The newest way people are trying to make a buck off embroidery newbies on eBay is by reselling "manuals" on the site.

This isn't bad, in theory, except for a few things:

• some of these manuals are available as FREE downloads on the manufacturer's website. For example: Brother's PE-Design manuals are available as a free download, and that's the same program as BabyLock's Palette. Also, Brother has their machine manuals online.
  
• some of these manuals are printed or copied from the program's CD in violation of copyright rules. In other words, if you've lost your manual, use Windows Explorer to look at the program CD and see if you can print an electronic manual. Sometimes, it's in the Help menu too.
• some of these manuals are legally available through third party sites
• Many manufacturers sell their manuals for less money than the resellers.
  

This isn't just embroidery digitizing software, but other software (especially image/graphic software) as well. Also, most software usually has free user forums, websites, and email groups to get free help from.

If you've lost your manual, before you plop down a lot of money, do a little research first. It might save you more than you know.