My 1st quilt machine was the Viking MegaQuilter 9" but on a Grace Pro frame as I wasn't much into metal frames back then. Wanted a wood frame. Anyway, loved the machine, never had issues with tension, it would stitch with any thread I threw at it but again it only had a 9" throat. I realized early on that 9" wasn't going to get me too far so moved up to a stretched Juki 98Q 18" on the same frame. Also added robotics to it too. Now I've moved up to an Innova 26" on a 12ft frame (metal) and IQ robotics. This is the last time I'll move up too as I quilt basically for myself as gifts. I started out small to see if I even liked quilting before I plunked really big bucks on a large system. Can't say all MegaQuilters will be like the one I had but I'm a Viking gal anyway so started off with it. Depending on how old the system is I can't imagine it will be much more than a couple thousand at best but I could be wrong as I haven't kept up on the prices. I do know Viking makes a MegaQuilter 18" you might check out.