One of my sewing machines is a New Home 445 from the early 60's (I think). I was messing around on ebay (just looking at the listings, not really "shopping" for anything). Well,anyway, there were 2 listings for New home 445's on it (there were actually more than that, I think, but I am just gonna talk about the 1st 2 I found). First let me describe and link to both listings.
This is the first:
However, the shipping on it is $71 for standard and $77 for expedited shipping. It also does not come with a foot pedal or any other accessories. For instance, if you want the cams that come with it, you need to buy those separately, and I found a set of those as well for $20+S&H. If you want a manual or more(such as a zipper foot, case, whatever), you would have to buy all that as well. At the very least you would have to buy a foot pedal for it, which, a cost from 20 to 30 dollars.
The listing also says that the only "testing" that has been done on it is that the needle goes up and down when the hand wheel is turned, so it probably needs to be taken to a sew and vac shop such as Cathey's for servicing.
So, you could easily spend well over 100 dollars (just the machine + shipping + foot pedal + servicing, the minimum needed, is over $100 and could be close to $200 depending on the cost of servicing). Even after all of that you are not guaranteed a working machine, though I think that the 445 is a solidly built machine (at least the one I have is) and I think the actual risk is fairly small.
The other listing is:
It appears to have just a "buy it now price" of $139.99 (there is no place to enter a bid, so it is perhaps an item that is not being auctioned), and is a more "complete" machine with a case(or at least the listing says it has one), a foot pedal, a manual, and an accessories box (though what it contains, spare needles, extra presser feet, whatever, it does not say, but I don't think it is "just the box").
The listing also says that the only testing that has been done is that the needle moves up and don when the foot pedal is pressed, it was not tested to see if it actually sews, but again, I suspect it does. It also says that it probably should be serviced, and that the shipping cost is $82.18, at least to where I live.
Therefore, the total minimum price is 139(machine) + 82.18(shipping)
+?(servicing) for a price of I would guess of about 250 to 300 dollars.The first machine costs less, at least if you get the absolute minimum required, though it might cost just as much if you get extra presser feet, find some kind of case that will work, etc. The second machine costs a bit more if you get the the absolute minimum, but the absolute minimum is a "complete" machine (with foot pedal, carrying case, and manual).
I suppose on either one you are taking some risk on spending all that money and getting a non-working machine, but since the 445 is a solid well built machine (at least mine is), I really don't think the risk is that high.
So, I guess after all that, which one, if either, would you buy if you were in the market for a vintage machine, would you look at more entries, would you look for one that has actually been tested in actual sewing before buying one online, or what.
Now that I think about it while typing this message out, if I were in the market for a vintage machine, I would want to try and find a machine that had been tested in actual sewing.