My suggestion would be to buy both, flip the 39 and give ALL the proceeds to her.
A properly restored 81 sells for $7K, and value is still climbing.
Edit: After looking closer at the picture it appears the 81 has not been restored, only painted.
The embossed Vendo letters were not painted.
The handle and bezels not chrome or polished.
Missing the window in the coin entry bezel.
Missing a screw from the bottle door handle.
The original bottle stack would have been white so it has been switched with an earlier model.
You should probably expect the inside of the machine to be all original too and always check for evidence of beltline rust / bondo in the rear of all 81's
But all of the hard work looks to have been done, so with some color sand and buffing, plating etc. it will still turn out very nice.......well worth the asking price.
Great eye! I was going to ask about the red bottle stack because the pictures I looked up online had the white face plate. I did see a few with it painted red, so I figured it was correct on this machine. Just so I understand better, this is a 81D with the large coin door and should have a white bottle stack?
The owners daughter said it has been where it sits in the photo (up high on a shelf) for 25 years. If this is all true, then any "restoration" work done to it would be considered an old restoration job. Most 81s I see online (in 2 days research) are simply unrestored, or restored to todays standards with powder coated parts, the shiny stuff is all chrome plated etc. What were people doing with 81's in the late 1980's or early 90's as far as restoration work? I ask because this is likely what we are looking at here.
edit- after looking more closely, I'm with you Moondawg. It looks like it simply had a new paint job.
