Where do you have the best vacuum finds?

I've been wondering lately where others seem to have the best success finding old vacuum cleaners. This time of year we have a lot of yard sales in the newspaper each weekend. I never know which ones are the best to try. I do often go to estate sales, because I figure there were likely older people with old machines, but rarely do I find anything older than an Elite. I have seen threads on here with people's multiple estate sale finds from one day and I'm amazed.

Being in Florida I often go to those clubhouse sales in retirement communities and trailer parks, etc. I figure like estate sales the older people there may have old cleaners they are selling. Usually I have no luck with them though, and if they do have a vacuum, it isn't one I'm looking for. However I did have that great find of a Penncrest Constellation at one a few years back. That sale tends to have several machines each year.

When I go to yard sales, it is at least fairly easy to check for vacuums without stopping. I know when we had sales ourselves when I was a kid, the people who drove by were discouraging, we wanted them to stop - but now I do it myself. LOL

I also can't seem to find anything at the thrifts lately either - Habitat ReStore has been pretty barren, and another thrift store I tried has a bunch of plastic vacs and Kirbys that they want $40-50 each for! And some have been there for a LONG time.

Maybe the vacuums I'm looking for are just too old or uncommon to expect to find. A lot of the vacuums in my collection are ones that I wasn't particularly looking for, but their uniqueness made me want to buy them.


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Post# 264720 1/25/2014 at 13:23 (3,742 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)
Checkrate/Likes I've been wondering lately where others seem to have the best success finding old vacuum cleaners. This time of year we have a lot of yard sales in the newspaper each weekend. I never know which ones are the best to try. I do often go to estate sales, because I figure there were likely older people with old machines, but rarely do I find anything older than an Elite. I have seen threads on here with people's multiple estate sale finds from one day and I'm amazed. Being in Florida I often go to those clubhouse sales in retirement communities and trailer parks, etc. I figure like estate sales the older people there may have old cleaners they are selling. Usually I have no luck with them though, and if they do have a vacuum, it isn't one I'm looking for. However I did have that great find of a Penncrest Constellation at one a few years back. That sale tends to have several machines each year. When I go to yard sales, it is at least fairly easy to check for vacuums without stopping. I know when we had sales ourselves when I was a kid, the people who drove by were discouraging, we wanted them to stop - but now I do it myself. LOL I also can't seem to find anything at the thrifts lately either - Habitat ReStore has been pretty barren, and another thrift store I tried has a bunch of plastic vacs and Kirbys that they want $40-50 each for! And some have been there for a LONG time. Maybe the vacuums I'm looking for are just too old or uncommon to expect to find. A lot of the vacuums in my collection are ones that I wasn't particularly looking for, but their uniqueness made me want to buy them.

Post# 264723 , Reply# 1 1/25/2014 at 14:17 (3,742 days old) by kenkart ()
Checkrate/Likes *I have to say it...* The Internet has RUINED vacuum collecting ,as well as stove and washer collecting, things that you could buy for 5 to 15 dollars now bring 100 to 500 dollars, the best thing is to go to estate sales...be the very first one at the door, sometimes Donald and I are waiting at 6 am!! , but be sure the ones you go to are older people, the best ones are advertised as..50 years of stuff..etc.

Post# 264728 , Reply# 2 1/25/2014 at 14:44 (3,742 days old) by caligula (Wallingford, Connecticut)
Checkrate/Likes *Hi fan-of-fans.* I was fortunate to have several resources to lean on. The first was my friend John Meloney of Elderberry Antiques in Clairmont, New Hampshire. This was in the early 1970's when I started collecting non electric one and two person pumpers. He was also the man who found my Whirlwind dating back to 1869. Another resource was Kirby of Oak Park, Illinois, as I got to keep any trade-in I wanted. I also scoured the basements of vacuum cleaner shops, as well as watched for garage sales. Another great plus was knowing several members of the V.C.C.C., especially Mike Pupek who gave me several vintage Electrolux's.

Post# 264750 , Reply# 3 1/25/2014 at 18:32 (3,742 days old) by stricklybojack (Southern California)
Checkrate/Likes *Vacuum cleaner shops...* they take in dozens of dead or unwanted vacs every month on average, most all of them go to the dumpster or to scrap dealers. I have yet to even attempt tapping this resourse for fear of quickly being overwhelmed; then i have to be the one tossing vacs out. I suspect they toss better vacs than 1/2 of my collection...shudders. In almost all cases i want a vac i can use if i choose to do so. But that means the vac needs a good bag, belt and brush roll; which, when multiplied over dozens of vacs gets out of hand quickly. Shipping costs are killing online sales of the many less glamorous used vac models which abound and local markets are often too small to sell a used vac easily. The upshot is you can get buried fast unless you have lots of starage space on hand...and i don't.

Post# 264751 , Reply# 4 1/25/2014 at 18:41 (3,742 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)
Checkrate/Likes The estate sales can be good, but it can be difficult to find good sales. Best to go to houses where people lived for a long time and didn't get rid of much. I have been to a lot of estate sales where the houses were only a few years old and they obviously never kept anything as it was all new stuff for sale. My favorites tend to be the "junkier" ones with barns full of old things, not the fancy boutique-style ones with the high-end furniture, jewelry and expensive clothes for women to go through. Still, at best, I often only find nothing older than 1990s Hoovers at estate sales. Not totally bad, but not what I'm looking for. I did find a Hoover Slimline at an estate sale last year, but it was missing the hose and had a little rust on the top, so I left it. As far as vacuum stores, I wish we still had some! There were three in my area 15 years ago, now all are long gone.

Post# 264759 , Reply# 5 1/25/2014 at 19:22 (3,742 days old) by TASE (Colorado)
Checkrate/Likes I've had the most luck with Craigslist recently. So far I've gotten: Kirby Sentria for $40 Kirby Sentria II for a Kindle Fire Kirby Dual Sanitronic 80 for $40 Kirby 562 Then, from thrift stores: Kirby Classic III ($40... I know I overpaid) Kirby Sanitronic VII ($20) Kirby G3 ($25) Electrolux Automatic E ($15) Eureka Self Propelled ($7) Crapton of Kirby Attachments (Kirby Omega, Kirby Classic III, Sentria II, 2x Sentria) Kirby Heritage ($12) Basically, Craigslist and thrift stores. That's where I get all my vacuums. I only say Craigslist is so good for me because I trade A LOT of stuff on there and get a lot of different things. For example, if looking for a specific vacuum or line of vacuum, just post a wanted. That's what I did for my Sentria II.

Post# 264803 , Reply# 6 1/26/2014 at 06:18 (3,741 days old) by kenkart ()
Checkrate/Likes 1 *About a month ago..* We went to an Estate sale in Greensboro, for 5.00 I got a 1955 Eureka roto matic 800 with all the attachments, back in the summer I bought a 513 Kirby for 15.00, the stuff is out there, estatesales.net is a good resource, what we do is put in 50 miles from our zip code, then decide what sales look good, if there are several, we split up and take both vehicles, but the secret is to be there early!