Purchased a roll of Epson canvas from 2011 - still okay?

[Stoic]

Hi everyone, I've just bought a 17" roll of Epson Water Resistant Matte Canvas. Now it was cheap, so I figured there would be something amiss. It's dated 2011.

I can return it, or if the consensus is that it will still be fine, I'll keep it. Any thoughts?

Edit: I've added a couple of images of the box. One corner is slightly damaged but otherwise the carton certainly looks healthy enough.

[Alan Goldhammer]

Six years is a long time and you probably have no idea how it was stored.  I assume it was sealed so humidity probably wouldn't be a factor but exposure to extremes in temperature might be.  The best thing to do would be a test print or two but that might mean you could not return it.  If this were from a 'reputable' vendor, it's somewhat alarming in that they have stock sitting on the shelf/warehouse for so long.

[Stoic]

Alan, thank you for your thoughts.

It was purchased from Amazon UK. They still have one more roll at that price.

Epson paper prices are fairly depressing here across the pond, and selection/availability is also not good. Normally the 40ft 12m roll goes for around £105, this one was selling for £35, so obviously something was wrong. My funds are limited, so when I saw it I took a chance.

The packaging is completely clean apart from the one knock in the corner which you can see in the pic I uploaded.

I thought that as it's archival it should be okay? But I'm a newbie, this is the first canvas I ever bought, so I'm gonna rely on feedback from you all.

Cheers, Stoic.

[Richard.Wills]

That's the copyright notice for the design of the label, not year of manufacture!

Epson canvas is pretty much hermetically sealed by the bag / end caps. At that price, it is a steal.

[Sbarroso]

I bet that batch is from april 2013. (But no idea)

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[Peter McLennan]

Products like canvas "expiring" is more marketing/profit-maximisizing crap, IMHO.  Assuming the packaging is intact, how could it "go bad"?. It's advertised as archival. Whether it's been printed or not should have no bearing on its life.

This is the same scam as inks having an expiry date.  How could they expire in the cart but not on the page?

If I'm wrong, please enlighten me. 

[Alan Goldhammer]

Products like canvas "expiring" is more marketing/profit-maximisizing crap, IMHO.  Assuming the packaging is intact, how could it "go bad"?. It's advertised as archival. Whether it's been printed or not should have no bearing on its life.

This is the same scam as inks having an expiry date.  How could they expire in the cart but not on the page?

If I'm wrong, please enlighten me.

Extreme temperatures, chemical reactions

[Sbarroso]

I agree for the paper. If it's "archival" quality and it's appropriately stored, there should be no appreciable degradation of quality, whatever you measure. It's solid, degradation depends of external factors, and ink deposition should not have precisely any preservative effect (vs non printed material).

For the inks,  indeed, it's different.  Non used inks are colloidal suspensions in water. The liquid has some desired macroscopic properties which should remain within specifications for a flawless printing. You can think about irreversible deposition for very long standing carts, temperature changes in wet conditions... Used ink on the paper it's (practically) dry and requirements for stability are others than for the wet ones. Although I believe that degradation of non used ink should be very slow and the ability to suspend again the pigments in such a way that doesn't impact the print nor the printer itself it's great.

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[Landscapes]

This is the same scam as inks having an expiry date.  How could they expire in the cart but not on the page?

If I'm wrong, please enlighten me.

Although I do agree generally with what you are saying, when it comes to ink, the solvent might very well be the kicker.  I don't mind using expired ink, but perhaps after too many years, some of the liquid, be it water for aqueous inks or solvent for the others might actually slowly evaporate or degrade.  This would change the concentration of the pigments perhaps.  Its true that the pigment sitting in a dark ink cart and away from the air should last a very long time, but getting those pigments onto the paper in exactly the same form is where the life time might be an issue.

[framah]

...and Richard wins the answering contest!!!

It is obviously a copyright date for the copy on the box. It has NOTHING to do with the contents.

...which SHOULD have been the end of the conversation.. and yet...