vacmadman
its not bad timing. the age bracket for what's "collectible" has drastically shifted in the last 10 years. the younger collectors don't care about vacuums before the 1980's now. when i got into this hobby 14 years ago, if you wanted something from the 1950's - 70s because of the baby boomers who remembered those machines growing up, you paid way more than they were worth to acquire from other collectors. Now, i can get pretty much any 50's-70s machine I want from estate sales and thrift stores with no competition, or from other collectors aging out of the hobby, for very cheap prices.
all original coffee can hoovers and pre DS50 Kirby's were the same way then. the people interested in those era of machines is shrinking, younger people like me who still love them are the exception, not the rule. most people in this hobby cant afford restored vacuums anyways, so that made an already niche market in a niche hobby even smaller as the era of vacuums most collectors are interested in shifted out of the early to mid 20th century to late 20th early 21st century era.
i restore the vacuums myself because i love them, not because i sell them. but i still understand the sect of the market who only see rare vacuums as investments, not preserving history.
