I don't have experience with Baby Lock but I recently purchased a Janome 9800 and I can tell you the price he is offering you is a really good price. It was very difficult for me to find pricing information on this machine when I was shopping and I asked on this board and others were helpful. In my shopping and asking around I found over $1000 spread on what people paid for their machine. I finally found on one site that the MRP on the machine is $4999 or near that but no one I found paid even close to that. The range was from the mid $2000's to the high $3,000's. Many purchased a cruise model 8900. These machines had been used on a quilting cruise and so could not be sold as new. I did learn that Janome does not allow this particular machine to be sold on-line, only through dealers. So far I'm really liking my machine. Good luck on your search and purchase.