Buying Epson New 9800 Printer but Old Ink. Good deal or NO?

Hello folks this is my very first time here and could use your advice. A boyfriend of one of my friends, here in the east coast, is selling a NEVER used 9800 for $2,000. He bought it when it came out 5 or 6 yrs ago for his business, small printing shop, but never got to use the printer for one reason or another. I saw the printer and is NEW and the ink was never installed and is in all its unopened package. I will use it to print MOSTLY large black and white fine art prints and some color too. I checked Epson site and it says that the life spam of an unused ink is 2 years and 6 months after opening. WIll that ink still be ok? Otherwise that means that I would have to buy new ink and with taxes and all it will be close to 1K. Then now the printer is costing me 3K.
I offered him $1,500 and mentioned that the ink is old but he still wants the 2K .
Part of me is saying, "this is a new printer" and the other part is saying, "WOW must buy new ink too." I told that to my friend but he is saying that he thinks the ink should be ok. Or at least I could use it for experimenting. I dont want to experiment with bad ink then had that old ink clogged the printer. Or have to spend 1/3 of new ink later cleaning all the heads and nozzles. Any thoughts? TIA Marta

 

The printer may be a good unit (for being a discontinued model), but it may be better to go with a newer model. Really depends if you want to spend the money and if something happens to it down the road that the cost can be as much as you spent. Or, it may work for you for a few years without any issues. The ink will not be bad even past the expiration. The difference in quality would be around .0000001% and Epson's printers will use expired inks.

If you are looking to OEM ink without the tax (or shipping), feel free to check us out.
We also sell the printers, papers as well as printer ink from desktop size to 64" models.

IT Supplies
Chris W
800-238-6050

 

I'm not sure what I would do in this case. The best price for a new 9900 that I'm aware of is around $3,995 shipped taking advantage of a $1,000 limited time rebate and a 1-Year Epson Warranty.

What worries me about Epson printers is the possibility of problems with the printheads after a few years of printing and the high cost of replacing Epson printheads. Combine that with my own volume on a large format printer being a bit light compared to a photo shop what was printing continuously where the warranty would be the only way to go, I'm not sure if the Epson warranty vs. no warranty is a deal breaker. But it is a gamble and could be either a great deal at $2000 (probably), maybe an ok deal with some frustration at $3000 if you have to run through a bunch of old ink, and possibly if something goes wrong in 12 months of printing and it's out of warranty, a bad deal; this possibility in my view is pretty small, but still a gamble.

Two stories from my own "adventures" with taking small gambles:
Way back in the year 1998 I bought a refurbished HP Designjet plotter for around $2500. I ran rolls and rolls of paper through it and used a hundred ink cartridges (those had the heads right on the cartridges) for photo prints (low resolution compared to today's spec, but still I ran a lot through it.) It ran and ran and only finally this year lost the color print head connectivity. It ran for 14 years with only one $50 rubber belt replaced in all that time!

On the other hand, I bought a canon color laser printer retail (with no service contract as I've done on printers since) as my second color laser printer. It ran for 10 months and then developed an intermittent weave texture in the prints. Warranty sent a tech out and replaced circuit boards but couldn't actually fix the problem. I never did get it fixed and ended up paying a great low price for the laser printer (which was on sale as the new generation of printer was coming in) compared to a monthly contract, but after 10 months had a printer with an annoying intermittent problem that I could never get solved, and I ended up replacing it after one year.

I'm no sure any of that is especially helpful, but with a gamble sometimes you just have to look at how much money you want to spend and how much time you have to take advantage of it (or in a worst case work around it if the gamble goes bad.) I might go for it if your print volume expected for it isn't too high.

 

Here is another option. If you're planning on going for a 44" model, I would recommend the Canon IPF8400. After the rebates, it will be under $3000 WITH a full set of 330 ml inks ($2000 value). Great thing with Canon is that they have user replaceable print heads and the ink cost is almost close to Epson's pricing in their sizes for the 9900. We actually do sell a bit more Canon due to their rebates and the quality is basically about the same as Epson's. They also have an accounting software to help you figure out cost for print (to give the best deal to your customers) as well as a built in hard drive (so you don't have to reprint from the computer; you can print directly from the printers HDD).

Let me know if you have any other questions regarding the differences and pricing.
IT Supplies
800-238-6050 x5583

 

Has the price of Epson 9800 printheads gone up? It used to be around $1000 I thought for the 9800 print heads. Not sure if the price of these parts has gone up now that it's out of production and replaced with the new 9900 model.

The printhead replacement procedure doesn't appear to be that difficult:
http://www.americaninkjetsystems.com/Epson_9800_9880_head_replacemen.html

 

As far as I am aware, Epson print heads are only available thru service centers (or Epson directly if under warranty) since these are not user replaceable. The 9890 is the replacement for the 9800. The 9900 is the most updated version of the 9890 with the O&G inks, but everything else is exactly the same as far as the hardware and software.

 

Forni Digital Printing

My oppion is similar as Jeff, it is a gamble.
If the printer is new as you said, and the ink is unopened, maybe can try, only when the ink is stored up correctly. And before use, can shake the ink first to avoid bulk.
But the printer is out of warranty, and the printhead life is 30000 square meter.it depend on your volume.
Anyway, there are more better service and warranty for new printers. So it is hard to have a decision.

 

I know this may be a possible option vs a used printer with unopened ink. As opposed to the 9900 being under $4000, there is a Canon IPF8400 that would be under $3000 after all discounts and includes a full set of 330 ($2000 value) that is also a 44" model. If anything happened to the print heads, they are user replaceable compared to Epsons (which need replaced by Epson or an authorized service center). We sell a bit more of the Canon models due to the great price along with the large inks that come with the printer.

Wanted to throw that out there as it may be a better option (if you're open to other brands at good prices).

Let me know if you have questions regarding the models and pricing.

IT Supplies
Chris W
800-238-6050 x5583