Questions re process for anyone who has sold their longarm
 

I have a Handiquilter sweet 16 sitdown and want to upgrade to the Avante. I have a few questions regarding the selling process.
1. I know I can list it on the Handiquilter forum. Anyplace else I should list it?
2. Did it take long to sell?
3. How did you handle transfer of money and machine?
4. Anything else I should know.

Thanks.

your local quilt shop may help. I sold mine they took 15% but got more than I hoped for

Include whether you are willing to transport any distance. I sold my Gammill and stipulated that take down/transport was the responsibility of the buyer.

Any trade in from your dealer?

Transportation is a big deal. When I bought my used 12' long Gammill, we had to rent a trailer long enough to transport the length. And it weighs 400+lbs. It took 5 guys to go up and down the stairs when we moved. Our DD and SIL have access to a stock trailer that's long enough. And our new house has concrete drive/walks and no stairs. Also, double doors so we didn't have to disassemble it.

When I bought it, I purchased a cashiere's check from the bank. She lived within 40 miles.

would the Avante dealer take as a trade-in? That would be the super easy way.
When I bought my Gammill used, I was responsible for take down and moving--I hired an area tech to help as we knew nothing--WELL worth the $$ to the tech. We ended up not having to take apart as much as we probably would have otherwise. We paid with check because we were first "vetted" by a mutual friend that owns a quilt shop. That was also the way I found the machine as the previous owner did not want to advertise it as they did not want strangers coming to their house--which sounds paranoid, but they lived in country and had lots of machinery that they did not want strangers knowing about. Good luck! (my friend advertised her machine via local guilds)

I bought my fist machine on Craigslist about 300 miles away and good thing we have a pickup and 10 ft trailer. The table top and poles were 12 ft so the stuck out over the trailer.

I sold that one after 3 yrs of use, needed one with a bigger harp. Placed it on craigslist and sold it within 5 weeks and they came , took it apart so they would know how to put it back together .

I bought my second machine also on Craigslist about 250 miles away, that was in June 2014, it's a HQ 16 and very happy with it.

We paid with cash both times. When I bought the 1st one as we were talking with the seller I actually new the lady that she had bought the machine from. When I talked to the lady on the second purchased found out she went to the same church conference that I went to.

Longarm university is a good place to post it, they have a page dedicated to longarms for sale.

http://www.longarmuniversity.com/MachinesForSale.html

When I upgraded to my HQ Avante I used my Sweet16 as a trade in. My dealer gave me a great deal, brought my new machine in & set it up and picked up the old trade in at the same time. Totally hassle free. My (16) was 12 years old and had stitched millions of stitches. He knocked almost $3,000 off the price of the new machine. I know I never would have received that much selling on my own.

Unfortunately my local Handiquilter dealer is not interested in taking a trade-in. However, an Innova dealer just opened here and they do take trade-ins. I'll have to check them out. The reason I was planning on upgrading to the Avante is because I've used an HQ longarm and am familiar with it. I haven't tried the Innova.

It's a shame that a Handiquilter dealer isn't interested in your trade-in. I see that you're in Indianapolis (I am too). I bought my Innova used but used the dealer you're talking about (Accomplish Quilting) to disassemble the machine at her house and reassemble it at mine (along with taking my Janome Artistic down). It wasn't cheap, but it was well worth it. The Innova is an excellent machine and the service from Accomplish Quilting is outstanding! Even with a used machine, they give me dealer support as if I had bought it from them directly.