Hi, I bought a crazy midarm with a sagging frame first for about $3000. I did do about 20 quilts on it and learned...yep...I liked doing my own quilts. So, I upgraded....not to the fanciest, lot of bells and whistle model.....but to a basic APQS Lucey. She has a stitch regulator, a needle up and down, one channel lock, a 26 inch neck, and a 12 foot frame. and I opted to go with "bliss" which makes her very easy to move. She was a demo..and when all was said and done, I paid about 12,000 for her..this was about 7-8 years ago. I quilt only for myself, I make quilts that folks can throw on the floor, have the dog lay on it, throw it in the washer and dryer and plop it on their bed. Most of the quilting I do is an over-all with things like loops, double loops, leaves thrown in....I have done some ruler work but found I just don't have the patience to do fancy and custom work. I like the softness that quilting larger gives to a quilt....heavily quilted ones look wonderful...but...really aren't all the cuddly. I am entirely content with my machine...she does what I want to her to do...and I have room to grow...if and when I want to. Basically, she runs fine....and is easy to maintain you want to look at things like service provided by the manufacturer....APQS has a lot of video's and how too's and have designed the machine with the thought that the owner should be able to do quit a bit of the servicing...not that I have had to do much other than cleaning and oiling. One of my friends had to send her longarm head in and it was gone for four months...not good nor easy to ship.