Just called my brother using Skype... he showed me my new baby with his laptop camera. I saw something blue and asked him to zoom on the badge: yes, yes, yes, IT`S A CENTENNIAL!!! I was so excited! The decals are beautiful, nothing is missing, it is coming with all the attachement and the original manual. Can't believe my luck. It`s a good thing that I didn't get it myself because I would have felt bad to pay such a low price: the seller's inherited the machine from her aunt, she just didn't know what she was selling.

Profannie, I am laughing, because I secretly had a hunch that with your luck, it would be a Centennial! (Because she did not know about machines, yet she said 1950, which gave me the hunch that she had seen the badge.)

Very nice for you.

And you know, the lady would be very happy to know it is going to a loving home. I got a FW Centennial quite cheaply as well, and I tried to tell the seller that she could get much more for it elsewhere, but she was actually just really happy to sell it to me because she liked that I was honest, and she liked the idea of it being used and loved. So, good for you!

Cecilia, you are right, people are often attached to a sewing machine coming from a member of the family, and they are happy to sell it to someone who will love it and use it. Thanks for reminding me this, now I feel better :-)

When I got my first FW, I bought it from the niece of the original owner. She had inherited it from her aunt 8 years earlier and put it in the attic. When she decided to clean out, she listed it on craigslist for $95 not knowing what she had. When I saw the ad and called, she had already been called by a dealer who offered her $150. I started talking to her about why FW are popular with quilters and how I wanted one to sew on, and said I would gladly match the $150. She took my offer because she was happier to sell it to someone who would love it and sew on it, than a dealer who would resell it higher. The funny thing was, she lived 6 blocks from my Mom. This also happened 2 weeks after I found a FW bobbin mixed in my Mom's stuff for her Singer 401, and took it for "bait".

Congrats. I finally got my FW sewing like a Dream and I am so in love with her. Are you going to name it?

What good luck you have had! I just found a fw to replace mine that was stolen and am not telling the price lol. It really wasn't a bad price just not a bargain like u found! It should come in next week and when we leave the house for any length of time I'm loading it in the car with me! I still have the featherweight table. So happy and it will be a long week!

Steph, I will for sure find her a nice name when I will meet her in person :-) It will be French, of course, because it`s my native language and she is coming with a french instruction manual!

Chantelle? Chantelle Chanteuse? ;-)

Cecilia, your French is very good :-) In french canadian familiar vocabulary, we use some english words with a french prononciation, so I could very well call her "Lucie la Loque (luck)" ;)

Lucky you! Congrats. Wish I could be so lucky and find a 301 that cheap. Enjoy your FW.