Korean Job Discussion Forums

[yunasy]

I'm looking to buy a nice, regular sized sewing machine.
Anyone know how much they cost?

[Swampfox10mm]

Depends on what you consider to be "nice."

On the cheaper end, you can find a low-end singer like you'd buy at Wal-Mart in the USA for around 250,000 won to 350,000. It goes up from there. There is a part of town where they sell nothing but sewing machines everywhere, but you're talking all-metal industrial types. Korea sells a lot of those, but I'm sure they are pricey. This country has a pretty huge clothing design industry, so finding sewing materials will not be a problem.

Search for "Singer" and similar names on www.gmarket.com on the Korean site.

They have a Singer as low as 155,000 but it's probably really small compared to what it looks like in pics. I wouldn't go that route.

[Lynns]

They're expensive here, about double what you'd pay in the US. GMarket has a very nice Janome HD1000 for W499,000.

Most of the machines sold here are Brother. I would carefully check the online reviews (Amazon, etc.) for any machine before buying, because some newer machines are just not reliable and trying to get it fixed here would be a pain. I would avoid Singer like the plague. Some Brother machines are decent, and I think you could get a decent low-end one for around 300-350.

There's a sewing store in the sewing machine district that sells new Brothers. It's called The Sewing Factory. I've also heard Homeplus sells sewing machines.

You might want to also check Craigslist, etc because sm's are heavy and hard to transport, so people leaving Korea might sell one. I've seen used ones advertised from time to time, but not when I was ready to buy one, unfortunately. I got mine from GMarket, it's a Toyota and it was about W350,000.

On GMarket, be aware some of them need a voltage converter, not just a plug converter, and that might be another W50,000 or so. It depends on the brand and whether they are imported or built for the Korean market.