I have also seen a lot of designs on ebay. What I have found ALOT is that the designs are COPIED.
There are a few sellers that I know of that buy the embroidery cards from the big companies, Brother, Amazing Designs etc and copy them and sell the copied disc.
That is a big NO NO....those designs are copyrighted.
There are many many Disney designs available too. And we all know that those are illegal to sell.
Some get caught, some don't.
I wouldn't take a chance with the ones that are obviously copied designs.
You just never know who it is that selling them.

I would do a search for free designs from many of the manufacturer's sites plus your machine's brand site so that you know they are accurate and legal. Ann the Gran has many designs as does Joann.com, who recently entered into the market and is offering free designs and moderately priced ones.

If you want a pre-programmed card, trust only the manufacturer sites on e-bay, a resale card, or your local dealer for the format you need, which you don't specify.

As far as some of the free sites are concerned, many are legal, many are licensed through the companies, so you just have to use your good judgment as to what could be iffy or not.

I agree, you must use your own good judgement. I can tell just by looking at some of the listings they're copies.
I did purchase some beautiful gingerbread designs today off ebay and they stitch wonderful. The seller is the person who digitized them and they are copyrighted. There is a big price difference also in the legit designs vs the not legit ones.
Joly

Hi...I have bought many designs from Ebay....most are really good...some are not so good...but the price is usally right enough to try....there is one designer from Isreal....I just love everything they do...and then again...I bought something...a script alphabet for 5 bucks...that was terrible..so what do you expect for 5 bucks.....but I will say....most are very clever and stitch out really well....I just bought all the baseball logos....do not tell me that was not copied...but the are great....12 dollars..I think...love this site...keep the suggestions coming...I am learning and love all the advice I can get...sorry I went on so long...Judy...in Louisiana

Would you share with us the ebay ID of the designer from Isreal?

The word out on the ebay message boards is that they are beginning a major crackdown on copyrighted items.
So people selling designs that they have copied and are reselling are probably in for a lot of trouble.
Sure we would all like to have lots of designs and some of them are very expensive, but we cannot copy them and give them away or sell them.

Check out these out on ebay~stitch out beautifully, their own designs designs_by_juju, then just a couple of more that I use and know they are not copied designs, ghostis (also smart needle.com)and tyme2stitch, these are their ebay IDs. Cute designs for kids. Also check out OregonPatchworks.com they are also running specials, designs by juju usually has buy one get two free, great things!

I think my favourite site is embroidery library. They have sales every week and the prices are very reasonable. Also, look at their projects pages. They have some great free patterns.

Here is a link that might be useful: embroidery library

does anyone know where to get machine embroidered charm designs? I've been looking for new ones other than the criswell, and secrets of embroidery. I would love to learn to digitize my own designs, but I'm not quite there yet.

Try this link. Dakota Collectibles stitch out really beautifully. This pack has lots of snowmen (and other designs), retails for $50.
Mary

Here is a link that might be useful: Snowmen link

Thanks for the link to the Embroidery Library-I signed up and they look like they have great designs and very inexpensive!

Pat