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Even if you don't hit big and rake in lots of money the higher end machines are still a good idea as they will pay for themselves eventually even if you do nothing more than use them as a hobby and sell stuff to friends and family. And if/when you decide you want to get out of it all together they'll have a higher resale as well. Basically what I'm saying, is don't worry about throwing the money away, it'll come back eventually. Regarding amazon vs person web page, I can't speak much to that other than to say when I think of custom/personalized stuff, I don't think of Amazon so i question how much traffic would you actually see.

remember a titan is a stepper motor and a titan2 or 3 have servo motors - both have much improved chipsets for the usb over the value cutters. if you ask a salesman for advice he will steer you toward his highest commission as the turnover on sales staff is very high - the user forum have people with real world experience. Heard last week a salesman was recommending the cheap chinese blades over the cleancut blades - now other than 2 member I know of that would disagree try to find very many that would agree with that - that have actually used cleancut blades and cheap blades. the people on the forum including the mods are not paid and actual users of the equipment

I'm with all the previous posts. We usually recommend to buy the best you can afford but the water gets a little murky in the middle. There is the super budget MH which is truly for the very timid and also one that is the hardest to make work well. The next few steps up are pretty similar until you start into the servo motors and then there is another jump up to higher quality. I think those who have the servo titans have good luck and the new SC seems to do pretty well for itself as a stepper. I started with a Creation P-Cut which they no longer offer but was at the time a small step above the SC. Probably below the new SC2 would be my guess. I ran it for a couple years and got by. Learned a lot of valuable lessons that you won't learn with a higher end because they just work without a bunch of adjustment. I saved up and finally dropped a few thousand on my current cutter and wow what a difference. If you buy a cutter and take the time to learn the whole gambit you will definitely earn a return if you are even remotely savvy. The whole gambit includes graphic work, using your cutter, application, and most likely other offshoot branches such as heat transfer vinyl (t-shirts). For me this started out as a new hobby and POTENTIAL revenue stream. 7 years later we did 80K gross income in our dining room in the evenings and weekends. Even if I ever get tired of it being WORK I will never be without a vinyl cutter again in my life (if I have any choice in the matter.) WAY TOO MUCH FUN and the absolute first hobby I have ever had that actually MAKES money instead of costing. I still do lots of freebie funs stuff for friends and family which is why I bought the stuff in the first place.

It's the difference between: Just spending money and spending money wisely............. Sue2

for personal use, not for sale. mark-s

Dining room table..sounds familiar!! Lol. Do you sell online or in person?

OP stated. " What do you recommend for something under the $1000 range?" to my reply. Which is why I stated the Titan 2. (I should have added SE) OP has vinyl, 12" rolls to use for now. I would expect she has tape also. She said "she is looking at Titan 1, " it is on sale with a a few extras for $719.99 The Titan 2 SE is the best deal. It has a servo motor.

For now I can only spend at the very most $400. SC2 is clearly at your price point, and for just $40 more than the 24" you can go up to the 30" model. Keep in mind that consumables are also part of your start-up expenses (vinyl & app tape). Have fun!

There are many graphic installers out there that do this for a living.. Many people install their own decals. Many videos on you tube to install vinyl graphics, of any size. I started with large graphics from the git go. I use up scraps from the larger to make smaller decals, just so that it doesn't go to waste. Those decals are just my time.. I don't apply anything, I work from my home. I am probably quite a bit older than you are, I worked at a factory for 30 years and it closed. So I reinvented myself, and have been doing this for 12 years.

Also, it's not absolutely critical it all goes straight. If your design doesn't use up the whole width, and is not too long a little drift won't matter. The tracking for the design will still be good just not aligned to the edges, not really a big deal.