I purchased a Viking Iris embroidery machine on Ebay and it came in nice condition. Works good. I have just recently purchased a Bernina 180 on ebay and have not received it. I hope it is nice. Will let ya know.

Thank you everyone for the responses. I am watching a Bernina that has one day left. So, I am sweating the decision, push buy it or not. :shock:

Same here, I bought Rosie, my 301 off ebay and she is perfect. I watched listings for quite a while and finally bid on one that offered free shipping. She was packaged well. Every seller has a feedback list and they're satisfaction percentage is listed right under their ebay name. If they are less than 97%, depending on the number of transactions, I will not buy from them. I have used ebay for about 15 years and have only been burned once. Ebay and paypal made it right.

Be very careful of Craigslist. Strange things happen to people. I have had good and bad on Ebay. I always check their Feedback record. I was scammed out of $700 on a sewing machine deal that is still being prosecuted in Florida. Paypal did nothing. Detective in FL has been the best help and he told me never to deal again with anyone from Miami. My money went into an account in Miami and was withdrawn 15 minutes later in Brazil. They have arrested someone and are trying to get our money back. He scammed several in the same day. I did have a broken case with a Featherweight I bought also that seller would not replace. My other Ebay deals have been good. Just be careful.

I have bought a couple on eBay and they're great. BUT I went with "larger" sellers with good feedback.

I bought a Pfaff 7510 from Brubaker's Sewing Center eBay store. Packed to perfection, everything fine. Brubakers has an impeccable reputation. I later bought a Bernina Activa 240 from an individual seller. Poorly packed, but also thrown by UPS, in front of me. Took a huge hassle with UPS-waiting at home 5 days for them to come get the machine, phone tag with their claims dept. About a month to get fully refunded. Longer for the seller. I decided to pay much more for one of the last available new ones. I won't use eBay again for anything but less expensive, mechanical machines, from dealers.

I buy and sell on ebay. I have never got burned nor have I burned anyone. It is like any business there are always a few that make all of us look bad. I did buy one sewing machine that was not packed well but it was a parts machine.

There is a difference between buying from an individual and buying from a business. Most people who have a high end machine keep all their original packing and the box. I bought my Janome 2007DCLE from an individual. The machine was new, still in the box and had all the styrofoam packing. To this day, it is still the best invested $200 I ever spent. It was the Rose O'Donnell machine that Janome made specifically to suit her needs and wants. Everyone in the audience on The View that day was given a free machine. Several were place on Ebay and I bought one. Ken's Sewing Center is a great place to buy machines as well as other items from and he has great customer service.

I have purchased several on eBay. All transactions were pleasant and the items were shipped promptly, packaged well and arrived safely with the exception of one.

The sellers just put it in a box with a few pieces of foam popcorn and called it a day. The machine was very heavy and it bounced around smashing the popcorn in no time. When the cushioning gave way so did the bottom of the case. There was further damage, as you can imagine, to the rest of the machine as well.

He totally ignored me and I had to file a claim with eBay. I won but had to pay return postage. The machine was beyond repair so I think the seller wanted it back out of spite. He had been provided pictures of the damage.

I've bought only one machine and probably won't ever do that again via ebay. Totally destroyed in shipping and I had to file a claim with ebay as the seller was trying to get out of refunding my money. With shipping costs so high, I can ALWAYS get the machine locally for less. It would have to be a one of a kind machine for me to try that again, I think. I won't say never again, but I can get almost any type of machine locally if I'm patient, so why risk it.