ThayerRags

No, just went goofy....

DC in Oklahoma

ThayerRags

Thanks Steve. I’m tickled to have it. I’ve been looking it over, and it’s interesting how much it’s like a 401A, and then on the other hand, how different it is from a 401A. It’s my most expensive sewing machine to date, but it had $100 worth of packing time and materials put into it to get it here without so much as a bent spool pin. (Of course, I popped one off while I was fiddling with it on my bench. I can get it back on.)

The machine was double-boxed using multiple thicknesses of sheet Styrofoam and minimal bubble wrap, and the case top double-boxed separately the same way. It couldn’t wiggle a bit. I didn’t think I’d ever get everything unwrapped to see it. It’s over-lubricated, but that’s about all that I’ve seen wrong with it so far, and it sews fine. One of the needle plate spring pins has a chunk missing (one out of four “tabs”), but I think that’s fairly common with these machines. It’s more quite running than any of our 401A machines. It has a sound of its own. It’s the 110VAC model.

Now all I need is a Singer 421G, a 411G, and a couple of other Gees to give me a pretty nice Singer 400 Slant Needle collection. My collection has now reached the expensive models for new additions....

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

OK dyslexic - right

Caroline94535

I begin teaching my niece to sew when she was 7. She's 32 now, and along with working full time; going to college, and raising two children, she wants to sew again. Before she buys some plastic doo-dad; I hope to find her a primed-and-ready Singer 201. When she's up to snuff with that, she can then get herself what ever she wants.

This last Christmas she made the cutest doggie-themed stockings, all by hand, for some friends.

Surfergirl

Featherweight 222...

OurWorkbench

I ACTUALLY GOT IT!!! I found a 15-30 with Tiffany decals in a drawing room cabinet. The bed decals are practically non-existent but the rest of them are pretty decent. The cabinet is similar to a 21 cabinet, but the doors on the sides isn't full height. I thought I had a picture of the cabinet that I took, but can't find it right now - or maybe I didn't take it. I know that the belt is not the right size and I do have the bobbin winder-belt cover....more later but it does work. I actually made a quick cover for it so I can leave it up. It needs some other cleaning, polishing, parts.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]522097[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]522098[/ATTACH]
I'll post more about it later (yes, with pictures ) as I found some other unique (to me) things with it.

Janey -- Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Quincunx

Those are some of the best Singer patterns and worn away as though someone was rolling up a lot of quilts through the machine already.

ThayerRags

When it rains, it pours....

After picking up a three machines on my “Want List” in the past 30 days, a couple of them kind of expensive, wouldn’t you know it, I have now found another. Financially, I could have made good use of one of those “dry spells” that I always seem to get from time to time when I can’t find any machines at all for months.

I’ve been looking for a Singer Industrial Walking Foot machine that is a type that originally came out as a treadle-operated machine. I don’t really have a NEED for one, but I would like to have one to play with. There are two or three different models that could fit the bill. Well, yesterday, I went and looked at one that has been living within a few miles of me for several years, and would fit the bill perfectly. It’s in an old power stand, but I want to put it in an industrial treadle stand (foot-power).

I don’t know the price yet. The owner told me to tell him what it’s worth. (I always get a kick out of folks wanting a Buyer to do an appraisal for them. It seems to me like that would be counter-productive.)

CD in Oklahoma

Freaky_Quilts_Dragon

Definitely a little counter-intuitive. The only big sticking points I can see is if you give them a range - e.g. $250 to $350 - and they insist on the higher end. Or they don't believe you and ask for more.

I do get the impression that you are *the* old sewing machine expert in the area as well as *the* old sewing machine buyer in the area. I can see where the seller is between a rock and a hard place.

ThayerRags

I’m not against giving free appraisals, as long as I’m not negotiating for the lowest price that I have to pay for something that I want. It’s a conflict of interest.

I just called him back a few minutes ago and gave him all of the Singer information about his machine that I had researched last night and this morning. I told him everything that I found about it, except the prices that I could find, which were all over the place as usual. His machine has some missing parts, and I even told him that they would be hard to source from what I had found. I asked him three more times for a price or a price range, and all he would tell me is that he knows what he gave for it several years ago, and wanted me to make an offer on it.

Neither the price that he gave for it then, nor the offer I might make for it now, will be of much real importance. It’s what he has to have for it now that’s important, and he won’t tell me. If I make an offer, and he thinks I’m low-balling him, I’ve insulted a good customer. I didn’t make an offer, and so for now, I’ve pretty much written that machine off. Bummer.

CD in Oklahoma