In the $5000 range Epson, HP, and Canon all make nice prints now. I prefer Epson and HP for ink durabiity on the paper. My (possibly biased by historical inks and printers in each line) opinion is that Epson stiill has the most durable, permanent print. The HPZs are such nice printers though. The canons may be less costly per print but I find the HP and Epson prints still more continuous tone and slightly nicer to my eye. The canons aren't bad and I considered one due to a slightly lower cost per print for posters.
Refurbished? Tricky.
With a printer like the epson where heads are expensive, I'd want to save at least $2000 over retail for the brand new printer. The new printer comes with sealed inks which are worth a lot of money, and often free shipping. I believe the HP print heads are less expensive and also have a planned replacement in less prints so a bit less there would do it.
How about warranty? Any quality issues can be really frustrating and expensive to solve. If you plan to put high volume on it, you could look at it as having to troubleshoot at some point anyway, but the cost of a clogged nozzle can easily add up to $100 of lost paper, ink, and time, so don't jump at a used or refurb untit unless it's a really good deal.
