How to Kill a Kirby 518

[wyaple]

I found this Franken Kirby in an antique store in Pickerington, OH and two things made me fairly angry. How could someone do this to such a nice machine and what was the owner thinking when she put a price tag of $99 on this total disaster of a sweeper?

Bill

 

[charleskirby66]

$99?!?!  Wow!


 


I wouldn't pay $9 for that monstrosity.  In whoever's defense, I'm sure she doesn't know how a 518 is supposed to look.  But still, $99?!  That thing doesn't even have both front wheels!

 

[tolivac]

Same here-that poor machine looks like a dusty refugee from the trade in pile-a former GARAGE vacuum!!!And it has the bojack bag-missing wheels.

 

[KirbyCollector01]

Try restoring it, it should look good after a cleaning and you put genuine parts in it.

 

[rugsucker]

"how"---"what"?

When this was a used appliance to remove dirt from the rug and not a potential collectors item these would have been standard vac store repairs and updates to replace broken/worn parts and update to throw away bags on a quality vac that still ran well.
What are they thinking today?--They saw a demonstration and the salesman wanted $XXXX.00.Their aunt bought a new one years ago and paid $XXX.00.So if this one runs it should be worth $XX.00!

 

[vacuser]

call the kirby kops & have her arrested. punishment: three days kirby vacuuming with a correct kirby. lol !

 

[speedqueen]

"punishment three days kirby vacuuming with a correct ki

That would be a treat, have her use this monstrosity for three days, as is, broken wheel and all! Now that would be a punishment!

-Richard

 

[streakers]

For what it's worth

Everything I spy here in Ohio that's at an antique or thrift store is just grossly overpriced and in such terrible condition I just keep walking...

Yet, people will continue to pay decent money for an ordinary Shark vacuum....

I just don't understand it...

 

[human]

That Kirby isn't killed; it's just badly maimed.

 

[desiredname]

She might as well just stick one of those bagless dust cup conversions on it to finish the poor thing off.

 

[3rdgenvacguy]

The front nozzle may have been so worn where it slides down over the cross bar, that it would go on and off because it would not engage the safety switch properly. Hence the front nozzle with the red trim. The bojack paper bag conversion was an option for someone that did not like the dust associated with the old pocket bags. Fairly common stuff back in the 80's when you would see quite a few of these come in for repair. They were more concerned with the function, not with the potential value of it's originality 30 years later.