What to look for when purchasing machine embroidery designs on eBay

There are some truly amazing embroidery designs available for purchase on eBay.  While many of these designs are legal and sold by reputable digitizers, some are copyright violations and/or poor quality designs.

Part one of this guide will address the poor quality designs.  Please look for Part two for copyright issues.  Designs which are not properly digitized can cause the embroidery machine user many problems.  Needles may break, causing damage to the machine, and low-quality stitch-outs can result in embroidered items having to be thrown away. While it can be difficult to determine the quality of a design being sold on eBay, there are a few things that can help you distinguish the good from the bad.

1.  Have you heard of the seller?  Is the business name familiar to you?  A good reputation is a sign of a professional digitizer who offers quality designs.  Many professional digitizers use eBay as a second venue for selling designs.  Search the web and see if there is any information on the seller.

2.  Does the auction page include a photo of the design already stitched out?  Computer previews are attractive, but may not be a good indication of how the finished design will look.  A photo will give you a better idea of what kind of results you can expect from a design.  If no photo is included, contact the seller and ask to see one.

3.  Does the design look professional?  You shouldn't see any harsh edges on a rounded area of a design.  I've seen many designs (especially appliqué) where you can actually see that the curves are made up of several straight lines.  This is emphasized when the design is sewn out and is not attractive.  Are there areas of satin stitching that overlap? This can be hard on your machine and can cause needle breakage.  For example, an "L" shaped satin stitch line should come to a "V" point at the angle.  The two lines should not overlap.  That is a sign of an inexperienced digitizer or a digitizer in a hurry who might not want to take the time to manually digitize the lines.    

4. Auto-digitized designs are almost ALWAYS poor quality.  It can be hard to identify an auto digitized design.  Most of them do not have clean lines or intricate details.  If the design is outlined, it might have a very narrow fill stitch rather than the typical running or satin stitch.

5.  The best advice I can offer is to find out if the seller has a website where they offer free designs.  If not, contact the seller and ask for a sample design.  By testing out one of their designs, you can get a good feel for how the digitizer's designs sew out.

6.  Look at the seller's feedback, however, good feedback is not always an indication of the quality of the seller's designs.  Many buyers leave feedback after they receive the product, but before they get a chance to test it out.

I have provided a graphic comparsion here:

Design Guide

I hope this information will help you to choose quality machine embroidery deigns when purchasing on eBay!