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Well, stop chomping. I think all your chomping scared the guy away. He has not responded to my emails or phone calls.
CARDINAL RULE when approaching someone about old stuff (king's treasure in our eyes, junk in their eyes, until they begin to suspect they have a goldmine on their hands): DO NOT EVER APPEAR ENTHUSIASTIC OR EXCITED -- which you should know by now.
The more interest we show in old vacuums, the more value they suddenly have to the person who previously had nothing but a bunch of junk to get rid of.
Comments like "That's my favorite vacuum cleaner in the entire universe," "I've wanted one of those ever since I was squeezed out into this world," "I'd give anything to have that machine," etc. etc. etc. are the WORST things you can say to someone wanting to get rid of their JUNK.
And oddly enough, the junkier the stuff actually is, the more valuable it suddenly becomes. Case in point, the C-A at hand. Sorry Alex, but it's basically just junk. It does not have any attachments and no bags. It's rusty, which probably means it has motor issues. It's just not collectible at all, except to someone who has developed a keenly focused obsession on that particular machine. And that level of obsession usually ends with nothing but regret.
Most of the time, you're only shooting yourself in the foot when you get all excited over an old sweeper someone wants to get rid of as, again, appears to be the case here since the guy selling it is no longer responding. Most likely he's made an appointment with Sotheby's to have his priceless treasure appraised. Two days ago he was a twitch away from chucking it into the dumpster.
The only reason I had any interest in it was because I've never had one and it would have been an interesting machine to explore. That, and I thought it would be better to go get it so it wouldn't just be pitched out. It would have involved nothing more for me than a 10-minute drive to his place.
"And So It Goes."
