The absolute best deal I have gotten in a long time was a couple of weeks ago at a Bushcraft meet that we held at an area State Forrest, there were about 25 more or less people attending and as usual we had a trade blanket set up, a new member was setting some stuff on the blanket so I wondered over to take a look, he had some mics. items and two vintage '70's era Coleman fuel two burner stoves.
I love those old Coleman stoves and lanterns, I asked him if they worked ok, he said he didn't know, he bought them at a flee market figuring if one worked he'd have the other for parts, but he never got around to trying to light them, I asked what he wanted for them and he asked if I could use them, I told him that I have a few and use them allot, but that I liked working on them rescuing the vintage ones.
So he says, if you can use them, take 'em, I offered to pay for them and he refused, he said I was doing him a favor by taking them, he said "When I left the house this morning my wife told me that what ever I do, don't come home with those old things".
I guess I don't have to say that I didn't mind helping him out at all, a few days later I dragged them out of the truck and gave them a try, one lighted right up and worked like new, the other had a problem, after cleaning and oiling the pump parts and checking the tank pressure, I took the generator apart and cleaned out the tube and spring, and used a torch tip cleaner to ream out the hole in the brass generator tip and that did the trick, it fired right up and worked great.
One of them is in very nice shape, the older one by a couple of years needs some sanding and paint, but will be a nice little winter project.
