I bought my 301 from e-bay too. It was only $100 and came from Canada in perfect condition. Mine is a longbed and I found a table (like a card table) for it and paid only 20.00 for it. Last week I got my darning foot and started freemotion with it and it sews like a dream. Took a little of getting use to cause the foot goes up and down, not like my others that stay on the fabric. It looks really good on the bobbin side of my fabric unlike my other machines. I wanted this one to take to class instead of my big Janome 6600.