Brand New to Signs 101/HP DesignJet 9000S Printer

[CRCI91906]

I'm brand new to the group and I'm already seeing a lot of information that'll be a help to my wife and I and our biz, but I have a specific question about a piece of equipment we're looking at to add the capability to prodcue large print jobs (specifically vinyl banners). We know someone who has an HP DesignJet 9000S, who's looking to sell it. He's kind of a horse trader and goes to a lot of auctions, estate sales, etc. I know he came by this printer in a trade of some sort, but he can't use it and doesn't want it, so he's looking for $4,000 for it. With all this stated, we are planning to go take a look at it this weekend, and although I've used tons of printers in my professional career and also at home, I've never used something of this size or type, so here are my specific questions that I'm looking for help on:

1. Is the asking price a decent price, assuming it's fully operational and has no issues?
2. What am I looking for right off the bat with respect to red flags (visual things that could be giveaways to it being a piece of crap)?
3. What's the quickest path to doing a thorough operational checkout of the unit to ensure that it works as it should?
4. Most of you guys have been in this field for a long time and are definitely more knowledgeable than I am, so from your perspectives is there anything else I need to be thinking of or checking on in order to make a decision to drop $4K or just look elsewhere?

I thank each of you in advance for helping out the newbie and look forward to any input you can provide.

Thanks!

Aaron

 

[Gino]

If you were buying a refurbished one, they'd only be going for about $5,500. $4,000 might be a tad high, unless you know it works flawlessly. Your call.

 

[CRCI91906]

If you were buying a refurbished one, they'd only be going for about $5,500. $4,000 might be a tad high, unless you know it works flawlessly. Your call.

Thanks for the input, Gino. Whether it works flawlessly is exactly what I'm trying to find out this weekend.

 

[Kwiksigns]

I would never buy that thing. I hated that machine with a passion when it was here. Constant problems. I've never been happier at work then the day we sold that god forsaken printer. We sold ours for 5k

 

[CRCI91906]

I would never buy that thing. I hated that machine with a passion when it was here. Constant problems. I've never been happier at work then the day we sold that god forsaken printer. We sold ours for 5k

I love brutal honesty more than anything in this world. If you don't mind me asking, what about it did you despise, specifically?

 

[Kwiksigns]

I love brutal honesty more than anything in this world. If you don't mind me asking, what about it did you despise, specifically?

constant dropouts randomly of colors, specifically on prints with large white panels, and most notoriously the cyan head. smelled bad, but that goes with any solvent. decided to just stop whenever it felt like it. Could NEVER leave the thing running overnight, Absolutely not. Had to babysit the ******* thing. Depending on how much you do per month, I would spend a little more and expand my search to get a used HP latex... Or just anything else.