Unusual amount of vacs at Goodwill.

[fan-of-fans]

Usually my Goodwill might have 2-3 vacuums at a time, if any.

I went Friday and there was nothing. I decided to stop in Sunday afternoon, and suddenly there was a whole slew of them. I can say about 15. There were 3 bagless Hoover uprights, a newer blue bagged Self Propelked Windtunnel, a vintage orange Eureka Mighty Mite canister, Oreck XL upright, Dirt Devil Feathrweight upright light blue in very good shape, Bissell Proheat Carpet Cleaner, Bissell PowerForce mini bagless upright blue/black, Bissell bagged PowerForce upright blue/black, Kenmore bagless straight suction canister blue, Kenmore Elite upright silver and Kenmore Elite Ultra Plush canister champagne.

I think I listed them all. lol

It was very odd to see that many machines show up at once.

Since I already have a SP Windtunnel just like that, as well as a Mighty Mite and bagged PowerForce, I didn’t need any of those.

My temptation got the best of me, and I got the Kenmore Elite canister for $12. It needs a hood cleanup and a floor brush, but everything else was there and for a machine that retains for $400, $12 seemed a steal.

The Kenmore Elite upright was very tempting to for $12, it had all the tools and extra HEPA bags, but I only allowed myself one machine. I also liked the Oreck and the little Bissell.

 

[lesinutah]

Nice

That's probably the best vacuum out of them at all.

 

[evolutionclean1]

Oh man!

I miss when the local stores would get huge lots of machines at a time. I would have snapped up that Mighty Mite so quickly

 

[justjunque]

That’s amazing!
I’ve never encountered that many vacuums at any of the thrift stores around here.
Kind of funny seeing the Bissell PowerForce bagged, when I just recently bought one new.
Enjoy the Kenmore!

 

[superocd]

Might be a tidal wave of donations

Maybe a whole bunch of people got a new vac for Christmas, so naturally the old one goes. I don't know how fast the timeline is from the time an item is dropped off til the time it lands on the salesfloor, but it seems about the right timeline for a sudden deluge of vacs as people drop them off.

I will remain blissfully unaware of what may lurk at my local thrift stores, lol, because I have a Kirby 514 that's *almost* complete, a Hoover Model 300 that needs its motor bearings sorted (plus a sand/prime/paint of the handle, brush inserts in its beater bar and an OEM black Kirby shakeout bag modified to replace its fairly tattered and severely fragile 50s/60s Hoover refurbishment replacement bag) as well as a Kirby Sentria I that I've wanted to turn into a metal-fan "Hentria" (Heritage orange bag), so no more vacs for now til those are completed.

I have been wanting a Kirby Classic III to restore though...

 

[superocd]

My local Walmart had some PowerForce bagged

on clearance for $30 several months back. I bought one. They went back up to the usual(?) $59 but for $30 I was interested in how these performed as I've heard from several that they aren't bad machines for the price. Granted they're no Kirby or Sanitaire but for $30, or even $60, they are indeed a steal, considering that machines double, triple or even quintuple the original MSRP don't really perform all that better CFM wise.

 

[evolutionclean1]

It's been weeks

Since I've gone and I always feel like I'm missing out on stuff
The last score was my commercial Sharp, and I've had great luck in the past at Idaho Youth Ranch. There's a couple of vacs that have been sitting there for months and I've considered rescuing them... One is an older WindTunnel if I remember right.

It seems as though most people here have turned to selling on Marketplace, as everyone here is broke and is looking to turn a profit I've done it a lot but I try to be fair in my pricing. Shark is the biggest seller here by a mile, Bissell is a close second. Can't wait for spring when the estate and yard sales start up though! Old lady vacuums are my favorite

 

[superocd]

I don't think the classics will turn up as much

In the after-xmas thrift store dumping. I have a feeling that any old stuff that happens to turn up in a thrift store is almost exclusively what was left over from an estate sale, or perhaps a family has foregone an estate sale altogether and dropped everything off after someone passed or was moved to a rest home.

Nobody outside of collectors or perhaps the odd frugal/eccentric person really daily drives a classic, like a Convertible, a Royal metal upright, a Dual Sanitronic or a Eureka F&G...I'm sure even the old folks who owned these have moved on to more modern machines in their lives yet (thankfully) held on to their old ones.

My Hoover 300 from the 1930s is almost positively a drop-off after someone died or downsized, forgotten in a basement or attic —nobody has used THAT right up until they upgraded to something like a eufy robotic they got for Christmas

 

[evolutionclean1]

You'd be surprised!

I've heard stories of people using ancient Kirby uprights as well as Electrolux model 30s as daily drivers up until they saw the flashy new Shark last week
Granted there are times I prefer something a bit more modern, I've been thoroughly enjoying my domestic Twin Energy as of late, but the oldies get a workout every so often. Can't wait to save up enough to order a battery powered Wessel Werk for the Luxes... They're gonna perform sooooo good

 

[panasonicvac]

Sometimes my local thrift store would have a TON of vacuums, sometimes only a few. It always changes.

 

[justjunque]

You brought me luck!

Hey Cole,
Between winter weather issues, and my health issues, I haven’t been thrifting in a little while.
Even though I’m not feeling great today, I decided to try taking a ride to the nearest store.
They’ve had nothing, the previous couple of times I’ve gone. Today, they had at least six vacuums!
If I can remember all of them:
A wet/dry vac, I believe it was a Craftsman. It was very clean, and had attachments.
A small, yellow, bagless Eureka. Maybe a newer version of the little Whirlwind Lite that I have.
An Oreck XL upright. I couldn’t find the date on the tag. It was dirty, but I would have enjoyed cleaning it up, now that I have a little experience with Orecks. And, it came with a package of spare bags.
A green Hoover bagless upright of some sort.
A Bissell PowerForce Helix, that looked like it had been used one time. Seriously…it was pretty immaculate.
A blue Kenmore canister, with what I believe was all of its attachments. I don’t know my Kenmores, but it was old enough to be made in USA.
And, finally, a Dirt Devil 103 in its original box.
Even though I don’t do bagless, I really wouldn’t mind having a PowerForce Helix to play with. As clean as this one was, I was tempted. But, the sticker said $29.99. Granted, it may have been half price. I don’t know. I’ll try to get back there before too long, and see if they mark it down.
The Oreck’s sticker was mangled, so I don’t know what they wanted for it. All of the uprights were either $19.99 or $29.99. So, I’m guessing the Oreck was probably $19.99. The last time I inquired about a vacuum without a clearly marked price at this store, they sold it to me for $5! Maybe I should have asked!
I think I’ll post it in a separate thread, so as not to hijack this one. But…two of the aforementioned vacuums came home with me.

 

[human]

There has been a dearth of interesting vacs at thrift shops around here, which is just as well, since I'm running out of space to put them. The last I saw was a trio of G-series Kirbys this past summer, a G4, a Gsix, and a standard Ultimate G. All were in rough shape, but the G4 was definitely the best of the lot. I ended up purchasing it, and then going back for the Gsix to use as a parts donor, as it was cheaper than buying the parts a la carte. Eventually, I broke down and fixed the Gsix up as well. Since that time, there has been absolutely nothing to even remotely stir my interest, just an endless parade of plasticrap.

 

[eurekaprince]

One thing is certain: the classic vacs from traditional American vacmakers are much heavier than newer counterparts. And the older the owner, the more difficult it is for them to push around and carry and store an old Kirby or Eureka upright or Kenmore canister. Unless they have a younger hired housekeeper who can handle the heavier machines.

 

[justjunque]

Building off of the last two posts:
I too, have been trying to limit what I buy. I haven't succeeded lately, but I try.
And, two of my most recent purchases, were a Kenmore canister, as mentioned by Brian, and a plasticrap, as mentioned by Edgar.
I was on a mission to save this little Bissell. And, it may still happen. But, I took it way farther apart than I usually do. And, by the time all the parts that I washed are fully dry, I don't see myself being able to successfully reassemble it.
One part, specifically, that I think is some sort of automatic height control, I couldn't figure out how to reinstall immediately after I took it off.

 

[huskyvacs]

Oh that's heaven! I've been desperate to see any vacuums thrifting lately.

I suspect a vacuum store cleaned out their merch. A lot of small vac shops have been closing up in my area, and I would suspiciously see 30+ years old stocks of bags in mass quantities be dumped at once.