The Challenge of the Digital Used Embroidery Machine

In the digital world of today, one needs to keep oneself up to date with the latest technology or else, be left in the past as the pace of evolution has increased manifold and everything moves swiftly along with it. The world of embroidery has gone through the process as well, what started as a hand crafted form of art, has become significantly faster and much more efficient with the advent of embroidery machines. What started as a monopoly and specialized form of embroidery itself, has become a much more competitive sector in recent years and because of the low barriers to entry, new entrepreneurs are joining the market of embroidery to avail the booming opportunities prevailing in the embroidery sector at the moment. The barriers to penetrate the market are low but the machine embroidery is a technical job and requires understanding. Moreover, the (commercial embroidery) machines are expensive and require a considerable amount of investment, all leading to the inevitable conundrum, whether to buyor get a new one altogether.

For new business owners, it is highly advisable to go for the newer option as they are just starting out, they need to learn as much as possible about digitizing and machine embroidery and when buying the new machine, most to all machine suppliers give technical assistance, training and support with not only helping with setting up the machine but also how to conduct the embroidery process. Some even provide free or discounted digitizing software of their own which is required for the actual digitizing process. Although doing digitizing oneself is not necessary however to achieve the most efficiency, it is better to learn the process.

Buying a new machine is the recommended option but what if the business owner is not able to do so for whatever reason or is technically apt enough to not need much to any assistance, buying a used embroidery machine for sale is the next best option. However, buying any used machine is not enough, one needs to go through a check list of sorts to make sure he/she is making the best possible purchase with these machines as they definitely are cheaper than the new ones, but still if their cons outweigh their merits, it would not help the business in the long run.

The first thing to consider is how old the machine is? Embroidery machines have been evolving and upgrading as every other item of today so newer machines do have more options available and are easier to handle. Moreover, old, used machines might not be offering the particular options one might want to offer such as a cap or 3D embroidery which is not offered by all the older embroidery machines. Furthermore, it brings the question of specifications like memory and software compatibility as a machine still working with software that works on far old windows like 2000 will serve no purpose as no one uses windows 2000 anymore. Additionally, the older the machine is, the more it is prone to breaking down and less effective the embroidery will be.

Are new or used embroidery equipment and parts for that specific machine even available? Machine manufacturers stop producing the parts if they do not consider them profitable anymore and so the older model of used embroidery machines might not have the parts, new or used, readily available to be replaced if one of the parts in the machine is broken. Some companies do provide them as well but the cost should be considered again, is the cost of used machine low enough or part cheap enough to outweigh the cost of a new machine.

Some people may be technically proficient and might want to buy the used embroidery machine model they are comfortable with and have the digitizing software that works for it, however, with the startups, with next to no experience with the embroidery process, cost might be doubled as they might have to purchase the software for digitizing as well (not necessary but recommended for greater efficiency and customization) which itself is quite expensive. One thing to note here is that every software is not accessible on every single machine so one cannot buy the cheapest software available and think it would work without making sure about the compatibility before buying it.

Even if a used embroidery machine is bought, will it include factory installation, as it is another technical aspect which everyone, especially newer start-ups, might not be able to perform themselves? External help can be hired for this part but the question of cost outweighing all the benefits from buying a newer machine is to be considered. Likewise, it is also imperative to consider whether the machine is still under factory warranty as it might be easier to get a replacement this way. If not, is the machine being bought through official, authorized agent of the machine brand as they can also provide their own warranties which would work fine as well? If still ‘No’ and owner is looking at options on outlets like Alibaba and eBay, the risks of the endeavor are high enough to consider the proposition of buying a used embroidery machine in the first place.

In light of everything, it should be clear that buying a used embroidery machine is the riskier option than buying a newer one however if the cost of buying a used machine is justified in lieu of the questions raised above, it can be the better option for the business.

So many questions, so many problems! Why not be at ease and let the consummate professional at DigitEMB handle all of your digitizing and digital embroidery needs.