Where Are the Bargains?

I am continually surprised at the bargains I run across on an almost daily basis. How do I find them? Where do I go? This is a post to let you in on all of my secrets. Well, maybe not all of them, but some of the thoughts and processes behind what I have been doing to get the low price (and not hurt anyone).

1. Make the Rounds: I live in a well populated area with many resale shops so it's easy for me to catch quite a few on my way home. Sometimes the way home is a tad bit longer than usual but without going too far out of my way I can check many of them on a regular basis. This is especially important on the right days (customer appreciation, senior, members only, etc) as I can take 25-40% off on senior day depending on the store. One shop has 30% off every Friday so you can bet I check them out about once a month on a Friday.
2. Check Online Auctions: I can't claim to be a fan of eBay but I do purchase parts on a fairly regular basis. When it says "make an offer" even though a price is listed, I will make an offer, especially if I'm buying in quantity such as bobbin tires, needles, sewing machine oil. Only a handful of my sewing machines have come from eBay, mainly because of the packing and shipping errors that can so easily occur. A few machines have come to me because I wanted them for parts and then I would not mind if a spool pin was knocked off or the front scratched. I do like Goodwill online auctions but I usually bid on those I can pick up locally. The S&H is always dicey unless they pack well and then it's too expensive. They are always "as is" so it might not be much of a bargain. My local Goodwill online auction pick-up is not too far way from home, I can arrange for a pick up on my way to work, and some items are "pick up only" so that eliminates those bidders who live in states where sewing machines are few and far between. They are not adverse to running the price up to get what they can't get locally. I picked up a serger once that came without a power cord and foot control but it was never mentioned in the ad so they gave me a percentage back due to the inaccuracy of the ad. I had the right foot control at home so it was not a problem to get it up and running. So far, so good with Goodwill online.
3. Tell Your Friends: When I first got into repairing vintage sewing machines it was all I could talk about and my family and friends who certainly got an earful about my exploits (now you can read about them, too!). When they have come across sewing machines they think I might be interested in, I either get a call about how to rescue it or come-pick-it-up message. All of these notifications have turned out quite well with some classic sewing machines that were selling for a song or on the side of the road (thanks Dave, thanks Rose!). Due to the wonder of smart phones I can get a quick photo via text so I can say yea or nae (thanks Sue) and have saved them and myself from a few dogs.
4. Get There First: This is referring to Craigslist for the most part. You need to respond quickly to the ad and be willing to show up sooner than later. Sometimes my call is only 20 minutes after the post and I'm too late but twice now I responded two hours after Featherweights were listed and I was still the first call. Do I spend all of my time on my computer? Of course not, but I do check in frequently and make my decision to contact the seller on the spot. 
5. Be Diligent: This is something you need to keep on your back burner at all times because if you snooze you lose. One woman complained that she lost out on the Featherweight that I got after it was posted two hours because she was "taking a break." She probably made the right decision but then one did get away (I was also only ten minutes away from the seller, not an hour). Do I take breaks? Of course, but then I have to realize I will miss out and have to be okay with it.

All of the above tips are not just for sewing machines but include fabric and other supplies, too. It's a fine line between collecting, business, and hording. How much is enough? When I can look at sewing machines that are up for sale and say "No, I already have one (or two) of those" and walk away, I know I will be fine. When I can give up on a repair gone bad and use the machine for parts, I know I'm not as obsessed as I sometimes wonder. Bargains are good but only if you can use them. 

Now back to clearing off my work table so I can get some work done over my extended holiday vacation...

Music To My Ears

It has been a very busy buying and selling season and the top of my list these days is Elna, the wonderful sewing machine made in Switzerland. My story begins with an Elna Air Electronic in a cabinet that we drove 45 minutes in a rainstorm to get. My husband is such a good sport about my madness with sewing machines. It had belonged to a woman's mother who was long gone and they were moving out of state and downsizing: mom's sewing machine had to go. I sold it to a nice young man with six children who said his mom and sisters would be mad at him if he didn't get either an Elna, Viking, or Bernina so this was one he could afford. He brought his five year old son with him and they were quite a team.

Elna Air Electronic

Next up was an Elna SU with the blue top, given to me for free because there were "electrical issues." As it turned out, it needed a new electrical cord and foot control to the tune of $87. There were only a half dozen of the coveted cams but it came in the original metal case that folds out to create a large table top surface for sewing. I still have this awesome sewing machine but I should try to sell this one soon.

Elna SU 62

I've been looking for one of their "green machines" and that doesn't refer to their ecological footprint. No, they are bright green and have the distinction of having a knee control for a portable. They come up on Craigslist once in awhile so I just needed to wait. Much to my surprise, I was walking through my local Goodwill store and found this gem:

Elna Plana

No, it wasn't the green version I was after, but it looked about the same and the cabinet was way cool and in good shape. It came home with me and I found a spot in the living room. I wrote another blog post about replacing the motor drive pulley that was a fun exercise in repair that I would gladly do again.

Shortly thereafter I did find my green Elna and I'm still pretty excited about that as I wrote in a previous post about a vacation turned business. I haven't sewn anything with this beast yet but I knew I needed to get the rest of her accessories and a set of cams before I could sell her. I've been outbid on those Elna cams several times  but one of these days it's all going to work out for me! When Sara came over to pick up a sewing machine over the weekend I showed her the Elna Plana and ran the motor a bit so she could hear how smooth it sounded. Now she was hooked! She wanted an Elna but the green model was what she really wanted and I know the feeling: there is just something about the green model that the beige doesn't have. Bright color? They do run the same but my green model is freearm whereas the beige is flatbed and that does make a difference.

Here's where it gets interesting (if you haven't stopped reading by now: congratulations!): Sara found her dream Elna on local CL, portable, full of cams (30?), just fully loaded, but in beige. And a bit more than she wanted to pay. Mine was cheaper but no cams or other accessories. I suggested she offer a lower price and see if the seller would budge but if she could get a set of cams with my lower price that might be the way to go. As it turns out, the cams on Ebay go for way more than initial starting bid so she didn't get them but the seller went down on her price. Yea! I'm happy for Sara, quickly becoming somewhat of a frequent flier with my postings, but just a tiny bit sad for myself until today. I  bid on another set of Elna cams and, of course, I had to figure out what my top price would be and hope that wasn't going to be too low but I knew what they were worth. At the last 30 seconds, a bid came in $22 more than my previous high bid but my final bid was $4 more than theirs and with only seconds left, I WON! Now my Elna, in green, comes with a nice set of a dozen cams plus a set of accessories,to be collected from my stash, when I get home. Score!

Elna in green

Cams from another set and accessory box

 It takes patience and practice to collect all of these items but I know a buyer will want to have a sewing machine that is complete and ready to use. That is hopefully why they come to me instead of just buying off of Craigslist themselves: I have cleaned, tested, adjusted, and furnished each sewing machine so it's ready to go (and you can bring it back if unhappy).

The Elna adventure isn't over yet. On Sunday I got a call for an Elna TOP 300 that I've listed several times as a nice beginners sewing machine but it's missing the front storage compartment and that's not too great. A nice woman wanted to get a friend started in sewing but didn't want to spend too much so the Elna with it's missing storage was going to work just fine. I'm glad that nice sewing machine has finally found a home. Then on Monday I get an email asking if I buy sewing machines because the writer had (drum roll here) an Elna Air Electronic (see photo at top of this post). I sure did so she came over with one in excellent shape, just a little dusty from storage in the basement. I even tried to talk her out of it when she said she bought a Singer on sale at a chain fabric store. I suggested she might be going in the wrong direction there but she was sure she didn't want that dear old Elna. And I'm thinking "Come to mama!" as I cleaned it up inside and out and she ran like a champ. Yes, it's been an Elna kind of a week and I still haven't been to Switzerland.

Searching For Parts

As with any repairs for items no longer in production, finding parts for repair is usually done through other collectors/dealers in the same business. Before online shopping and Ebay, I assume there was a finite number of dealers who took orders by phone or written orders mailed to them. But now we have an almost infinite number of dealers who have run across a stray sewing machine or a box of odd parts that they know little about but are anxious to sell. Sometimes these items are grouped and very loosely identified, other times they are listed individually with part numbers. They might have a fixed price, best offer, or up for auction. I have bought in all three formats listed above but have won only a few auctions (and then I can;t help but wonder what's wrong with my find.) Tonight I lost an auction item in the last seconds and I got a little steamed: how did they do that? It was a set of cams and accessories for an Elna, starting out at only $30 with no interest until the last 2 minutes! My max bid would only go up to $40 but they sold for $46, too high for me, but I still felt a bit cheated. I will try again but don't like the auction format!

Goodwill online has worked well for me and this past week was a good example. No one was interested in a Singer 66 with a crinkle finish that has clearly come out of a cabinet but there was no conversion to a portable:

Singer 66 in crinkle finish

The wires look pretty dicey but I know how to wire so I'm not too concerned about that. What I was really looking for was a spoked handwheel to use for a Singer 99 handcrank and this sewing machine had one. This meant it was born as a treadle and converted to electric because only treadles and handcrank sewing machines needed the size and weight of a spoked wheel.  It also had a nice slide plate for the bobbin area, something many sewing machines are missing. All in all, this would be a parts machine, I decided. There was another bid or two but they were lackluster, not any real competition. I won and scheduled the pick up in St. Paul for Thursday morning before I went into work. While I was waiting in the Goodwill store I walked around and came upon a White sewing machine that looked solid, clean, and wiring intact. No portable case or cabinet/table/desk that it had been taken out of so I could only test by plugging in the light (worked) and when I plugged in the motor WATCH OUT! It look off like a race car! Without the motor block where you can plug in the light and motor and control the speed with a foot or knee control, it wasn't going to get bought by anyone who didn't already have the spare parts. I didn't need to feel sorry for it because it only needed that set of wires and foot control that I already owned but I did feel sorry for anyone that found it on the shelf and couldn't figure out how to get it to work right. It came home with me:

White Deluxe Zigzag

Here's the hard part: it is difficult to actually strip down a really good sewing machine just for parts. I tend to keep them on the shelf and slowly pick them apart. Here's a photo of my parts shelf

How many can you count?

 where you can see the two identical Necchi BU's that have parts that have failed, cannot be replaced, and are excellent for parts on better Necchi's. I don't have too many regrets stripping Kenmore's or White's for parts but a really good Singer, Necchi, Pfaff, or Bernina just can't be that far gone could it? It's a difficult decision to finally give up on a sewing machine but to buy one knowing it's not going to be used to sew with but just for parts is just a bit sad. But no, most of those sewing machines have been around even longer than I have so maybe it's just their final resting place. Hey, maybe they are even happy to be sitting there resting with their compadres. I'll just have to keep telling myself that.

Ebay Foibles

After my last disappointment, you would have thought I would be really careful in my shopping. I don't learn too fast, it seems, because the next two machines were a bit of a struggle:

This machine was just too much of a temptation! I could get her for only $12.50 at Salvation Army right in my neighborhood. I turned her on and she seemed okay and not much of a risk. She was a bit of a mystery to me because the Singer 1425N has rubber feed dogs. Is this a good thing? Why don't they have them today? My research showed that they are a great concept for delicate fabrics but do break down in time. Mine held up great over time but they were not working too well. In our exploration of her undersides, hubby points out the feed dog gears are stripped. What? How can that happen? We make the big decision to replace them for $15 and wait for their arrival. After several hours of struggle, since we had never replaces gears on sewing machines before, they finally work. As we go to stitch it will only go in reverse so this gives us both a chuckle but that wasn't too hard to figure out and remedy.

Yet something is very wrong. It doesn't want to shift cams when the stitch dial is moved. In fact, it just seems to be frozen up. We give up and set it aside. In fact, we discover we can take the good parts from this model Singer and use on the Singer 5530 so it has a good spool pin and thread guide. Not a great save but something.

Almost a week later I discover the same machine in working order on eBay. Should I get it to see how the cams are supposed to work? Is this just more money in experimentation? Hubby encourages me to buy it if I want to solve the puzzle so I go ahead and order: just under $50. I impatiently wait for it to arrive.

It comes on time and wrapped to the hilt in bubble wrap and what do you know it even comes in a suitcase that is a great fit. A bonus not advertised! Unwrapping it is exciting until I come to the fly in this ointment. The spool pin and a thread guide are broken. That's right, the very pieces I took off the new gear machine and put on the Singer 5530. I'm disappointed but set her up and she runs perfectly, shifting cams without any effort. The seller makes good on the broken spool pin and I think the thread guide might work as it is. Here she is broken:

Now I get to set them up side by side and see what makes the second machine run so well and what could be the problem with the first one. Irreparable? I hope not but stay tuned (this is a nice sewing machine!)