I bought a Pfaff on ebay and it was as described and seller had great feedback and good communication. You just need to be careful and search and research carefully.

Wish I had gotten my machine on E-Bay. Local shop from whom I purchased, went out of business before my warranty ended. Fortunately, no problems from my Janome.

I only buy if it is a company selling their machines. I am afraid to buy from an individual. The companies sometimes offer free shipping and they pack the machines really well.

I sold 2 of my sewing machines that I hardly had used to help pay for the machine I wanted for quilting...I still had the original boxes, all the packing and even baggies all the accessories came in for both of them. In addition to the original boxes, I also put them in another box with extra packing...insured all and required signature confirmation...both sales went great! That being said, I have to agree that you just try to research everything you can, and hope that all goes well...I certainly try to treat people the way I want them to treat me...wish all were like that...
Good luck to you,
Kif

If you have a dealer near you should at least give them a chance as someday they may be gone and they are the ones you can turn to for help in learning or servicing your machine.

I have bought 2 embroidery machine on EBay and will buy again if I need one. Great machines.

I haven't been burned on E-bay either, but a friend did and paypal reimbursement was full of pitfalls.

One suggestion, for a cheap (inexpensive) sewing machine, Costco.com has a brother machine that comes with all the quilting feet and price has been anywhere between $139 to $179. They have a singer in their stores right now, but not with quilting feet. Last I heard the brother was still available on-line.
Marsha

I bought one a yr ago and it was not even the same machine that was posted in the pic. First it didn't arrive when it was supposed to so I filed a complant with paypal, then when it did arrive and was broken and not the same machine paypal said well you filed one complant you can't file another on the same item. so I closed my paypal account and lost the money on the machine so now I have to see it run or don't buy.

i just purchased a machine on ebay and am so glad I did- I bought a babylok elegante 2 for a great price. I did , however, contact the seller and asked several questions, before long we had posted around 18 messages - most of which were of the "goodwill" variety. I suggest taking a moment to know your seller, why they are selling, details about machine. It just happens that my seller was going to purchase a friend's machine who was upgrading. We all upgraded and all were happy!

I bought my Janome 300e on ebay and it arrived in really great condition and works well...the seller also provided the instruction book and Customiser software for me...I couldnt have been more pleased...I ordered from Canada and it came well packaged from the US.