Scarcity of Electroluxes in thrift stores; a theory

[justjunque]

Hey all,

As I continue my quest for a 1960s-1980s metal-bodied Electrolux at a thrift store, something popped into my head. As I've said before, in all my years of thrifting, I don't know if I've ever seen an Electrolux.
At least at the few stores I visit around here, I believe they do at least a bare minimum test of an appliance before they put it on the floor to sell. In the case of a vacuum, that would mean plugging it in, and having it do something when they hit the switch. If nothing happens, I believe the vacuum goes to the dumpster.
I don't know how long they've had this feature, but I know that many Luxes won't run if there's no bag in place. And, probably a lot of people, when donating a vacuum, figure they'll take the old bag out, so as not to send their dirt to the new owner.
It pains me to think it, but; do you think that many a perfectly good Electrolux got sent to the landfill as "not working", simply because there was no bag in it when an unknowing store employee attempted to test it?
To those of you who have been lucky enough to find a thrift store Electrolux; do you remember if it had a bag in it when you bought it?
Just a thought.

 

[rugsucker]

"--no bag in place."

With the AF,G & L the bag door would not close.The 1205 and newer would not turn on with the exception of a plastic body version of LE.I have seen more Electrolux at estate sales in better neighborhoods than thrift stores.

 

[fan-of-fans]

That could be possible. I don’t see many Electrolux I’m the thrift stores here either, although I have seen a few over the last decade or so, both metal and plastic models.


Do you ever have estate sales in your area? I’ve seen them fairly often at those, over just the last 3 or 4 I have seen a handful of them, in fact I just saw a Diamond Jubilee yesterday. I didn’t buy it as I didn’t have a need for one.

 

[justjunque]

I see an estate sale once in a while, but I've never gone to one.
Do you remember what they wanted for the Diamond Jubilee? For some reason, I've always figured that things would be expensive at an estate sale.

 

[kirbyklekter]

Thrift stores

We have four thrift stores locally and I know one has a part time retired handyman who makes repairs to many appliances,especially vacuum cleaners. So hopefully not a lot of appliances get thrown out. I've never seen a metal Electrolux in a thrift store locally, just the usual plasticrap. I do think you'll have better luck going to an estate sale.

My friends purchased for me a Kenkart with hose, no attachments, for 35.00 which I think was fair as it is excellent condition. You can certainly offer a lower price. I've seen more of the vintage appliances at yard sales and even neighborhoods where they are having a large scale pick-up of items by the county/city program.

My sister responded to an ad on Craig's list for an Electrolux XXX complete for 15.00. It was the only vacuum they ever had, which was a housewarming gift when they bought their new home in 1952! Have you tried asking at a vacuum repair center that takes trade ins? You could always leave your name and ph# with a friendly repair shop.

 

[fan-of-fans]

They wanted $60 for that Diamond Jubilee at the estate sale, which was certainly higher than I’ve seen in thrift stores. I think they might have had it marked half off as it was the last day and most items were 50% off.

It depends on the sale, but sometimes they are selling things quite cheap, and sometimes not.

 

[kloveland]

I think it's the area that you are in. I found a nice 1205 and a Silverado in my local thrift stores last year. Actually, this is the second Silverado I've found in my area within the past two years. The first one was nicer with the power nozzle. Tulsa was home for one of the regional offices for many years. If you look on the back on of the G or AF manual, it says Tulsa Oklahoma. This could be why Electrolux was popular in my area.

We had a family friend who used to answer phones for them back in day.

 

[justjunque]

Wow, Kenny. I would have dragged both of those home! They’re both beauties!
The Silverado even still has the model name decal!
It could be a regional thing. But, I’m not too far from Connecticut, which also factored into Electrolux history. And, I was just looking at an Olympia One manual in another post, and they had an office of some sort at 1500 Main St in Springfield. That’s about twenty minutes from me!

 

[human]

Regarding the bags...

...you could be onto something.

During and immediately after the height of the pandemic, thrift shops around here sold bagged cleaners with their bags removed, presumably to be more sanitary. These days, they've backed off from that for the most part, but I can see where some 'Luxes might have gotten tossed, if unwitting employees didn't understand that they didn't work without a bag in place. That said, I rarely see an Electrolux canister at a thrift. The last metal one I saw was a decent looking Olympia One about four years ago, for $39, but it was fitted with a non-electric hose and a flippy floor tool from a 1205. I walked away from the thing, but it was gone when I went back a week later. The last one I actually bought was a Diamond Jubilee in 2016 for $10, including the PN5 power nozzle, wand, and a generic replacement hose. The cashier and I got a little laugh at a local vacuum shop's $79 price sticker on the hose. What seem to show up much more frequently around here are twin motor uprights, Discovery II and its descendants, again at bargain basement prices. The ones I have, I paid between $3 and $8 for, except for the Discovery II I snagged off the curb for free.

 

[bikerray]

I've been passing on an Electrolux Silverado with hose and power nozzle (NOT one of my Fav-o-Rite models) for over a year at Dollar and Thrift.

 

[justjunque]

bikerray,

Wow. They've had it for over a year? Are they asking a lot for it? Otherwise, I would think someone would have bought it a long time ago.

 

[huskyvacs]

Vacuum cleaners in thrift stores, especially vintage ones, will rely heavily on there being used vacuum stores in the area. My city lost all the mom and pop vacuum stores. Immediately after that happened, the vacuums that appear in Goodwill vanished within weeks to months. I have not seen a vacuum - not a one - in my Goodwill in 2 and a half years.

And yes, many Kirbys are listed as broken for parts on eBay because the seller doesn't know how to engage the belt and set the nozzle fully onto the vacuum, or the microswitch has gotten dirty and won't trigger when the nozzle is inserted. I got 4 Kirbys listed as "dead" because "won't turn on" because the brushroll nozzle wasnt engaged properly, or it only came with the hose or had no nozzle at all.

 

[human]

Granted, I don't haunt thrift shops the way I used to, but at best, I might only see one or two vacuums a year that I would consider to be worthwhile. No, vacuums haven't completely disappeared from thrift stores around here, but what shows up is mostly not worth a second look. It's rare to see anything but bagless plasticrap vacs, and most of them are arguably at or very near the end of their limited-by-design lifespan.

 

[huskyvacs]

I'd love to just see a Eureka from 8 years ago at this point. It's bad out here. Luckily the re has been some reasonable deals on eBay at least so I'm not totally cooked yet.

 

[human]

I'm holding out for a Eureka Princess power team from the '70s like my ex-wife made me get rid of. The day I walk into a thrift store and see one of those is the day I declare my collection complete. I found a very similar Ironsides a few years ago with the hose and a floor brush, but no other accessories. I made a minor modification to the hose end so it would accept an Electrolux 1205 wand, allowing me to use it with an Electrolux power nozzle. It's better than nothing, but I'd still like to replace what I had. Maybe the proper power nozzle and wand combination for the Ironsides would be enough.

 

[human]

Well, I went and did it...

After writing the above last night, I allowed myself to fall into that 'rabbit hole' called eBay and actually found a Rotomatic power head that would appear to be a match for that Ironsides. It has a big brown decal on top of the white cover, which appears to be pretty close, but maybe a bit darker in color than the vacuum cleaner, which is a little more of a burnt orange. It purports to come with an "extension wand", but the only thing in the photos is the power head itself. To make it a little more tempting, the seller sent me an offer for about 10 percent off a few minutes after I put it on my watch list. After some debate back and forth, I finally went ahead and pulled the proverbial trigger on it. It's a little more than I would have liked to have paid, but maybe I can put this two-decade-old resentment to rest, and if so, that would be worth the price.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126918105488

 

[huskyvacs]

Congrats!

 

[lesinutah]

T

Depends on demographics around here. You find rainbows, kirbys, simplicity, kenmore and hoover. However, once in a blue moon they have beat to tar ones. This is northern utah demographics. Younger generation with a boatload of kids.
I worked in southern utah for almost a year. I'd see a lux every time. I would sometimes see 2 or 3.
Their demograhic is older people coming from California selling there multi million dollar house and have alot of money.
The luses were never under $60 but where in pristine condition.

 

[human]

My search has ended!

The Greek word 'eureka' means 'I have found it', and that's exactly what happened last evening. I walked into a thrift shop and walked out with a complete Eureka 1279D Power Team for $20. It's not the model 1255 Princess I was forced to part ways with two decades ago, but given the age and relative scarcity of those machines, it's as close as I'm likely to get. I'm also waiting on a pair of wands to complete a 1746B Power Team that I'm cobbling together from spare parts, so I'll soon have a team of Power Teams. You can read more of the saga in the thread linked below. The best part is I feel like I have back what was taken from me (more or less) and I can finally let go of a resentment I've been holding against my ex-wife for far too long.

https://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?46209_13