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A Good Deal? Question for equipment guys!

sonicprint

New Member
Hello all,

We are a offset printing and direct mail company in Tampa that is looking to expand our offerings. We have an opportunity to purchase out a sign companies assets and we are just checking to see if the offer is good. We feel it is, but you guys are experts so we thought we'd come here and ask.

The equipment is:

Designjet 5500 UV 42" Printer
Royal Sovereign RSC-1400C Laminator
Graphtec FC7000-130 Cutting Plotter
Lots of unorganized and messy supplies
Newer work tables

There looks to be no rips or no computers with software with it (it looks like that may have been raided before the business closed down).

The question is, what do you think it's worth and what else would we need to get started doing signs and banners? We aren't trying to go crazy, just looking to add extra products to our offering.

We have a designjet 5500 dye ink machine that we used for proofing and a 2 Epson 7600's but we only use those for proofing jobs on our offset press.

Thanks guys, this is my first post, and this place looks really friendly and helpful. I found an amazing amount of information.

Stan
 

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
I would offer around $5k, thats a good start for what your going to be doing but your cost on banner material is going to be a joke compared to everyone you will be competing with. The outdoor life will be around 2-3 years when laminating. Its a great machine for tradeshow graphics, backlit prints, fine art, and POP displays but not too great for Banner printing or vehicle graphics.
 

Large Format

New Member
I vote no, the plotter and laminator maybe, but not the HP. Used RS laminator is worth 1-3k the plotter who knows, go take a look and bring a couple grand in cash
 

Letterbox Mike

New Member
I vote no, the plotter and laminator maybe, but not the HP. Used RS laminator is worth 1-3k the plotter who knows, go take a look and bring a couple grand in cash

+1, if you're looking to do signs and banners, you really need a solvent printer. Yes, you can do limited things with the HP, but you won't really be competitive.

My advice would be to keep your eyes open for a sign shop going out of business. You can probably pick up a decent solvent machine and similar laminator and plotter for around $5k or so, and that will give you a better start.
 

BigfishDM

Merchant Member
The biggest print company in the industry only runs 42" machines, lol they run 3500 of them also. I understand your point though and 60" units can come in handy on certain applications.
 

sonicprint

New Member
So from my understanding of the post, we'll have a nice laminator and a nice/decent cutter, but a crap printer only slightly better than our dye 5500. We'll still need a solvent printer. Correct?
 

Firefox

New Member
Hello from NorCal.

If the cutter works you're in biz in that area, then you can laminate your HP prints for better durability. But you probably won't sell many printed banners for outdoors without Solvent or EcoSol inks. The banner materials you can print on with Eco/Sol inks come in a larger variety and are considerably cheaper than those for aqueous inks (HP).
 
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