Originally Posted by BKrenning
The only quilting/embroidery machines I know of still cost more than $2,000 even when used--Janome 10000/11000, Babylock Ellisimo or Elegante 2, Singer Quantum XL series and the Bernina 8xx series. There might be some older Viking Lily's or Rose's that come in around that price. Embroidery didn't interest me enough to pay for that feature so my criteria was largest harp size I could find & nice built in stitches to finish hems and topstitch bindings. I also knew I needed a heavier duty motor than most domestic machines have so that really narrowed my choices down to Janome MC6500p (at that time--now it's a MC6600p) and it's Elna cousin, 7200 QDP (now the 7300). You should be able to find used MC6500p's well under $1,000 by now. The Elna's seem to be more scarce.
My advice is to buy an embroidery only machine like the little Brother PE machines and spend the big bucks on the Elna or Janome. You should still be able to get both, especially if you buy gently used, for well under $2,000 and you'll have the best of both worlds.
Beverly
There are definitely older Vikings and Pfaffs that do embroidery too, for under 2 Grand. But, you're talking about machines that are probably at least 10 years old. Like the Viking 1+ series etc. Also, these machines have a smaller embroidery space then current ones and the technology isn't what it is now. I spent a lot of time researching older machines in search of a back-up.