What is your biggest vintage find ever???

[vacumaniac]

Curious to know what your biggest, most stellar find has been when it comes to sheer amount of vintage vacs. 20? 50? 100? More??? Tell the forums about it, and how much the claim was paid for

 

[frkirby560]

Biggest Find

Model C Kirby complete with all attachments and
Model V Electrolux

 

[frkirby560]

Model V LUX together with Model XI

 

[kirbyvertibles]

I paid about 170.00 including shipping for a mint red metal based Hoover convertible with UK Ranger style hood in the red ketchup color with hounds tooth wide top bag. I was very stupid to pay that much but I really wanted it.
I also bought a 1986 new in box Thermax vacuum system for $200.00 with everything including steam cleaning attachments and power nozzle.

 

[vacumaniac]

Those are some exciting finds, how many vacuums in one place have you seen/bought as well

 

[kirbyvertibles]

haha DON'T ASK!!!!!
Many times over the years I have gone into Kiby and Tri-Star places to buy trade ins and bought the whole lot of maybe 200 machines for $10.00 ea. After weeding out all the bagless crap i'd always make out very well with newer Filter Queens, Luxes, Hylas, Mieles, Orecks, and many vintage like Airway, Hoover, Eureka. You name it!! Those were the days.

 

[eurekastar]

Mine would be my Kirby 4C. I walked into a vacuum store to purchase carpet shampoo, struck up a conversation with the owner about vintage vacuums, and walked out with a 4C. He just gave it to me! It is all original, right down to the cord. The bag is almost perfect too. I polished the castings, and serviced the motor with new bearings and carbon brushes. She's just like new now!

 

[vacumaniac]

Ever encounter an entire floor of a bldg filled with vacs? I have the opportunity!

 

[danemodsandy]

The First Was the Best:

It was (and still is; I still own it) a Lux Diamond Jubilee, with hose and the correct PN-5, for $2.02.

It was the worst-clogged machine I've ever dealt with, and I was afraid of motor damage because of how badly it had been treated, but once it was clean, it ran like new, without complaint, and has ever since. Incredible suction, especially for a Lux.

I have better vacuums now, and more collectible ones, but the DJ is the highest value in proportion to purchase price I've ever achieved.

 

[henry200]

Ok Derek, I had a hunch you were asking a leading question.  How long must we wait to find out about this treasure trove you found?

 


Last summer there was an ad on craigslist here for an indoor swimming pool full of vacuums but the asking price was in the thousands.

 

[Real1]

Ever encounter an entire floor of a bldg filled with vacs? I have the opportunity!


 


Do tell....so we can all dream and drool.

  Sounds like you might need front money to buy everything...or do you want to take specific orders from us? Or....do you plan to horde everything yourself?


 


Kevin

 

[fan-of-fans]

Well mine wasn't much, but I was wanting to find a Hoover Constellation for a long time. I had never even seen one in person. I went to a sale at a retirement community expecting to find a Constellation. I looked around and saw a yellow Kenmore bagless canister and a blue Eureka canned ham. No Constellation, but then I looked under a table and there one was! Well, a Penncrest, but still a Connie! I was so surprised. It was very dirty and with taped up hose, but only $3 and it worked!

 

[brandon_w_t]

For around $300 we cleared out the trade in room at the local filter queen dealer. I can't recall all the machines we got but here were some

3 Oreck uprights (the newer lines)
2 oreck canisters
Sanitaire S677D almost unused
Tristar CXL and all attachments
Tristar MG series without attachments
Hoover Dial-A-Matic in white and orange
2 Regina Housekeepers
Various cheaper plastyvacs
Several hoover windtunnels
Rainbow Chrome dome
Rainbow D3
Rainbow E series

etc.

 

[cocoaboo48]

biggest purchase

The most expensive and beautiful vacuum I bought was a pristine RollEasy. The hose is like new as is the rest of it! Paid over $400.00 for it but I had to have it. I will show it one day.

 

[myvacsrock]

Biggest..

Boat Anchor I have ever found

 

[brandon_w_t]

The best boat anchor ever made! Love it.

 

[vacumaniac]

Neil- You shall find out very soon I hope! A swimming pool full of vacs?!?! How does that even happen!



Well Kevin... I do plan on taking the works, and I will certainly let everyone one here put in requests when I catalog all of it. This should be happening within the next few weeks if all goes according to plan... Will keep you all posted!

 

[bnsd60m9200]

30 + kirby's 1 year ago

all vintage. plus a crap ton of rug renos, miracle heads, and attachments.

will Hemb

some of these vacs have been restored and sold or in my and my friend's collection since this was taken.

 

[bnsd60m9200]

the BOXES of kirby parts

this has since been moved to my friend's storage shed

Will Hemb

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

Will

I would like to think that the one Classic III with the old-style handle grip (#173376) and the newer-style shake-out bag (#190077) looks to have a serial # of C666667 or higher.

~Ben

 

[bnsd60m9200]

ben, honestly the handles, and bags were not matched to serial #. we had so many, we just put matching colors with machines as at the time we didn;t know about bacth build differences. my classic III from this is a E6xxxxxx and has a 1976 NOS bag and handle fork. only really detailed collectors would notice, and i didn't know about these differences in handle forks, till after i restored my classic III.

will Hemb

 

[hygiene903]

Last Summer

My biggest acquisition ever was last summer, when a good friend of mine and fellow collector who wishes to remain annonymous was downsizing his collection. He gave me 15 on July 7, 28 more on July 12 (my birthday!) and 10 more on Aug. 18, along with several sets of attachments. All told there were 53 of them, all uprights in good to excellent condition and many are all original! There were 28 Hoovers (including 7 "coffee cans"), 10 Royals, 10 Electro-Hygienes, 2 Eurekas, and one each Health-Mor, Good Housekeeper, and Stark.
Some are real gems including the Health-Mor (of course!), Hoover 825 (which I've wanted for a long time!), an all original Hoover 700, Hoover 725, Hoover 634, Royal 189 Super Chief, Electro-Hygiene 2-230 (the last straight suction model), and the rare Electro-Hygiene 980 (the one with the removable nozzle similar to Kirby). Thanks again my friend, for this kind and generous gift!
Jeff

 

[Real1]

<a name="start_16574.176958">Well Kevin... I do plan on taking the works, and I will certainly let everyone one here put in requests when I catalog all of it. This should be happening within the next few weeks if all goes according to plan... Will keep you all posted!</a>


 


Can't wait!!! It's like 'What's behind door number 2?'....oh well, put me down for any interesting cannister LUX from the late 60's to the early 80's.

 


@Neil;How did a swimming pool get filled with vacuums....are we talking about a reg size, built in pool??

I've heard of vacuum related weirdness....but.....



 


Kevin

 

[henry200]

re: the swimming pool

I suspect the craigslist seller was a vacuum dealer, maybe a DTD salesman who had been taking trade-ins on new machines.  I guess the unused pool was the only place big enough to store the trade-ins.  The couple photos in the ad showed a fairly good-sized indoor pool (maybe 12x20 ft) with hundreds of vacuums of many different brands, low and high-end lined up in it.  The ad was up for months.  The asking price started at about $5000 for the lot.  After awhile the price dropped bit by bit.  The last time I saw the ad I think he was still asking about $1500, then the ad disappeared. 

 

[Real1]

Wow....

I just find that story incredible, even in the annals of looney history trivia

  I wonder if he even got interest @$1,500....well, its madness to mourn gone vacuums....think about all the vacuums that are in landfills....actually, I'd rather not.

 


Kevin

 

[reo580]

@ bnsd60m9200 / Will Hemb

@ Will Hemb-
That is an amazing find!
I am so jealous- Lol I hate you! Haha
About how many Kirbys did you get in that haul?
I noticed a couple of early run Kirby Classic III handles.
Kirbys are a funny lot; I recently decided to do a restoration on my Classic Omega and it's funny how Kirbys can sneak up on someone. I have been buying parts left and right for my Omega. There never seem to be enough even with three diamond pattern bags laying around(I wash and rotate them through out the year) I can always use just "one more" whether it's a bag, hose or random attachment. Just like Rockefeller said: "never enough".
Good luck with your find. I'm sure you'll have many, many happy hours ahead of you doing the restoration work on your new Kirbys.
Congratulations on your find,
Derek

 

[electrolux137]

Well, if you're talking about single machines, I've had quite a few wonderful finds over the year.

As to the most vacuum cleaners I've ever seen in one place:

http://www.1377731.com/hoover/

 

[dysondestijl]

1970's numatic NV-250 all steel commercial vacuum purchased for £1 ($1.64)!! From a yard sale
Kirby heritage for free from James
2 1960's lux 65's one in original box with the rare telescopic wand from James
Hoover junior deluxe purchased for £3 ($4.61)
Vintage 50's/60's for free from James

 

[nallo69]

My biggest vintage?, was my Vorwerk Kobold Model S from 1938, with all her attachments, niiiiice!!!