I want to get into machine embroidery. I was checking out some machines in a nearby town and was wondering what you think about the innovis 2500D ? It's on sale for $2999. and do you think it's a good price for a used machine or do you have a better Idea? All of my family says you are the just about the best as far as sewing goes and I would appericiate your advice very very much Thank You! -- Sherri
Hi Sherri - Thanks for your question!
I'm not sure what the Innovis 2500D normally sells for USED, but I can tell you that there's ALWAYS a "sale" going on so never let the fear of losing out on a special sale price push you into making a purchase if you haven't yet thouroughly investigated what you want for a machine.
We buy used machines quite often. What we've found works really well for us is to buy what used to be the top-of-the-line machine and has been traded in by someone for the latest-greatest newer top-of-the-line machine. The owner of last years BEST machine often trades it in because they want some new feature. For example, I'm looking at a ULT2003 right now that cost about $4,000 when new in 2003. We'll probably pay about $1200 for it now and it is in like-new condition.
As for the 2500D... we have a "Reviews" section on ATW. It surveys owners of various machnines on their experiences with those machines. We've had 7 responses in our machine owners survey so far on the Innovis 2500D. Here are those responses...
See 2500D Survey Responses Here
(You can click the VIEW buttons to read details of why they said that.)
Of the 7 people that responded, only 5 said they would buy the same machine again! That gives the 2500D a grade of "71" on our scale. If you were still in school and got a "71" on a test, that would be a "C" -- and barely a passing grade at that! By comparison, these machines earned an "A" with a score of 90 or better...
... and the ones highlighted in BLUE are what I call "Best Buy" machines, with 100% of the owners saying they would buy another one AND more than 10 responses... meaning there are enough people answering the question that it's a pretty valid survey.
The rest of this article is called "Machine Report Cards 2007" and is available to members of ATW. I'm not just trying to promote our website here, but it IS a great place to go BEFORE you buy your first machine. Go through the "Reviews" section of the site, as well as searching through the Discussion Forum and asking questions there to get feedback from real users. The $19.95 investment for 3 months membership will probably save you hundreds if not thousands of dollars by avoiding buying the wrong machine for yourself.
