http://www.houseofhanson.com/formerlyowned.html
or
http://houseofhanson.com/formerlyowned.html

FORMERLY OWNED LONGARM QUILTING MACHINES

This page was last updated: Thursday, July 03, 2008

Here is some historical information about this web page and our intentions:  For two year we offered FREE ads for sellers because we were interested in helping folks find good homes for their machines. These machines are certainly unique for both buying and selling because of their unique problems for the buyer and seller such as shipping/transportation and relative uncommonness. No one seems to know what they are or much about them. If you want to check this out for yourself simply stop the next 10 people you meet on the street and ask them if they know what a longarm machine is? <G> 

We discovered some folks were using our public service as a way of getting a price on the value of their machines and were taking advantage of the visitors to our site as well as ourselves. 

Still others were having us post their ad one day and then deciding not to sell it the next day after we had already uploaded it.......then contacting us again in a few days asking us to re-post their ad again. (They couldn't make up their mind to sell or not to sell.) 

We now have a pretty good feel for the power of this web page's ability to sell your machine, quickly and at a fair price. Our entire web site continues to get more exposure, and the number of visitors to our web site is very gratifying. In July 1999 we began charging a nominal $35 advertising fee to post ads for machines for sale or machines wanted. We call this an honesty fee as it keeps folks honest about being serious about selling their machines, and not just trying to find out what their machines are worth. It also tends to keep folks from changing their minds about selling or not selling their machines on a daily basis. 

-----Original Message from a Satisfied Seller-----
From: Linda 
Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 5:32 AM
Subject: Machine sold

Hi Jeff, I’m sorry to be so late sending this.  I thought that I sent it out as soon as the check cleared from the sale of my APQS Ultimate I.  I got 2 phone calls within a week of placing the ad at House of Hanson.  I sold it to the the second respondent. I have also sent another person (2005 Gammill in NY) to your site. This site just plain works.  Thank you so much and please remove my ad.  Linda in Ramona , CA

Jeff and Jackie, I wanted to let you know that my machine (ad below) has been sold and it can be removed from your site at your convenience.  FYI--The second inquiry on March 14th was the buyer.  Since that date I have received five mores inquiries and two of them would have purchased the machine in a heartbeat, I believe.  I received my asking price of $xxxxx.xx  The machine was picked up yesterday and they drove about 550 to 600 miles to pick it up.  I want to thank you for providing this service and let you know that this is the best $35 I have spent on my business to date!  I am upgrading to a Millennium and it should be here in a couple of weeks. Again thank you for providing this website to promote, educate and inform. Sincerely, Shelley Buckingham  

-----Original Message from a Satisfied Seller----- 
From: Eloise Cockrill
Sent: Friday, May 11, 2001
To: Jackie and Jeff 
Subject: Re: your check has arrived, thanks

Thanks for your message. Your web site is very effective! I have had several responses. Two of the respondents were very interested, and this morning I sold my machine to a lady who lives in northeast Texas!

I think placing that ad was the best $35 I ever spent. 

Eloise

Buyers: if you encounter a machine that is sold please send us an email so we can remove that ad so that others such as yourself do not make unnecessary telephone calls or emails. We contact the sellers to confirm the machine is sold before taking any ads down, so it can sometimes be a few extra days. We apologize to any of you that get caught in that time frame.

Buyers & Sellers:   most ads continue to result in sold machines within a week or so even during the week of a MQS. We have had a difficult time keeping ads up very long. If you are thinking of upgrading your machine, it might prove to be to your advantage to consider starting now. The seller can always work with the buyer for the physical picking-up of the machine after the seller's new machine arrives. This gives the buyer time to arrange a location for the "new" machine and to get prepared with classes at the MQS or elsewhere, should the buyer be new to longarming.

We are often asked what the selling prices are of formerly owned quilting machines. We do not know what the machines sell for unless the seller offers that information when they contact us to have the ad removed from the web page, and we feel it would be rude to ask. However, based on our contact with sellers over the last several years we have a "feel" for the market and we volunteer the following opinion. <g> Generally, formerly owned machines sell for about half the price of a new machine. If the machine is old and well used (without new type accessories and possibly sold by a family member who knows nothing about longarming such as the sale of a machine after the death of its owner) it might sell for a quarter of the price of a new machine. However, if the machine is say 6 months old and loaded it can sell for three-fourths of the price of a new machine. Another variable is the individual model and brand of a machine. The most popular brand and model seems to be the Gammill Classic. These sell quickly and the sellers generally get their asking price. 

Generally used machines work just fine and we know of no brand nor model that one needs to stay away from. Our industry is pretty fortunate in that regard. It is our belief that unless a used machine has been dropped or gone through a flood, it will probably be just fine. 

All this having been said there are a few variables that make a tremendous difference to the buyer. If the seller is the user of the machine and can demo and possibly give a few hours of lessons (if the buyer is just starting out) it really helps. This serves several purposes the seller might not be aware of. By demonstrating the machine the buyer sees that it works. But, more importantly it gives the buyer confidence in what the seller says because it demonstrates knowledge of the machine. If the seller is a family member who does not know how to operate the machine and the prospective buyer is new to longarming it might be to the advantage of both the seller and buyer to find someone who can operate the machine to demonstrate that the machine is working properly. 

This works in reverse of course. The buyer should do everything possible to visit the location of the machine in person. It is not extreme to consider flying commercially to the location of the machine to actually see it, touch it, ask questions brought on by being there vs. questions over the telephone. This will give the buyer a sense of the history of the machine too. The physical placement of the machine within a home or building as well as the geographical location of the machine (temperature and humidity of tropics vs desert), the owner, and the quality of the work the machine has turned out will give the buyer a better sense of the machine's care and history. 

Shipment of the machine by a third party is not recommended unless necessary because of overseas shipment etc. The horror stories of shipping accidents to machines is not without its reasons. The dropping of a machine in shipment can cause damage that is difficult to see, difficult to troubleshoot (if you are new to longarming), and could require a return to the factory for repairs in extreme cases. Generally, in the case of formerly owned machines, the buyer or seller delivers the machine to its new home. It usually depends on who has the family and friends to support the move and also who has access to a vehicle and/or trailer to move the machine. By the way, horse trailers, RV's, and pickups with contractor's racks (you've seen painters carrying ladders on their trucks using these sort of racks, see photo below) are often used to transport the machines. 

It is not difficult for two people, of normal size and health, to move a longarm machine if you are familiar with them. However, if you are the buyer and are new to longarming we would do one of two things. We would arrange to have someone who is familiar with longarming be present at both locations (can be two different people) for the disassembly at the old location and the reassembly at the new location. And/or, have someone video the disassembly process in detail with good voice instructions from a second person (or the video photographer) that are aimed at helping the reassembly process.

Here are some emails that described moving a 14' Gammill longarm via a SUV and a 12' Nolting via a mini pickup:

Here is an email that described moving a 12' APQS longarm via a full size pickup:

Yes, it was quite an adventure!  I wish we had taken some pictures, but it was one of those things we thought of too late.  And after driving straight through from 6 pm to 4 am, we looked a little bedraggled, so we might have had to put bags over our heads if we had taken pictures! But I will try to describe to process as vividly as I can.  I have now had two experiences moving quilting machines "the cheap way," and am happy to recommend this method to other intrepid longarmers!

I bought a used Nolting 24-inch long-arm with a 12-foot table about 3 years ago.  I needed to move it about 90 miles from Moscow, Idaho to my home in Spokane, Washington.  My husband and I moved it with my sister's little Mazda B2000 pick-up that has a 6 ft. bed.  The truck has an extended cab with a sliding window in the back of the cab (a VERY important feature!).  My 12-foot Nolting table comes apart in the middle to make two 6-foot sections, so the table top fit in the bed of the truck.  The rollers went through the window of the cab and rested on the dashboard and at the back they rested on the tailgate with about 2 ft. of overhang.  We secured the rollers very well (lashed together and also secured to the truck) so that they couldn't slide out the back, and we had no problems driving 90 miles on a country road.  We did have a chase/following car, and we went very slowly.

Picking up the 14' Gammill in Bandon, Oregon and driving 600 miles to Spokane, Washington was even more exciting!  The "work crew" was three middle-aged (but extremely LOVELY!) quilter-type women (Sue 1, Sue 2, and Mary Ann) and one 50-something man and a 30-something neighbor/handyman (who was indispensable!).  Because we wanted to see the machine in operation before the final purchase, it wasn't dismantled before our arrival in Bandon.  We took the whole thing apart and packed it up in about an hour and a half.  The hardest things to transport were, of course, the long pieces.  We thought about putting them on the roof, but they are so heavy that we really did not want to do that if we could avoid it.  If we had put them on the roof, we were going to use a support on the front bumper that is the kind people use to haul canoes.  We would have then lashed the rollers and other long pieces to a long piece of plywood so that they would not roll or slide around.  We would have secured the plywood and long pieces to the roof rack.  But we didn't end up having to do that.  The 14-ft table came apart into two 7-ft top sections of almost flat very light plastic (about 24" by 7' each--not a problem to fit into any car) and the table sides that were about 6" by 6" by 14 ft long (and very heavy), and the rollers which were 14ft long (and very heavy) and a middle support for the table which was about the same as one of the table sides.  That bunch of stuff was lashed together and put in the middle of the Suburban resting on the dash in the front and going out through the middle of the barn doors which were bungee-corded and duct-taped together because they wouldn't close/latch.  The long stuff was supported by an upside-down wooden stool so that it was just about level with the dashboard (to minimize the possibility that gravity would enable it to SLIDE out the back and cause a really horrible accident!).  In the back of the Suburban we also put the table legs and the machine itself and cradle and all sorts of auxiliary materials.  All that stuff was no problem, of course; it was really just the long pieces which posed a challenge.  The third seat of the Suburban was put down flat but the second seat was left up in the normal position.  (Sue DeSalvatore wants to patent the upside-down stool as a Handy-Dandy Quilting Machine Relocation Support System and sell them for $179.95 each!)  <G>  The rig was VERY white-trash looking when we were done with it!  The driver had pretty limited visibility, so a navigator was essential for the drive.  We drove 600 miles at highway speeds with nary a mishap except when we took a little side-trip to visit the Pendleton Woolen Mills Outlet Store (I can't miss a visit to that place!) and I went across some railroad tracks a little hastily and one of the rollers bumped the windshield and cracked it.  Fortunately, the glass had a previous crack in it, so Sue W. (the machine's new owner) wasn't terribly upset about it.  It was a little noisy in the truck with the back doors partially open, but that was a small price to pay for saving shipping expense which would have been at least several hundred dollars.  I think a Suburban or similar-sized SUV with the other kind of back door (a tailgate and upper window that flips up or opens) would have worked as well or even better.  The secret is to make sure that the stuff CANNOT MOVE AROUND.   We were very lucky that the worst weather we encountered was a little light rain.  Given our choice of late January to make this trip, we could have run into really rotten weather. 

Feel free to post this on your web-site or refer people to it (or to me) if they want more information about how to move one of these wonderful machines.
The trip was really quite fun, and it was great to meet Sue DeSalvatore. and see her art quilts and other creative decorating touches in her home. 

Regards,
Mary Ann Carey MCarey1670@aol.com 
Spokane, Washington

Hi Jeff and Jackie, I wanted to get back to you, I heard from 'the lady from Maine' and the Ultimate II arrived with no problems. We had exchanged several e-mails and she had found another Ultimate II in her area that she could look at. After seeing the machine in person she decided that it was what she wanted. Then we exchanged several more e-mails and spoke on the phone to work out the shipping arrangements. I had packaged the head and drove the table and head to North Bay Freight and Crate, in Santa Rosa, CA. They were wonderful, patience, and professional. They crated the table ($327.00) and from there the buyer, 'the lady from Maine' handled the shipping. That way she could direct the arrival and the insurance, should something go wrong. We were both very pleased with how everything worked out. It was a little work, but not that bad. The machine went from the north coast of California to a small town in Maine in 16 days.

Also - things to think about  - 

*How are you going to ask for payment ?   Remember that this is most likely going to be a large sum of money from someone you have never met.   Discuss ahead  the options.   Payment in advance,  cash,  cashier's check , etc are some options.  

*If your buyer is coming to get the machine - Discuss how much time the buyer wishes to spend running the machine or receiving instruction on it's use and features  and confirm who will be disassembling,  packing,  providing packing supplies, etc.   Thanks again.

Contact Elaine
e-mail: Rjandeschon@aol.com
Phone: 856-767-2748