Kirby Motherloade find at a yard sale (30+ vacs!)

Back in late march and early april i was looking through craigslist to find vintage kirby's (Heritage II or earlier)to clean up and sell as a start of a small business. i was only expecting to do this as a small side job. maybe one or two a month at most.

i then stumbled upon a listing of a yard sale at warehouse in greenville, tx (about 60 miles from where i live)with a HUGE sale (2 warehouses full) with a mention of over 50 kirby's! i thought it may have been a typo, but got a call from the lady who was selling them. it indeed was not! we asked her to hold them for us as she was gracious enough to do so.

we went there two times and found tons of kirby's! we have at least 6 classic III's (all with shag kings) about 6 or 7 classic omegas, 5 traditions, and the rest are older (one ds80, a few ds50's and about 10 ish old 500 models. one dating back to 1949) also the classic III's have almost 6 complete sets of attachments. the ds80 also has its whole set, still brand new in the box) we also stumbled upon a handi-butler for the omega, and the classic III.

we found out this lady had all these old glorious kirby's from a commercial cleaning service many years ago which is why we have more rug renovators and miracle heads than vacs to put them with (we have at least 15 -20 of each) plus the shag king's from the classic III's and omega's.

right now there is lots of work to be done (as seen in the pics). the most complete vacs will be easy to fix and sell. the parts that we lack on several of the classic omegas and a few traditions most is handle forks, bags and cords. thank goodness thier not the most expensive parts. some need new bearings in the motor too. but two we have fired up for far run like a champ!

we plan to sell the refurbed vacs for $250 for the vac restored, and more if the ethusiast/customer wants attachments (30-45$ for a set)

i already have 2 sales at that price point and am workin on restoring a classic III as we speak. once its done, ill show her off for you all to see!

now the pics . first the vacuum room. 11 kirby's and 2 ancient royals pictured. plus lots of bags and brushroll heads. you can see the shag kings on some of the vacs. the next 2 pics are the boxes of nothing but kirby parts and attachments of vacs to be assembled farther down the line as well as crapload of attachments.

4 vacs wont be sold they are for mine and my friend's personal collection. im snagging up the red classic III with the shag king there in the photo and a tradition. my friend is snagging up the classic omega with the shag king in the pic and a tradition as well. the rest will be restored for sale....

this was a truly amazingly lucky find.

Will Hemb


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Post# 132857 4/18/2011 at 02:06 (4,757 days old) by bnsd60m9200 (Akron OH)
Checkrate/Likes Back in late march and early april i was looking through craigslist to find vintage kirby's (Heritage II or earlier)to clean up and sell as a start of a small business. i was only expecting to do this as a small side job. maybe one or two a month at most. i then stumbled upon a listing of a yard sale at warehouse in greenville, tx (about 60 miles from where i live)with a HUGE sale (2 warehouses full) with a mention of over 50 kirby's! i thought it may have been a typo, but got a call from the lady who was selling them. it indeed was not! we asked her to hold them for us as she was gracious enough to do so. we went there two times and found tons of kirby's! we have at least 6 classic III's (all with shag kings) about 6 or 7 classic omegas, 5 traditions, and the rest are older (one ds80, a few ds50's and about 10 ish old 500 models. one dating back to 1949) also the classic III's have almost 6 complete sets of attachments. the ds80 also has its whole set, still brand new in the box) we also stumbled upon a handi-butler for the omega, and the classic III. we found out this lady had all these old glorious kirby's from a commercial cleaning service many years ago which is why we have more rug renovators and miracle heads than vacs to put them with (we have at least 15 -20 of each) plus the shag king's from the classic III's and omega's. right now there is lots of work to be done (as seen in the pics). the most complete vacs will be easy to fix and sell. the parts that we lack on several of the classic omegas and a few traditions most is handle forks, bags and cords. thank goodness thier not the most expensive parts. some need new bearings in the motor too. but two we have fired up for far run like a champ! we plan to sell the refurbed vacs for $250 for the vac restored, and more if the ethusiast/customer wants attachments (30-45$ for a set) i already have 2 sales at that price point and am workin on restoring a classic III as we speak. once its done, ill show her off for you all to see! now the pics . first the vacuum room. 11 kirby's and 2 ancient royals pictured. plus lots of bags and brushroll heads. you can see the shag kings on some of the vacs. the next 2 pics are the boxes of nothing but kirby parts and attachments of vacs to be assembled farther down the line as well as crapload of attachments. 4 vacs wont be sold they are for mine and my friend's personal collection. im snagging up the red classic III with the shag king there in the photo and a tradition. my friend is snagging up the classic omega with the shag king in the pic and a tradition as well. the rest will be restored for sale.... this was a truly amazingly lucky find. Will Hemb

Post# 132858 , Reply# 1 4/18/2011 at 02:08 (4,757 days old) by bnsd60m9200 (Akron OH)
Checkrate/Likes the boxes full of nothing but kirby's and thier attachments

Post# 132861 , Reply# 2 4/18/2011 at 05:00 (4,757 days old) by KirbyClassicIII (Milwaukie, Oregon)
Checkrate/Likes That is quite a collection of Kirbys there! ~Ben

Post# 132864 , Reply# 3 4/18/2011 at 07:24 (4,756 days old) by vacumaniac ()
Checkrate/Likes Nice!

Post# 132872 , Reply# 4 4/18/2011 at 10:42 (4,756 days old) by Brandon_W_T ()
Checkrate/Likes Wow! That HAS to constitute as one of the biggest kirby hauls of all time! Congratulations on such a find, and best of luck with the restorations.

Post# 132973 , Reply# 5 4/18/2011 at 19:48 (4,756 days old) by kirbylux77 (London, Ontario, Canada)
Checkrate/Likes *WOW, that's quite the Kirby haul there!* Best of luck with the restorations. Do you plan on selling or parting out any of these Kirby's eventually? I am sure there would be many interested, especially starter collectors just building their collections. Rob

Post# 132981 , Reply# 6 4/18/2011 at 20:21 (4,756 days old) by bnsd60m9200 (Akron OH)
Checkrate/Likes @kirbylux 77 yes we plan to restore most to sell. 2 im keeping and 2 my friend are keeping for our collections. we'll get new handles, bags, cords etc for as many as we can that don't already have them or are too damaged etc. ones that are too far gone to restore to sellable condition we'll clean up and sell as parts.