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« on: May 02, 2005, 11:04:53 am » |
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O.k., so it isn't mine yet, but it will be.
Here's the exciting story:
So one day last week I drove a 12 1/2 hours round trip to pick up a V-83 that I had gotten for an absolute steal on eBay. With an audio book playing on my iPod, the long drive was actually a breeze (surprisingly).
Anyway, along the way, in a town just 3 hours from mine, as I drove past, I saw an antique store in a small town. I knew that I didn't have time to stop, but decided that if I had a few spare minutes on the way back I would drop in there.
So after picking up the V-83 and returning back, as I passed the store, I stopped and went in. It was just a typical antique store, nothing special, no Coke machines or signs, and so I bought the one 10 oz. Coke bottle that they had. The cashier was a nice older lady who just worked there (she didn't own the place).
Well, after paying for the bottle and as I was walking out the door, I thought that I'd ask just for the heck of it, so I said, "You don't happen to know anyone around here that would have an old Coca-Cola machine that they'd like to sell, do you?"
She looked at me like how could you know, and then she said, "well yes, I do at my house". She said that they'd had it for a very long time that they hadn't used it for awhile, but that it worked great back in the day, that they used it next to their bar in their basement.
Getting very excited, but trying badly not to show it, I asked if it had a round top or a flat top. She said that it had a round top. I asked if the bottles fell straight down or if it has one of those skinny glass doors on it. She said the glass door. I asked if it had a coin box on the front and she said yes.
She said that the paint is pretty good and that the painted raised letters at the top were not faded or anything.
At this point I can hardly breathe!
Then she pulled out a Coca-Cola memorabilia book from the store that we were in and she started to look for the model. I saw that the book listed the inflated, mint condition, unrealistic prices and suddenly my heart sank. I figured she would go by the expensive prices in the book.
I didn't help her find the model, because I didn't want her to see what huge unrealistic price the book would certainly put on it. She didn't see the machine in that book and said she'd have to go home and talk to her husband and that I could call her for more details and a price then.
Well, after a sleepless night, I called her and it turns out that it is a Vendo 110. Not a V-81, but still very nice. It is not a self-serve, as it has a coin box on the front. She said that it is all red except for the embossed script on the top, which made me a little sad, because I (and probably most people) like the white top ones better than the all-red model, but oh well. She said that she believes it has all of the shelves and that it is in her garage and no longer in her basement (thank God!).
Then she asked me how much I'd pay for it. I hate that, because I don't want to insult people, but I also don't want to start out too high. So I said a crazy low number and she said that she wanted to get $500 for it! I said that I would need to see it in person, but that she should plan on me buying it for that. Whoo-hoo!
So even though I don't really have the money yet and I have no room to store it, I am very excited.
Just goes to show you that it pays to ask any and everyone if they have old machines.
What do you all think. Did I do well?
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