Crazy vacuum find stories

Cole, what is going to make it CRAZY?

Does it have to be Avocado? What about one of the other colors?

OK, I see your bid, and I'm going to up you:

I recently bought a 1980s Eureka/Montgomery Wards power team canister. The guy wanted to meet me at the Grocery Store. Fine.

He opens the door to his van, first thing I see, he had a nice looking early 80s Kenmore upright (not interested) and a green Constellation that was in rough shape. He had put wheels on the bottom (not interested).

Then he had the brown Eureka in a big box with parts. He pulls it out, I look it over and put it in my car thinking 'Thats what I came for' and ask him if he has anything else. He wants to sell me the upright. I agreed, it was very nice, looked very clean (but it's certainly not happening). He sighed and says "well, the only other thing I have is this old Kenmore vacuum, but you probably aren't interested. It's dirty."

Amongst all the clutter in the van, I hadn't noticed it before. I looked in, looked twice, my eyes widened, "UM, YES, I AM. How much do you want for it?"

Oh, I guess I'd sell it for ......$20." I reached in my pocket, whipped out the money for both vacuums and paid before even touching the Kenmore.

"I'll pull it out of there" he says. It was just back in there, it wasn't buried or anything.

"Do you have any other parts?" I ask as I quickly and nonchalantly move it to my car. "No" he says. He counts the money. Rather excited he says while closing the doors, "I'll have to keep these (constellation and upright) to clean my own house."

What was IT? A 1982 TOL Sears Best canister. Dirty, but it will clean up. Still had the original hose, but the ends are rough/bad. I have ends. It runs smooth as can be. Beige with wood grain top and red bumper AND the SEARS BEST Label on the corner. Even has the tool tray with tools inside.

But, Cole, if it has to be an Avocado one, I'll tell you of one, or all, of my finds at Goodwill. O.K, So........


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Post# 346366 3/5/2016 at 12:16 (2,972 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)
Checkrate/Likes 1 Did you ever have any crazy stories behind vacuum finds? I have two: When I got back into collecting vacuums in 2012 or so, I was really interested in finding a Hoover Constellation. I could not recall seeing any around ever, so figured it would be difficult to find one. I had a dream about finding an orange one. So a few days later I went to a big sale looking for one and didn't see one where the vacuums were. But I looked under the table and there was a Penncrest labeled Constellation in white/orange. The other was also a Hoover. I went to an estate sale and saw a lime Hoover Slimline. But they wanted $7 and I did not seen any hose or attachments, and there was a little rust spots on the machine. I passed. Later I thought about going back but something told me not to bother. I really wanted that Slimline and my mind was thinking "what if they did have the the hose and attachments". I called the estate sale business and they said they had not sold the vacuum but it wasn't worth their time to go back to sell it to me. A few months later after I had forgotten it, I went to a thrift store and what do you know, a lime green Slimline! But not just any, it was definitely the one from the estate sale as evidence of the pink sticker was still there. But the thrift store had marked it $5 and there was a sale so it was cheaper. And it did have the hose wand and floor tool, they just weren't attached to the machine. It cleaned up really well. Sometimes surprising things happen. I would really like to have a crazy avocado Kenmore canister find, but not so far.

Post# 346387 , Reply# 1 3/5/2016 at 14:42 (2,972 days old) by delaneymeegan (Mary Richards lived here)
Checkrate/Likes *"a crazy avocado Kenmore canister find"* Cole, what is going to make it CRAZY? Does it have to be Avocado? What about one of the other colors? OK, I see your bid, and I'm going to up you: I recently bought a 1980s Eureka/Montgomery Wards power team canister. The guy wanted to meet me at the Grocery Store. Fine. He opens the door to his van, first thing I see, he had a nice looking early 80s Kenmore upright (not interested) and a green Constellation that was in rough shape. He had put wheels on the bottom (not interested). Then he had the brown Eureka in a big box with parts. He pulls it out, I look it over and put it in my car thinking 'Thats what I came for' and ask him if he has anything else. He wants to sell me the upright. I agreed, it was very nice, looked very clean (but it's certainly not happening). He sighed and says "well, the only other thing I have is this old Kenmore vacuum, but you probably aren't interested. It's dirty." Amongst all the clutter in the van, I hadn't noticed it before. I looked in, looked twice, my eyes widened, "UM, YES, I AM. How much do you want for it?" Oh, I guess I'd sell it for ......$20." I reached in my pocket, whipped out the money for both vacuums and paid before even touching the Kenmore. "I'll pull it out of there" he says. It was just back in there, it wasn't buried or anything. "Do you have any other parts?" I ask as I quickly and nonchalantly move it to my car. "No" he says. He counts the money. Rather excited he says while closing the doors, "I'll have to keep these (constellation and upright) to clean my own house." What was IT? A 1982 TOL Sears Best canister. Dirty, but it will clean up. Still had the original hose, but the ends are rough/bad. I have ends. It runs smooth as can be. Beige with wood grain top and red bumper AND the SEARS BEST Label on the corner. Even has the tool tray with tools inside. But, Cole, if it has to be an Avocado one, I'll tell you of one, or all, of my finds at Goodwill. O.K, So........

Post# 347236 , Reply# 2 3/12/2016 at 09:39 (2,965 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)
Checkrate/Likes Mainly looking for an avocado one. My favorite is the avocado with woodgrain and tool rack that sits on top or inside. I also like the older one that is metal. This is one of those "someday" finds when I eventually get my own place hopefully. Kind of like the Kenmore Home Cleaning System/Powerspray I would also like to find. Again when I have my own place and more space.