Used Epson R3880

As usual Royce is right on point in his great summation, which I believe covers everything.

After attaining actual print counts from the seller and verified the amount of ink left, considering the time the unit have been sitting idle, then factoring in travel time & fuel cost etc., the saving was nowhere near as significant as I first thought. With that in mind, I have decided to order a new unit. Of course, with it comes the full warranty and complete cartridges of ink.

This exercise has been very educating and taught me a great deal in understanding the real cost of buying used. Thank you once again for all your contributions.

Cheers, Des, I think you probably made a good decision. I know someone who regularly deals with used large format printers, and doesn't buy them new that often. But he only takes one used if he can obtain it essentially free, outside of the cost of transportation and rehab to get it printing again. If somebody was otherwise going to send their printer to the e-cycle depot, and it was more or less working, he'll take it. But if it costs almost any cash at all, in his experience he has found that it's usually better to pass on the deal. (Though he will consider the value of any unopened ink cartridges.)

As you say, there is a cost (and some risks) to buying used. Once you understand those issues, a used larger printer needs to represent a really good deal to offset those costs & risks. I'd consider a used one myself, but only if it was local to me, I could verify its working condition, and the price fairly reflected mechanical wear & tear and ink consumption / aging. I own several of these printers and have heavily used others, so I'm pretty familiar with what to look for... but I'd still have to be willing to take the risks.

Just for future reference or indeed anyone is considering this, the initial installation uses about 20% of ink at startup. Considering the size of the cartridges, that's a reasonable amount in my book. As mentioned previously, this is a one-time operation.

Print wise, it produces prints that are to my expectation at this price point. I have not calibrated the printer yet to my papers but using Epson's own and their off-the-shelf profiles, it's not too bad. I did notice that the contrast is higher, and faster than my very old A3 Epson. Only time will tell if it continues to deliver good results reliably and hassle-free.

Des wrote:Just for future reference or indeed anyone is considering this, the initial installation uses about 20% of ink at startup. Considering the size of the cartridges, that's a reasonable amount in my book. As mentioned previously, this is a one-time operation.

Print wise, it produces prints that are to my expectation at this price point. I have not calibrated the printer yet to my papers but using Epson's own and their off-the-shelf profiles, it's not too bad. I did notice that the contrast is higher, and faster than my very old A3 Epson. Only time will tell if it continues to deliver good results reliably and hassle-free.

Yeah, it "uses" 20%, but most of that goes in the lines and will be used to print. The second cartridge installed of the same color will not show as much "used" as the lines will have been already filled from the previous cartridge (assuming you didn't run the first one completely dry, which, of course, is not recommended!