How Many?

I get asked by the brave few "How many sewing machines do you have anyway?" To my ears that sounds like "How many do you really need anyway?" and I take it as a criticism and maybe it is. I'm not going to defend myself here because I clearly have more sewing machines than I can use or sell at this point so the acquisition has to slow way down and the selling has to speed up.

Acquisitions This is a library term for our book buying and processing so I feel comfortable with it and it sounds so official. I'm not hording, I'm filling an acquisition order. Everyone must want a vintage sewing machine of this caliber so why not buy every one that comes on my local market for a cheap price? It's an acquisition. If course, even the best sewing machine must eventually find a new home so that leads into

Sales We must have sales to keep any business afloat. At the end of the first year I was willing to show a small loss because I was building inventory and supplies. Now I have to prove myself and make a profit by actually selling these wonderful sewing machines. There is a season for this and I'm just discovering what might be the high points as well as the low. I predicted it would get slow when the weather was good again because we would want to be outdoors, not inside sewing. I also hope hot weather will send people indoors to their air-conditioned homes and they will start sewing again.

Storage To answer the question of how many sewing machines I have I counted last night and found I have 50 in one room:

and nearly as many in the next room. This takes up half of my basement. Of course, there are sewing machines upstairs, too: one treadle on the porch, one in the kitchen, two treadles in the living room along with 3 cabinet models, and one small cabinet in the guest bedroom. Oh boy. That's a lot of sewing machines for sale. Right now I have 2 tables in the garage that are listed for sale and 4 sewing machines on Craigslist. Sales are slow (because of the great weather?) yet I got a call today for the treadle in the living room. I always have high hopes!

Next post: which ones do I keep and why?