the machine was introduced at least 10 years ago. It probably was $6K in 1999, but not recently. They are still going for $600-$1,000 so the price is in the ball park. I got mine 'previously owned' about 8 years ago, used it a lot, then gave it to my niece who is still using it. It will sew thru anything. The down side is that you need special software to create the appropriately formatted floppy diskettes to move an embroider file from your PC to the machine. You will either need to get HV D3 or D4 "Organizer" or Embird. You cannot just copy the file to the floppy.