Are you ever right! I loved my 4900 during the 2 1/2 years I used it. I wish that Epson would come out with a replacement model in a month or so. I would not mind waiting a bit. But I can't hold my breath for that to happen. I wish I could go to Canon or HP to "teach Epson a lesson". But, they don't care, they're a business and they have no sympathy for users like me who dare to venture out in the group of folks who turn a lot of prints with these machines professionnally, day in, day out. But I looked at HP and Canon, and have not found anything palatable in the 17" format. Epson has a monopoly on that market segment. Canon makes a 17" iPF5100 (is that the right model number?) but from what I can read, from people's experience, it appears even riskier than another 4900. At least with the 4900, with hindsight, I can rationalize buying a second one knowing I would not be stupid enough to buy a new one *without* buying the additional 2 years contract. That's at the bare minimum. I regret not having done that because i would not be in this mess today. Still, what's going to happen after three years of ownership? By then, Epson is probably going to have another 17" model out, with new features and what not. From a business point of view, I have to approach it from the point of view that this is some kind of "annuity", that if I want to have the convenience of printing in this size of output, I have to accept not paying some lump sum initially and then to forget about it, but adopt a Policy instead whereby I am willing to set aside about $800 a year for maintaining this capacity, regardless of ink usage. I know it sounds crazy, Mark.