Bernina 8 Series–The Lowdown on Prices

ITMan really is saying I should get one of the new Bernina 8 Series machines. It’s a good thing he’s not in charge of the cash around here, or we’d be eating boxed mac & cheese for dinner daily! I just keep shaking my head at him in wonder, but I did let curiosity get the better of me last night and I called a dealer in North Carolina to find out what the price really is. My girlfriend Dawn lives in NC, and I figured if I had to get a machine from the States, NC is as good a place as any and maybe she could be persuaded to mail the sucker to me. Are you ready?

$11,990 for the 830, and $7,490 for the 820. The 820 price is not solid; the dealer said that’s what they think it will be, but the 830 price is the MSRP from Bernina. I asked about the price on the frame and they had no info about that yet, but I did see a site this morning that said $2,000 for the frame, and dropped the little tidbit that most dealers would be offering the 830 for about $2k less than the actual MSRP.

Well. Here’s my current thought process on all of this, and then I’m going to be quiet about the 8 Series machines until I can really get my hands on one if I decide I really want to take the plunge. If I do decide I’m really getting one, I probably won’t go for the 830. Why do I need another embroidery machine? I have the 440, which does what I need. I’m making quilts here, not embroidered murals, and if I ever did want to make bigger designs than the 440 does out of the box, I can get the extra hoops that are bigger and meant to be turned around or whatever it is that you have to do. I haven’t yet exhausted what the 440 can do with embroidery to need something bigger and better in that department.

So that leaves me dreaming of the 820 for the bigger throat area as well as all the other wonderful bells and whistles. I’ve often wished for a machine with a bigger throat for machine quilting and now one is available that I could really like I think. I don’t even think I’d want the machine quilting frame right away. I do just fine pushing the quilt through the machine, rather than pushing the machine on the quilting frame. If I ever change my mind on that, the frame is available and made to go with the machine, and at the moment, I even have a place to put it.

Beside that, if I bought the 830 with the embroidery and sold the 440 that I have, I’d be locking myself into one machine to do it all. Then what do I do when I need to do some piecing or embroidery, and the machine is on the quilt frame? Finish the quilt first, I’m guessing, or deal with the big PITA of taking the machine off the frame before the project is finished and then loading it back up again. And I’m sure the machine is no lightweight either so hauling it around wouldn’t be any fun. Even if I didn’t have the quilting frame, but only the one machine, what do I do at service time? Um, not sew? *shudder* I know, I’m spoiled.

I’m thinking that I would sell my Pfaff 2056, since the 820 has a dual feed which means I wouldn’t need to keep a Pfaff around just for that anymore. I’d keep the Bernina 440, since I love it and it does everything I need to do except the dual feed, including the embroidery. I loved my 2056, but I love my Bernina 440 more. I don’t really need three machines on hand and selling the Pfaff 2056 would certainly help with the price of the Bernina 820.

The 820 machines won’t be available until January, so there’s time to think and plan of course, as well as find a buyer for the Pfaff 2056 if I decide to go down this road. ITMan is certainly pushing me to go for it, for whatever crazy reason. I have no idea whether it would be better to buy one here locally, and deal with the poor value of the Dollar against the Euro (though I might not have to pay the 19% German sales tax at least), or try to get one shipped to me through a friend in the States. I’m sure the crate it comes in is huge, and might even be too big to go through the mail.

Wait and see, wait and see. Patience is not my strong point. I’m sure I’ll be thinking of the 820 with longing quite shortly here, since I have to machine quilt the Inchie quilt in the next month or so. While it’s not huge like some of the quilts I’ve quilted on a home machine, I’m sure there will be moments when I’ll be wishing I had the 820 with its 12″ throat area on my sewing table right now!

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