Sounds like you're between a rock and a hard place yourself. That is a bummer.

Gah. I don't like that game. With luck he won't make a sale anytime soon and when he sees no one rushing to buy it he will approach you with a reasonable figure.

Name the price is always a losing game. CD that 431G is a sweet machine! I can see why you wanted it. Ourworkbench: Did you mean the nice parlor cabinet? If so you got a really nice one too.
Rodney

Well, it looks like I am finally going to be able to cross this one off my list!!!!!!!!! (sorta)

This machine is my #1 top most wanted.
http://collections.museumvictoria.com.au/items/256814

Well I finally managed to find a Clone of it. YES, a clone from the 1880's!!!!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]532817[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]532818[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]532819[/ATTACH]

James Moffat - History
http://www.yeovilhistory.info/moffatt.htm

When It arrives, I will be starting it's own thread.

Congrats on the find!

Since this thread last came around, I've acquired the Howe High arm and the Portman.

And if I'm lucky - I'll soon have the Eldridge long shuttle machine too. I bought a fiddle base Eldredge, and this one was made before National was formed. So unless it got modified, it will take the long shuttle. Just got notice that it shipped, so now I have to wait for it to get here!

When you say Howe High Arm, do you mean the Model G?

I have the 301 and love it dearly. The grasshopper is cute and green and a nice addition. I don't have any more room. Don't have a Bernina yet. My friend loves hers and wouldn't have anything else. Poor thing only has 2 machines.

I never would have thought of looking for clones that early in sewing machine history. I have learned how much they copied each other but I had the idea that settled down by the 1880s. I guess that was only true for the US in the 1880s...

The White 77 gnomezilla is kind of taunting me right now. There is a good serviced one for sale from one of us but mostly across the country. And I am anxious about shipping because one also finally turned up on Craigslist here but with a big chunk snapped off of the corner of the bed. Metal that snapped. :(

But I was lucky too. I fell in love with the idea of chainstitch and decided I just had to have a Kenmore that could chainstitch for my powerful zigzag machine. All of Sacramento is north of me so I would find it there right? No, it came from the east where barely anyone else lives. And the Kenmore before that came from the south. Maybe the gnomezilla is waiting in the west in that very thin strip where no one lives, before it turns into the Bay Area and you cannot stretch out both arms without touching a bad parking job?

I have the sewing machine I have always wanted since I bought it new and it is still quilting fine:
Bernina 1530
It does NOT have any the new fangle features but I really don't need them. I am too set in my ways anyways at my age.

A few years ago I happen to see one of the first zigzaggers Bernina made in the late 1930s. It is heavy cast iron, they came in black or green. They only do straight stitch and zigzag, and I think they are general low shanks. This is sort of the ultimate machine for me; a very smooth running, solid work horse. I don't really need much more, and if I need a stretchy sitich on a jersey hem, an additional serger could be a good solution. However the case, I would not mind a brand new latest model Bernina either, they cost a lot though.

I can't really decide on just one model, but for the moment I am working on an old Elna Supermatic, it is pretty close to ideal. It has a cam stack which takes lots of different disks, rather advanced for a 1950s model, with double cams and stitch patterns with reverse stitch combination; it does rather nice simple over lock stitches and stretchy seams. Mine is still a bit noisy, I hope to improve on when I get a few wear parts replaced (rubber pulley and a bobbin tire). I might have to take a look at the motor too.