and I think what Tammi was saying is that she gets dud responses from there. In Canada, CL is ever dudd-ier than Kijiji. (my own experience, not scientifically explored...)

Tammi, posting them here would be a fabulous idea! I mean, after Mike has come and taken his pick. Or, we could all come visit you! If you have a pink Atlas or a green Grasshopper, I want it. My life is empty and meaningless until then. ;-)

I tell ya, in about 2 weeks, with that the weather will be like, I'll wish I had to leave the country. ;) That's a good idea about the 2 receipts. I've often wondered how successful local pick up auctions are.

Your gumtree is basically our Kijiji. The same crackpots listing things for zillions of dollars and wanting to buy for 2 cents on the dollar. I have a clean, serviced 301 that's been in Kijiji for 4 months. For some reason, virtually no one seems to use craigslist.

Are you sure you want to know? This kangaroo isn't vintage... in fact it's not even born yet...

There's also the quarantine time for the roo and for Mike.... ;)

DH keeps saying I should open a museum and charge admission. I lean more towards a vintage stitch and b*tch day... Cafe could be fun though... I'd have to import Mike to be the Barista though.

I didn't think we could? I have 2 Pfaff oldies. 130 (no coffee grinder) and a 362 that I will likely never finish restoring at this stage in the game. The thing that I think would put the kibosh on sending them across the border though, is shipping. Canada Post charges me $12.22 to ship 2 tubes of Singer lube to the next province. The last time I shipped a 99, again a province away, it cost me something like $45, and I think rates have gone up.

I'd love it if we had a shop like that here! :) Heck, I could practically run it, I could sure fill it by now. Consignment gives me an idea though. I wonder what the local antique shop charges for "consignment". Though I see a lot of machines sit there for years...

CL Is pretty duddy on this side of the country too. With all of the posts about no affiliation and not being able to sell, etc, I thought this was not an option. Of course, I don't make it a secret of how to get a hold of me, either. Maybe you could all come visit at once! Then maybe Mike could make you unburned coffee. ;) Better hurry though, my bones say that snow might arrive before my toy does...

ETA: Oh! No, no pink Atlas or grasshopper at this point, sorry. I'll keep an eye out. Shipping to you would be only painful, not fatal, since it didn't have to go across the border...

We are not supposed to sell machines on here... But I agree it is the best source for the right folks, so, I made a "album" with my "tradable" machines. Folks can PM me if they are interested in one.

Well, thanks to you Steve, I learned something today! :thumbup:
I have never seen the albums before.
Now that I've learned something, I can go back to bed, right?

I have used CL to sell machines, but recently I've gotten no response for the three I have listed. Once their listings expire I won't relist them again. They'll go back on the shelf for a while and I'll list something else. I don't want to ship if I can avoid it due to the cost and labor factor in packaging them.

Other than that I don't know of any way to sell them quickly.

And I'm not in a hypothetical situation. I do need to part with some of them.
I'm not smart enough to make a web site or a blog so that method is out.

Selling them here on the forum is against the rules unless you sell them for yard sale prices. In other words you pay the buyer to take them off your hand, then ship them and pay for that yourself too.

Joe

Only way I could make a little money on the old machines was selling Singer 15-91', 201-2, and the older 15 Tiffany, 66 Redeye, 27 sphinx heads with decals in very nice shape on ebay and ship. Surprisingly the 301 and 401 didn't do very well. Never could find the foreign machines (necchi, pfaff, Bernina...) with excellent reputations at a reasonable price around here to try out the market. Local CL market is pretty bad unless I want to donate. This is just my experience and may differ elsewhere. I collect Davis' which seem to have very little value which is good for buying. Seems the money is in servicing rather than selling the old machines but the "horse trading" is great fun and rather inexpensive.

Happy buying, trading, and selling

Jon

Don't rule out having a yard sale. I don't know about other areas but, I've sold MANY $100+ items at yard sales....antiques, collectibles, & sewing machines. I just make sure that put in my ads (local papers, bulletin boards in grocery stores, & craigslist) what types of items I'm selling & price range. My last yard brought in over $1100! It's a LOT of work but easier than packing, shipping, & worrying about a safe arrival.

But still, ebay (even with the packing, shipping, etc) is the best place to get your asking price quickly. And people WILL pay shipping from Canada. Actually, once a Canadian seller told me that it costs less to ship to the US than it does to ship within Canada.

If I needed to downsize for space I would list them with one of the local consignment shops I do business at. I also would try my local auction house and realize I would probably only get half of what I wanted, but those would be my choices to move them out quickly.

Joe, I wonder what's up with the buy/sell sites lately. It's like they're only full of spammers and scammers. What's the next evolution I wonder?

if you're serious about setting up a website, it's really easy. Wordpress and blogspot, etc make it dead easy, and there are free options. Having said that, I'm not sure why my own site didn't come to mind. Duh. ;)

I've been finding the same with the 301 and 401 machines. You practically have to talk a person into them. 411G are a little easier, maybe only because I love them more than the 401, and the enthusiasm rubs off. ;) I have people contact me very frequently to ask me about the 201-2 and the 15-91. If I could, I'd always have one on standby.

The 2 best "foreign" machines I've found here have been at a thrift store similar to the Habitat for Humanity. The Pfaff 130 and an Elna Su. Both in cabinets. Both needed an obscene amount of cleaning and more than a little servicing (the Pfaff was seized -almost- solid)

This is true. I had a garage sale this summer and made about $700. It was $600+ worth of sewing machines and the rest was other things. DH said we'd probably never have another garage sale, but I could advertise a sewing machine sale any time I wanted. ;) It wouldn't have been worth the time without the machines. Unfortunately, I think we're past garage sale season here. It's pretty chilly and snow is coming very soon, so says most of my joints. That said, the financial crunch isn't so bad that I have to give the machines away. DH said not to, that for the $50 each some of them would be worth, I should keep my babies.

I will look more seriously into eBay then. It strikes me that I sent a package to bearisgrey for a similar price as something I sent to BC and the BC package was lighter and smaller. You may be completely right. I think that Canada Post's pricing has changed too though.

Thanks sunflowerzz, those are two venues I hadn't considered at all. We went to an auction a few weeks ago, and a FW went for about $120. It was a bit rough, but still not a terrible deal. We didn't stay long enough to find out about the two treadles though.

My wife has talked to several auction houses here in recent months and they've told us the only machines that sell are the newer plastic wannabees and computerized machines. They have trouble giving away the old(er) machines.

We haven't done a yard sale here. This is a pretty dead city for anything but give away items.
It's gotten so bad we can see adds for yard sales on CL for one weekend and then the next Monday the same people put in a Freecycle add for the next weekend. My wife has gone to a couple of the Free-For-Alls and been told they couldn't sell a thing at their yard sale, but they were cleaned out during the Free For All. Her theory is the resellers are hitting the FFAs and taking stuff back to their shops.

Joe

Okay, Tammi, so you can't advertise to sell here. But you can trade.

Now, do you have a Pink Atlas and an Green Grasshopper?

If so, mail 'em to me and I'll trade you. A boiled egg, a pack of hockey cards, three pairs of socks, and an Aero bar. Deal?

;)

I really can't figure out why the plastic machines sell so much at the auction houses. You might be surprised by the results you can get in a well advertised yard sale. We are about 20 minutes north of Edmonton. I advertised the sale on Kijiji (the CL here) and had people tell me they'd come from the south end of Edmonton (an hour or more depending on which part of Edmonton) and from about 45 minutes north of us for machines. I said what we would be selling, and gave very clear directions (I've only had 2 people not be able to find our house in 2 years. ) and we had a really good turn out. I do find that a lot of people refuse to pay a single thing for anything lately. It's unfortunate.

Oh,.. no go on the boiled egg. Allergic. But change that to a 6 pack of Kinder eggs and we have a deal - as long as the socks are new... and if I ever come across either of those machines :p

From my experience, you can't get rid of anything fast unless you sell if for CHEAP. Around here if you put a nice machine on Kijiji for $60 you'll probably sell it pretty quick. Of course it depends on the machine and cabinet or case, but for the most part around Calgary, you won't get anything for your machines.

I'm not having any luck on CL either. Stuff priced pretty good and no luck. Amungst my 168 machines for sale, I do have a pink ATLAS and I have a Singer 411 but no grasshopper although there are other Elna machines and all kinds of other stuff not listed yet... I'm getting ready to go to Florida so parts in between I might deliver......... I think people are freaked out about the government shut down and the health care issues - at least around here they seem obsessed. It is still unresolved, too. Here is my latest CL ad - enjoy: http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/art/4131884795.html - I have had a couple reply emails. :D

Cecilia you made me laugh again!

That cafe idea is a good one. What a theme! Some fabric for sale, pick a treadle cabinet and we'll make the coffee.
Sounds like an idea worth stealing.

You are very welcome. I LOVE AUCTIONS!!! I have to sit on my paddle though...;)

I had one a couple of months ago (in Winter, but ours is nothing like yours) and sold also sold sewing machines and it was probably 75% of what we sold.
People don't know they want one until you put it in the street, it seems :o

My GF and I went to one last June, with her warning me all the way there not to make any impulse bids, especially sewing machines. A really dirty '30s Jones came up and some idiot bought it. Asked GF who'd buy that? She was still holding the paddle up!
She needs constant supervision, but you need a hundred folks like her at the auction, then everyone will walk away happy.

I am following this thread. I am currently listing a Hinterberg quilting frame and a treadle red eye on craigslist. No takers yet.

From Miriam's experience, you might do better if you put a few dozen spelling errors in and add a zero or two to the price :D

I think there is a yahoo group for selling machines, Sewitsforsale. You might try that for a more captive audience. I haven't used them or bought from it, I just know it exists. It is a closed group so you have to email for membership.

I have to say my eyes glaze over when reading rules, so have never read the QB ones. Tammi, perhaps you could just list your excess machines on your web site with pics and prices.
Although I'm not in contention I'd love to see them anyway.
Like you said earlier, you have a domain, why not put it to very good use, especially if CL and Kijiji are a dead loss (that *might* be an Irish-ism).

I don't do well with typos and spelling errors. Most people who buy machines are smarter than that. A lot of guys buy machines. I think their wives don't want them touching theirs. The cost for cleaning a computerized machines is more than the cost of one of my used machines. Most of the time people just sew straight stitches. Why not just a machine that does straight stitches? Some people buy the machines to save wear and tear on their computerized machines.

I think one REAL problem is kids. They are scared to DO anything - they aren't taught anything. Most of them don't even have library cards. When I had machines around kids in September most were afraid of the needle.
Here are some pics of kids afraid of needles:
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and
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The second one was pretty funny. My DGD had to do the needle end because he was that afraid of the needle but he wanted to sew.
I wonder at what age they get past the fear - or do they never?

I didn't know that! I purchased a machine on here about a year or so ago. Have they changed the rules?

I will look more seriously into eBay then. It strikes me that I sent a package to bearisgrey for a similar price as something I sent to BC and the BC package was lighter and smaller. You may be completely right. I think that Canada Post's pricing has changed too though.[/QUOTE]


Shipping on eBay is the buyer's cost, not yours. PayPal also protects your transaction from scammers.

Deb

Couldn't it be possible for QB to host a "Vintage Sewing FS" category? I guess I didn't read the rules adequately, because I kind of wondered about the yard sale section, and why it didn't get used for this purpose.

The biggest problems are shipping and costs of shipping - honesty on both the buyer and seller's part - also QB doesn't want to have anything to do with sorting out problems that could occur. I put my stuff on CL if a QB member wants to contact me fine and dandy. I rarely post stuff for sale on here though. That said I have 168 machines that need homes. There are all sorts.

Very informative thread! And Cecilia you are a hoot!

I just skimmed the QB selling rules. They look like they mostly apply to fabric and a modern machine here and there. Surely the power that be know this is an active part of QB and serviced machines listed for a decent price would be acceptable.
I would PM a mod and inquire. I can't say I have ever seen one or needed to see one in this section.

Yep. A lot of the time, the shipping would cost more than the price of the machine.

I agree most sewing machines are not worth shipping, the trick is to find the models in very good condition that are in demand that make the time and expense of shipping worthwhile. It's much more cost effective to ship 5-10 machines then 1-2 since you can buy shipping material in bulk locally or from Uline. I estimate it cost me around $8 to double box a machine with bubble wrap, foam, and other odds and ends--all paid for materials not scavenged which would be cheaper if available. Might as well sell other odds and ends on the net around the house while you have the packing material. The CL or selling local alternative is not good for me and I'd be doing well to get what I paid for the machines. I'm no SM selling guru just sell a machine or two a month for fun.

Jon

Jon