I recently bought the Ellisimo and I love it. I had a 10 year old Bernina and wanted to upgrade. Looked at ALL the embroidery/sewing machines. What I liked about the "E": it has a camera so it makes it super easy to place your design, just where you want it. It scans the fabric and you can see where you are placing the motif. It's a pretty easy machine. I really like my dealer, I've purchased many machines from him and it is important to purchase from someone you really can work with. They have many classes (a lot of them free) to help us learn our machines - there is a lot to learn.
I was able to purchase one that had been used for a demonstration day at a good price with full warranty. It had very few stitches on it and most of the feet, accessories were still packaged. Because they came out with a "gold" edition you might find a used regular ellisimo for a good price. There were 2 upgrades in the gold edition and you can purchase them for your regular one, thereby making it a gold. the only difference is the screen has a higher resolution for the gold. but, I really don't save photos on there- so it makes no difference to me. The screen is still fabulous!