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Some of you have heard this sad tale before, but I want to tell it again as a way of warning young people and newcomers to the wild, wacky world of vacuum cleaner collecting. Pull up a chair and grab a hankie.......


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Several years ago, back in the early 1990s, I met a person on the Internet. This person initially contacted me via email and persented herself as a Swedish woman living in Florida named Alexia Neufelder. Over the course of several months, we engaged in a very congenial email relationship. I felt I had gotten to know her pretty well.

Then an opportunity came along to engage in some vacuum cleaner trading with her. I had five beautiful-condition canister cleaners that I did not have much interest in, but that "she" wanted very badly:

- a two-tone Green GE canister,
- a pink GE canister,
- an Airway 55-A,
- a Rexair Model B,
- a Filter Queen Sandalwood 2-speed

All these machines were in fabulous shape, with all-original attachments, except the Rexair, which had no attachments but the machine itself ~was~ in absolutely NEW condition. There was not a scratch on it; the water pan looked like it had never had a drop of water in it; the whole thing was pristine and spic-n-span.

Both the GEs had the original cardboard attachment caddies; the Green GE had a special cloth sack that was, I think, for moth balls. It had a big red GE logo on the top.

The Filter Queen (2-speed '50s sandalwood model w/ retractable cord) had every attachment imaginable and I mean everything. Original hose and wands; all the basic stuff plus literally every extra accessory known to man - vibrator, floor polisher, power-tool kit, sprayer kit, hair dryer, clothes dryer, salesman's demonstration kit, on-board tool caddy, box of original filters papers, and a bunch of very rare commercial-size extra long nozzles; and other stuff too. All the optional accessories were in the original boxes. There were about 30 attachments in all. There was even a little Filter Queen sewing kit [you know, the cardboard folder kind] dye-cut in the shape of the cleaner and still in in the original glassine envelope! Most of that stuff had never been used.

The Airway had all the original attachments and the original purple cloth hose in excellent cosmetic condition.

Oh, and ~all~ these cleaners also had the original instruction booklets, including the Rexair. And the Filter Queen had quite a set of paperwork. All the various instruction booklets plus order forms, sales receipts etc. etc. That machine alone was a real treasure.

In fact, see the piccies here, and see for yourself their A-1 condition:

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The other person involved in this was -- or claimed to be -- nuts for canister type cleaners so she was more than thrilled to trade me some stuff I wanted. She promised to send me the sun, moon and stars for all that stuff. All sorts of rare vintage Electrolux cleaners and accessories, and a model 505 Kirby brand new in the box!! (Yes, I know, I know... I shouldda known better!!)

So of course, I agreed to make the swap. I went to a shipping company and had my cleaners professionally crated and shipped. And I mean they were, like, mummified! But it was worth the expense to me (about $500, as I recall), since they were in such immaculate condition and I did not want anything to get damaged in transit.

I got word from the recipient that everything arrived in perfect condition. Which did not surprise me --- the way they were packed, those crates could have been thrown off of the Empire State Building and landed intact!

I guess I don't need to tell you that to date, I have received nothing in return for my shipment. Nothing, that is, except, first, excuses; then delays; then outright lies; and, ultimately, attempts to blame the lack of delivery on a third party; and, finally, to top it all off, for her to turn the whole thing around and try to make it look as if it were somehow MY fault that I never got the stuff she claimed to send me! Yes, folks, we're talking major-league PSYCHO here. (And it didn't help matters any that the other party involved was a barely literate hick who also had quite a magical way of reinventing reality and the truth as he saw fit...)

When you figure the cost of shipping along with an estimated -- and, by today's eBay standards, conservative -- value of $100 each, I am out of pocket a cool thousand dollars on that deal gone bad.

Eventually, all the pieces of this ugly puzzle came together and I was able to figure out that "Alexia" was really a gay man living in Florida, who had ripped off several other collectors, and who was participating in several vac forums under a variety of pseudonyms.

I am telling you all about this situation as a way of cautioning you to be very, very careful about entering into agreements with people you meet on the Internet. Especially when it seems that the same psychotic crook who ripped me off has risen once again, like Freddy Krueger in another Friday the 13th movie.

You just never really know who you're dealing with; and if it is someone you don't know very well, the likelihood is VERY great that you will be taken advantage of. And you might even be "taken to the cleaners" by people who ingratiate themselves into your good graces and CLAIM to be your friends but who are not your friends at all but, rather, who are dishonest and unscrupulous crooks.

You have to be particularly careful on eBay -- you are only protected to a certain degree. eBay still claims "We are only a forum" when it comes to settling disputes; you may or may not get full satisfaction back from a transaction gone bad.