The sewing machine hunt last week started with the loss of a machine. I had answered probably a half dozen ads in the local buy and sell.

2 of them responded.

The seller of the first one was a thrift shop, and had only posted a picture of the back of the machine and called it a singer antique sewing machine. In the picture, there was a price tag that said $150, but i didn’t know if that was current. I emailed looking for the model or serial number and a price.

Looking at the picture, it appeared to be a 3/4 machine with a beige and red carry case.

My guess was a 99 or similar.

The reply was that they couldn’t find a model number, the price was $50, and we should come see it.

At that price it was worth a look.

We got there a few hours later, and it was indeed a 1955 model 99.  It was fairly clean, with some obvious and not unexpected “blemishes”. The cord was in rough shape though.  There were bare spots on the wires, the wires to the pedal had been twisted like a corkscrew top to bottom, so the cord was going to need replacement.  The motor looked fine and the machine turned freely.  The case was in great physical shape, but had some evidence of water staining on the base.

I threaded the machine. The thread they had on it was too thick to use.   The bobbin was wound with the same thread, and as a result, it couldn’t even be threaded through the bobbin thread tensioner.  She found some other thread, and I set the machine up.

I plugged it in and tried it out, all the time, telling the girl what I was doing, and why.  It sounded fine, but had that smell.  The smell of long unused motor firing up after a long rest.

I decided to buy it, but thought it worth haggling a little to see what would happen. Usually, this pays off.

Not so today.

I asked if they’d take a little less. The girl turned and asked the other girl there who replied, that machine is over $100, that there was no way they’d sell it for what I’d offered. At that point, I mentioned that I had been told that the machine was $50, not “over $100”.

The first girl said she must have made a mistake.

The second girl said that she was sure that her boss wouldn’t let it go for under $100. I let her know that that was too much for me to pay.  She asked how much I could pay, so I mentioned that we were going to see another machine for $75.  She said that she couldn’t sell it for that, but that if we didn’t like the other one, we could come back for this one.

We left then with me knowing that I’d just given them enough information to sell the machine easier.  Sure enough, a quick look online when we got home, showed that the ad had been updated to say that the machine worked great.

Oh well. There will be other machines and deals to be had. I had the opportunity to teach someone about these machines, so hopefully it will be better taken care of, and go to a good home.

I got to bring the second one home though.

Read about it here.

Edit: 06/21/2012  Tonight I traded emails with a lady from ebay who’s about 50kms from here.  She’s got a model 99, missing the slide plate, in a box that needs a little tlc that she was selling for parts or repair but pulled from ebay.  She’s having a garage sale this weekend, and when advertised, she mentioned that she had a 99 for sale.  The price is way better than the ebay price, and I’ve told her I’ll take it.   Looks like I may just get a 99 after all.   Also of note is that the first 99 still appears to be for sale at $150.