Your thoughts

[fantomfan57]

What do you think? Is it smarter to pay more to buy a complete vacuum on Bbay or to buy the parts piece by piece over a period of time. Do you think you can end up paying more than if you bought the higher priced complete vacuum?

What do you think?

 

[human]

There are too many variables to answer that question definitively, but piecemeal can often be more costly. It depends on a number of factors, including the purchase price of the vacuum, and don't forget the cost of shipping and sales tax, the number of parts you need, and how many of them you might already have on hand.

Case in point: A couple of years ago, I picked up a Sanitaire S645 blue series upright for $12 that looked more bedraggled than it really was, and I quickly realized I had all the parts I needed to put it to rights, except for a cord and a headlight bulb. All told, I had it fixed up for about $40, including the cost of the vacuum cleaner.

On the other end of the spectrum was a Filter Queen Majestic canister that I paid $5 for and spend more than $50 on, trying to put it to rights before I gave up and donated it to my church. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

 

[kirbyman65]

It depends

I would say if theres a rather common vacuum on eBay to buy it complete, however it might be worth buying parts piece by piece for more rare machines.

 

[durango159]

Often times buying a full machine on eBay is cheaper than parts. I have seen many sellers sell vacuums in pieces. They will a sell a hose, power head, suction unit, tool set, etc all separate Each listing might range from $20 - $100 plus shipping. Likewise, you might find an entire machine for $90.

But again, this is eBay. It depends on many factors because like a thrift store you don't know what you will find each day. There could be 5 of a certain model or none of a certain model. The model you are seeking, if seeking a specific model number might not appear for two years. Or someone might post a Hoover PowerMax canister as "Hoovrah cannister kleenering machine vacume" Good luck finding that one!

 

[durango159]

If you think I'm kidding on what people call things, I'm not!!

Years ago collector friends and I used to do all sorts of searches on eBay, just combine different things:

vacuum: vacume, vaccum, vaccumme, vakuum

canister: cansetter, cansister, canisteer

I've seen Hoover Futura canister hoses branded as Eureka WorldVac hoses.

There's a bunch of Bissell stuff out there on eBay and FB Marketplace branded as Boswell.