Dial-A-Matic Thrift Shop Sighting

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">This is in good condition, other than some scratching on the base. The handle is tight, not loose and wobbly. I was tempted to pick it up since I've never had a Dial-A-Matic. But when I saw the price, I passed. $51.00. Too much for what would be for me a totally frivolous expenditure.</span>

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


 

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


 

 

[1926700]

OMG!!!!!

$51.00?????.....thrift stores have just gotten absolutely out of hand! i paid $10.00 for mine a would have paid no more than $15.00.....ive gotten to the point where i HATE going into thrift stores cause everything has just gotten outrages...ive never thought id see the day that a 90's Hoover Quick broom would be priced for $30.00....

 

[henry200]

I have never had a DAM and wouldn't mind getting one but not at that price.  I've been noticing lately that thrift store prices aren't necessarily thrifty anymore.  

 

[collector2]

LOL - Just to underscore how well thrift stores are doing their jobs. I picked up a sunbeam hatbox style machine at one last year. They had it on the floor, hose only for $50. I picked it up and went over to the department manager and asked if it had been tested. "Oh yes - we test everything before it goes on the floor" and the usual speech about how it was worth the price etc (even though they were barely that much new). I then asked how they managed to test it as the CORD HAD BEEN CUT OFF!!! She went beet red and started stammering something about what would I give them for it. I got it for $5.00. The kicker was that all the small parts were inside the machine. Only the wands and rug nozzle were missing (and cord - LOL)

 

[hoovercelebrity]

Yikes!  That is a lot for a DAM...  I also see one of the tragic Hoover "Z" cleaners sitting behind it...  That yellow Eureka Mighty-Mite is a cute little cleaner, those are good little machines.  That is an early one, too.

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">I glanced at the little yellow Eureka -- a friend used to have one very similar, but more rounded on the edges. She called it "My Little Tomato." </span>


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">I didn't look at anything else other than the DAM -- the "Plastic Crap" blinders snapped into place over my eyes and I didn't bother. There were a half-dozen or so of them circled around the DAM. Actually would have been a funny photo if I'd thot to take it -- "Grandpa Hoover" telling yarns to the "Sweeper Younguns."</span>


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">This is a pretty large thrift shop, one I'd never been to before. Passed it on the way back from visiting a friend in the hospital. Everything in the store was overpriced, some things so much so that people all around me were snorting and gasping. One cute little old lady bleated, "Look at these prices! What is this, Rodeo Drive?"</span>


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">
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[oreck_xl]

Yes, $51.00 for a DAM is pretty steep. I purchased a power drive DAM from the thrift store a few weeks ago only to find out when I got it home the delrin bearing which holds the motor unit to the base on one side had not only snapped (which I've never seen on a power drive model before) but it was dropped with such force that one of the two mounting holes on the underside of the base had broken off. I don't think there's a way to fix that without finding another metal base. I wonder what they were asking for the Hoover Z?

- Hershel

 

[red_october]

My mother had a Dial-a-Matic startlingly like that one; similar colour scheme, but with the little thing on the front that pops up when the bag is full. (Or did it disappear? I don't recall, and my DAM doesn't have it. Hers wasn't self-propelled, either. She got it as a wedding present and had it for something like 20 years before replacing it with one of those awful red Dirt Devils. I don't recall why she replaced it, but it was very heavy for a non-self-propelled machine.

Gotta say, $51 is highway robbery for a 30-year-old ordinary Hoover.

 

[electrolux~137]

 


 


 


"Gotta say, $51 is highway robbery for a 30-year-old ordinary Hoover."


 


 


<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms,geneva; font-size: medium;">I agree. That's why it's still sitting there in the thrift shop and not here at home. And I will say, it's not like it's going to fly out of there. It was covered with filmy dust, indicating it had been sitting there a good long while.</span>


 


 

 

[super-sweeper]

red october,

was it an 1120?
i have one just like that,no self-propel,bag indicator.
the bag indicator sticks out in idle and when the machine is is vacuuming,and sticks out when the bag is full. the way this works is there is a small lever under a rubber cap that when the bag is "full" (Hoover meant this indicate "full to MAXIMUM capacity").not the most efficient way to tell when a bag was full,but better than vacuuming and vacuuming till the thing explodes.in my opinion,the the best "check bag" indicator would be a component in the vacuum that Constanly weighs the bag,to a point (say,7 pounds) and shuts of the cleaner,leaving on nothing but a little red button saying "check bag" on.
until then,the LX electrolux way i think is best .
-alex.