Rick (owner/repairman) said $500 for a used 9000 was a little pricy, they sell for $300 at SuperStitch. I know from experience that would include any extras the customer included with the trade in. He said the 9000 is a good machine for sewing and a little embroidery; and parts are still available. The reason it's obsolete is because you can only use pre-programmed cards and the cards are no longer in production. As for my 10001, he assured me that as long as I had a CF card reader and my Digitizer program, my machine would last me a long long time. This made my day. Janome is coming out with a new machine in September with more bells and whistles, so there will most likeley be some used 11000 machines available. However both Rick and Anne (owner/instructor) recommend the MB4 as my next machine. I can only dream:-)