Post War Kirby Sentria

Kirby has the most complaints of any vacuum cleaner company. Their uneducated distributors and criminal laden sales force is by far part of the downfall of vacuum dealers. That said, Kirby will finance almost anyone. You can pay $35 per month for any number of months, and they will do that to close a sale. A lot of people who cannot afford a Kirby and should not be buying a Kirby ending up paying monthly payments for one.

I used to buy "repoed" Rainbow and Kirby vacuum cleaners that the local finance companies would take back after a customer stopped paying. Just last week a lady couldn't afford the cloth bags for her Sentria, so I sold her a three pack of paper bags and she even scoffed at that price.

The business side of a pawn shop includes people who are desperate for quick money. Albeit, some people use a pawn shop to liquidate old items- but the main user is hard up for cash and in an immediate need. It is not common to walk into a pawn shop and find unheard of deals on vacuum cleaners.

When I was in college, I used to rely heavily on marketing high end refurbs on eBay for extra money and one of the main "suppliers" were pawn shops. Most of them in the state had me on speed dial. A lot of eBay salespeople still look to pawn shops to supply them with some vacuums.

I will say, the best three buys I ever made at a pawn shop was a $1300 coffee bean roaster for $5 (they had no clue what it was), a baritone horn for $125- inside of the music compartment of the large case was a new Fox Oboe in its case (oboe and baritone sold for $2400 between both), and a Bach Strad. Mt Vernon vintage trumpet for $25 (sold for $1600)

PS: If anyone has a '59 Cadillac Eldo for sale, I'll pay you $35 per month...


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Post# 104779 7/30/2010 at 18:55 (5,018 days old) by vacfanatic (Omaha, NE)
Checkrate/Likes Look at the shine!!! On sale now, get it while it's hot!!! http://cgi.ebay.com/Nice-Kirby-SENTRIA-G... CLICK HERE TO GO TO vacfanatic's LINK on eBay

Post# 104780 , Reply# 1 7/30/2010 at 18:56 (5,018 days old) by vacfanatic (Omaha, NE)
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Post# 104781 , Reply# 2 7/30/2010 at 18:57 (5,018 days old) by vacfanatic (Omaha, NE)
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Post# 104782 , Reply# 3 7/30/2010 at 18:58 (5,018 days old) by vacfanatic (Omaha, NE)
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Post# 104783 , Reply# 4 7/30/2010 at 18:58 (5,018 days old) by vacfanatic (Omaha, NE)
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Post# 104784 , Reply# 5 7/30/2010 at 19:00 (5,018 days old) by joe22 ()
Checkrate/Likes looks like it did some serious cleaning, poor thing

Post# 104801 , Reply# 6 7/30/2010 at 21:18 (5,018 days old) by vacuumfreeeke ()
Checkrate/Likes Nice? I think they should be sued for false advertising! It needs a "little" cleaning! Goodness! If they restored it, they could get a lot more money for it. I do feel sorry for the poor little thing.... I think I saw my Kirby Sentria and G5 pull their cords in tighter and shudder when I pulled up that picture! This vacuum daddy would never let that happen to one of his babies! LOL Even though it has been abused, it looks like it was well fed.... and it could be restored to like new of someone had the time and patience!

Post# 104805 , Reply# 7 7/30/2010 at 21:55 (5,018 days old) by luxg ()
Checkrate/Likes Isn't it amazing what people can do to a vacuum??? She sure does look sad!

Post# 104810 , Reply# 8 7/30/2010 at 22:29 (5,018 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)
Checkrate/Likes That's just five kinds of nasty!

Post# 104812 , Reply# 9 7/30/2010 at 22:40 (5,018 days old) by vintageroyal611 ()
Checkrate/Likes I'm sort of half way tempted to put a bid on it. Its a good candidate for a refurbishing.

Post# 104833 , Reply# 10 7/31/2010 at 01:17 (5,018 days old) by gusherb (Chicagoland)
Checkrate/Likes It's AMAZING that a vacuum that couldn't be over 4 years old got to be like that in such short time. You'd think it was found in the bottom of the lake or something.

Post# 104837 , Reply# 11 7/31/2010 at 02:42 (5,018 days old) by tolivac (Greenville,NC)
Checkrate/Likes YUCH-DISGUSTING-I would NEVER let my Sentrias look like that one-Did they try to clean the WHOLE WORLD with it?

Post# 104838 , Reply# 12 7/31/2010 at 04:28 (5,018 days old) by vacman117 (Chicago, IL)
Checkrate/Likes And I thought my Sentria was starting to look bad! That is just sick, but will make a good restore machine

Post# 104849 , Reply# 13 7/31/2010 at 10:02 (5,017 days old) by scvacuumguy (SC)
Checkrate/Likes I'm surprised the pawn shop put $50 in it! After years of being an avid "Pawn shopper" buying odd tools, vacuum cleaners, brass and woodwind instruments and neat crap, I finally talked to a friend of mine who owns a pawn shop and learned the code. If you notice on the handle of the Kirby, there is a piece of tape that says "KT" the K=5 and the T=0, which would mean they spent $50 on the nasty machine. Far too much for even a pawn shop to put into it!

Post# 104855 , Reply# 14 7/31/2010 at 12:31 (5,017 days old) by kirbyeureka95 ()
Checkrate/Likes *WOW* how did someone manage to do that, after they made such an investment...maybe it was stolen? and it looks like it was in water. quite sad.

Post# 104871 , Reply# 15 7/31/2010 at 19:36 (5,017 days old) by scvacuumguy (SC)
Checkrate/Likes *People do strange things...* Kirby has the most complaints of any vacuum cleaner company. Their uneducated distributors and criminal laden sales force is by far part of the downfall of vacuum dealers. That said, Kirby will finance almost anyone. You can pay $35 per month for any number of months, and they will do that to close a sale. A lot of people who cannot afford a Kirby and should not be buying a Kirby ending up paying monthly payments for one. I used to buy "repoed" Rainbow and Kirby vacuum cleaners that the local finance companies would take back after a customer stopped paying. Just last week a lady couldn't afford the cloth bags for her Sentria, so I sold her a three pack of paper bags and she even scoffed at that price. The business side of a pawn shop includes people who are desperate for quick money. Albeit, some people use a pawn shop to liquidate old items- but the main user is hard up for cash and in an immediate need. It is not common to walk into a pawn shop and find unheard of deals on vacuum cleaners. When I was in college, I used to rely heavily on marketing high end refurbs on eBay for extra money and one of the main "suppliers" were pawn shops. Most of them in the state had me on speed dial. A lot of eBay salespeople still look to pawn shops to supply them with some vacuums. I will say, the best three buys I ever made at a pawn shop was a $1300 coffee bean roaster for $5 (they had no clue what it was), a baritone horn for $125- inside of the music compartment of the large case was a new Fox Oboe in its case (oboe and baritone sold for $2400 between both), and a Bach Strad. Mt Vernon vintage trumpet for $25 (sold for $1600) PS: If anyone has a '59 Cadillac Eldo for sale, I'll pay you $35 per month...

Post# 104899 , Reply# 16 8/1/2010 at 09:51 (5,016 days old) by electroluxkirby ()
Checkrate/Likes My Kirby LII doesn't even look that bad, and she gets used practically every day, and at the end of the week I give her a quick cleaning and check the brush roll, belt and bag. A "true" Kirby would never let this happen.

Post# 104901 , Reply# 17 8/1/2010 at 12:13 (5,016 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)
Checkrate/Likes *The even bigger question is;* What does the HOUSE that had this cleaner look like?

Post# 104902 , Reply# 18 8/1/2010 at 12:24 (5,016 days old) by gusherb (Chicagoland)
Checkrate/Likes Might have been a house at the bottom of the sea the way that thing looks... hehehe