I just couldn't do it...
I just got home from a nearby Goodwill store and I came very close to walking out with two vacuum cleaners: a Kirby G5 in decent shape and a Royal Everlast 8200 upright for $19 each. Both were in nice shape although the G5 needed some polishing.
I'm not that much of a Royal aficionado and shakeout bags just aren't my thing, so as pretty as it was, it was pretty easy to decide to let that one go but the G5 took some serious internal dialogue to bring myself to get in the car and drive away. In the end, it came down to the fact that I just have too darn many vacuums for the space I live in and four of them are Kirbys. I especially couldn't justify it after spending over $130, including shipping, for a Sentria less than two months ago. I even argued with myself that it would be cheaper to buy that G5 than it would be to replace the clicking tech drive in my G5 frankenkirby. I even let my inner six-year-old argue that my existing G5 could become the parts machine for the others. Yeah, right. I've seen how well that's worked out in the past. One of two things is going to happen over the next day or two. I'm either going to regret this decision and beat myself up over it or I'm not going to think about it anymore.