Need Advice on Buying used Epson 3800 printer

[Goldilocks]

I'm looking to buy my first photographic printer. I have the opportunity to buy a used Epson 3800 printer from a stranger that I need to take a 1 1/2 hour ride plus $35 in gas and tolls to see/pickup. The person that I am thinking of buying from uses his printer for signs and T-shirts and is upgrading to a 7600. He doesn't sound that familiar with photography and color management. My printing experience has been using Photoshop to softproof with an HP deskjet 5400 series printer using HP Premium Plus lustre photo paper and also sending out to Costco converting the file to Costco's printer profile. I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH EPSON PRINTERS! And NO EXPERIENCE WITH USING A PRINTER TO PRINT ANYTHING OTHER THAN PHOTOGRAPHS AND DIGITAL ART. What would you advise that I do and/or inquire in considering this purchase. I can't afford new, but I can't afford a lemon, nor can I afford to find out that I'm missing anything or need to spend money on repairs after the purchase. It's a cash and carry sale. Thanks.

Linda

[dgberg]

The big question is how much does he want? 3800's are really cheap right now with the rebate. I am not sure I would want a printer that is second hand from a commercial facility. The other question would be how much ink is left in the carts. At .65 a ml it costs $500 to replace them all if they are empty. Maybe if wants $200 to $300 thats still a good deal with 50% to full cartridges.  If he wants $500 I would steer clear.

[Randy Carone]

I agree with Dan's thoughtful assessment. Too risky unless it is very cheap. I'd want a print generated before I'd consider buying it. Unfortunately, there are no 3800s to be had and since the 3880 has been released there are no rebates in place for the 3800, if you do manage to locate New Old Stock. The best deal would be if you can find a Factory refurbished 3800 hiding at a dealer for ~$995 (or less) that would come with a full set of ink worth close to $500 and the printer would carry a full one-year warranty from Epson

[John Hollenberg]

You may want to look at a refurbished 3800 from Epson.  Available now for $895:

http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/consume...;ref=r0302DSFMS

[Wayne Fox]

The person that I am thinking of buying from uses his printer for signs and T-shirts and is upgrading to a 7600. He doesn't sound that familiar with photography and color management.

Normally to do this you have to run 3rd party dye sublimation inks such as Sawgrass inks.  That's currently how we produce several products.  Maybe there is a way to do this with standard inks ... I know you can't do it and produce anything of great quality. Once we put the sawgrass ink system in, we pretty much assume it'll never be a normal epson again.

[Randy Carone]

Wayne, you are correct about dye-sub quality being at the top of the heap, but there are many products used in the signage side of the business that can be printed with standard inks. Specialty Materials makes one that is printed correct reading, can be contour cut from the liner and heat-sealed directly to a garment. It is a thin Polyurethane material that has a stiffer hand than dye-sub but yields excellent color and saturation. One plus for this method is that it can be used with cotton apparel. If this 3800 was used for signage and T-shirts, that is probably the type of material the user was printing. In a previous life I sold many systems that combined an Epson printer with a Roland cutter and a heat press for this purpose.

[SteveAlley]

Check w/ shadesofpaper.  I picked up my refurb 3800 well under epson's price w/ free shipping and have been very happy!

Steve