Originally Posted by marybs
Hi! I am new to all of this, but here goes!
I want to buy a Bernina 430 or 440. I see them on Ebay but wonder if anyone has ever bought a machine that way? I am so afraid to shell out so much money and end up with a lemon. Any thoughts or experiences?
I think it's exciting that you want to buy one of the finest brands of machines available today!! I'm a two time Bernina owner, and was recently looking at ebay for one, myself (before I got the 2nd one). I belong to a wonderful Yahoo Group called the Bernina Thirtysomethings, so called as it was started originally for the owners of the old mechanical 730's, 830's, 930's and so on. They've since branched out to allow any Bernina owner or wannabe to post and have said of late (my loose paraphrase) -
"due to the short supply (once we get 'em, we don't let go of 'em very often) and huge demand of folks looking for Berninas, many of the ones being sold on Ebay are WAY OVER priced! Many people are being taken to the cleaners on Ebay deals over Berninas."
How sad is that? Dunster has given you some excellent advice here, especially when purchasing a Bernina. You will come to appreciate the local service, classes and availability of parts, etc.
Most folks don't know how to truly prepare a sewing machine for shipping, even the ones that say they do, I wonder. I did recently acquire my 2nd Bernie through a dear friend many states away. I was really leary about the shipping, but she knew exactly how to ship them. When Fed-Ex delivered "her", the guy started to trip over the threshold of our front door :shock: and which point I nearly had heart failure, as I could just see my new baby going all over the floor. :shock:
This delivery guy said, "Oh, don't worry ma'am, these boxes are guarateed to withstand being dropped from a 2 story building...." Needless to say, my jaw was on the floor now! :shock: He went on to explain that if Fed-Ex packages your stuff, they do so in such a manner so it WILL withstand a 2 story drop as many of their plants have conveyor belts 2 stories up, and "packages gets bunched up and fall off the belt all the time.." Now, don't you feel better for learning that? :?