Need Advice on Embroidery Machine
 

I'm looking at buying a refurbed embroidery machine. A friend who has several advised me to find out how old the machine was and how many stitches it had sewed. My question is how do I know if it's a good deal. How many stitches would be considered average for the age of the machine? Since I know nothing about embroidery machines I thought I would ask all you smart ladies and gents here. The machine is at one of the local QS. I believe she said it was a Brother PE700 but I can't be sure. Would $500 be a reasonable price? That does include lessons. TIA

I would only get an embroidery machine that had a USB port as so many designs now are downloadable from the net.

I love the machine I did buy but if I had to do it over again and knew how tight money would be I might not have bought what I did. However, I would still only buy something with the USB compatibility and a few other features like precise positioning.

If that machine has it and you try it out and like it ... then consider it.

If the machine has been "refurbished" truly, then the stitch count may not matter so much. What matters most is the max hoop size it will take.....AND this is an 'embroidery only' machine (right?)...so do you want a stand alone embroidery, or would you like a combined sewing/emb? But as stated above, most important is how you will get designs to the machine. With USB you can transfer from computer. But if you must have design cards, they can get very expensive and you would be wisest to purchase the transfer software, PED Basic. It will cover the cost of about 2 design cards, so it pays for itself. Of course there are PE Design softwares that let you do digitizing (expensive) and Magic Box or Ultimate Box, or one other? Get some ideas of your additional costs before making the decision. But all being said, I don't consider the price to be overly high for the machine. And a 5x7 hoop can give you a lot of size choices. Just depends on you and what you want it to do with it.

My new Baby Lock has usb and flash. My computer is not near my machine and I dont want to buy a laptop right now. With the flash I can download to the flash then to the machine. I wanted the option of having both connections.

Overstock.com has this machine new for $589.50. I get emails from overstock all the time with 7% or 10% off coupons. The link is
http://www.overstock.com/search?keywords=brother+pe770&SearchType=Header

That would be about $530 ish with a 10% coupon...just in case an internet purchase is something you might consider. :-) laura

Plus shipping, but that is still less than your offer. And it would be new with warranty. Do you get that at the QS?

It has a 90 day warranty plus I get free classes on it. That's the only reason I was hesitant about buying one on the internet. I don't know what all comes with it yet. It was a trade-in and they said it has only been used about 2 hours. I'm waiting to hear back from the QS as to when they have it in. It was being brought over from one of their other stores.

I agree that the machine having a USB capability is a must. If it is coming from a QS and includes lessons I would prefer it to a online shop. I have two stand alone embroidery machines. The first is a Bernina Deco 650. It uses the PES format and the little embrodidery cards. It is at least 20 years old. I purchased it new and over the years bought it every present I could. Additional hoops, an extension table and designs galore. I purchased the Brother PE780D last year as it also uses the PES format and accepts the design cards I have. It also has the USB port. Years ago I purchased the Magic Box so that I could transfer designs from CDs or my computer to the blank design card that fits the Bernina. Alas when I had to get a new desktop computer there was no place to plug my Magic Box into. Since I have invested in more than two thousand dollars worth of designs and now had no way to convert them for use in my machine. I took the less expesive way out and purchased a the Brother embroidery machine which not only allows me to use my little embroidery cards but accepts the USB stick. It also has a bigger hoop capacity. Ironically it cost about a third what I paid for my original machine. Unfortuneatley because of everything being set up in reverse from my original machine I can not use the same hoops or the slide on extension table I purchased for the first machine. While I may go months without using either machine I have more than gotten my money's worth out of both of them.