New Machine . . . or not?
 

I am thinking of selling my two year old Bernina 820 (not an embroidery machine) and purchasing a Babylock Ellisimo Gold (which is an embroidery machine). I'm looking for feedback on the Ellisimo - pros and cons. Is there any reason, other than the financial bath I am going to take, not to buy the Ellisimo. And have any of you had any experience selling a high end machine? The Babylock Dealer says he'll sell the 820 on eBay or Craigslist for me and give me the cash but is not willing to give me any trade-in value on it. Thanks for any input you can give me. Your multiple brains are far better at this than my poor single little brain.

I don't know anything about Babylock machines. I will say though that two weeks ago I spent $5300 for a Brother Dreamweaver. I 'm still learning about it but don't regret the money spent at all. I've noticed little things the machine does that make such a difference. It has a laser to help with straight sewing. It has a knee lift for start/stop if you need both hands. I have much larger embroidery hopes. The list could go on and on.

I would be very careful entrusting the sale of your machine to anyone else. If he's not giving you a concrete trade in value, he's not assuring you that #1 he will sell it, #2 that he will sell it for a decent price and #3 there's a chance you could end up the owner of 2 TOL machines. I wouldn't feel comfortable at all without any guarantees from the dealer on price or trade in.

I agree with Candace. If he's a dealer, what's he doing telling you he'll sell it on ebay, which anyone can do, and you just have to take what you get for it! Smells stinko to me. You can do that without his ?help? Babylock makes great machines, (I have/love my BL Serenade) but I feel about sewing machines the same way I did many moons ago with stereo systems: go with individual components. That way each machine does one thing and does it well. If you have a machine which serves many purposes, it may not do all those things well, plus, when one of the functions dies, then what? You already know hardly anything is made to be able to be fixed these days. With components when one particular part quits, you just replace that part, not a complete megamachine which does everything but cut the grass. JMHO Whatever you do, I think I'd do it with some other dealer. This one gives me the heebeegeebees.

First of all, I don't know the Babylock machine you are considering.
I have just purchased the Bernina 820.

The question I would have ... are you happy with the Bernina 820? other than the fact it does not have the embroidery function? You might want to consider keeping it, and purchasing an embroidery only machine.

When I was at the dealer getting my 820, I talked with a lady who previously had the 830, but traded it for an 820 (no embroidery) and the 780 (embroidery only). She told me that the waiting for the embroidery took too much time and this way she could continue being productive, as she kept an eye on the embroidery.

ITA with the others ... if your dealer is not wanting to give you a firm trade value, then keep control of your machine and sell it yourself.

Another thing to consider ... there are more dealers out there! If he's being a bit fishy now ... what does the future hold, if you have an issue with your new machine?

I agree with QuiltE. If you are happy with the 820 other than embroidery, than keep it and look for just an embroidery, or trade up to an 830. If you are used to sewing on a Bernina, you may not be happy with a different sewing machine. I have had heard good things about the Brother Dreamweaver but am not familiar with other brands. I own the Bernina 820 and have a 440 that has embroidery on it. I love the 820. I also agree with the others, beware of this dealer, what he is telling you does not seem right. Why don't you sell it on ebay, and skip the middle man?

Hi,

I have the Babylock Symphony, Elegante2, and an Ellure......love them all!! I got the Symphony because I loved sewing on my Elegante2 so much that I wasn't embroidering on it.....now I do both at the same time! My Ellure is my lake machine, but I do occasionally have it embroidering something I am doing in quantity.
I'd love an Ellisimo, but I really can't decided which machine I'd trade in on it....love both of my big ones that much.
I know many that have the Ellisimo and love her. I've had absolutely no trouble with any of my Babylocks and I have an awesome dealer that is always there with help if needed. I''m sold on Babylocks.

All the concerns here are the exact reason I still have my Babylock Ellegante instead of moving up to the Ellisimo-which is my dream machine and when I win the lottery, I will get one. Not sure I want the hassle of selling, who will pay what I know the machine is worth, and I don't think I would trust someone else to sell my prized possesion for me.
My dealer/LQS does not take trades on the machines, and another one I inquired about when I was pricing the Ellisimo a few years ago, would give me about a tenth of what I paid for my machine, so that was a no-go. Has to hurt a little when they don't get the sale, but I refuse to give away the best machine I have ever owned. I could sell it on Ebay myself, but I know what I want for it, and it probably isn't what others would pay for it. Although I have seen them go close to what I would ask for. I could go on Craigslist also, but I keep thinking of the possible phone calls, the people wanting to see it and testing it out, and then they too walk away. I have resolved myself to keep the Ellegante, save up for the Ellisimo (fat chance on that lottery coming through), and still enjoy using the machines I have -Babylock Jane, the Ellegante and a serger).

The ellisimo gold is nice, love the camera feature, nothing like it. I used it the past 2 days for a class. I have the dreamweaver(called the unity for babylock) and it is awesome has some nice positioning features but not the camera, but it does have a wider harp, and the muvit foot which I think make it overall a better choice for a quilter than the ellisimo which I think is more geared towards an embroiderer. This I can say is that they are the easiest machines to use. One lady at the class has a pfaff and a quattro and she said she got the quattro(brother version of the ellisimo) because the pfaff was far to complicated for her and requires classes to really understand the embroidery part. she uses the pfaff for sewing.

My only question is why would you sell your Bernina? Can't you just buy the embroidery unit for it?