Question I was offered some left over material should I buy?

[3DCody]

Hello everyone! This is my first post here, and I was hoping to get some advice.

An older sign shop is stop business and is selling a large lot of print media and vinyl for around $2,500 CAD. There are some good materials included, like a couple of rolls of 3M Controltac and some reflective media, and banner matieral and IJ35C-10, and other stuff with no name on it.
but most of the inventory is dated between 2015 and 2018.

The material was stored in a well-ventilated area, and from what I can tell, it looks to be in decent condition. I'm wondering if it's still worth buying, or if the age alone makes it too much of a risk.

I'll attach some pictures. Any advice or experiences with older vinyl and print media would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! View attachment IMG_4673.JPG View attachment IMG_4672.JPG View attachment IMG_4679.JPG

 

[Browner]

They should be giving away stuff that old. I don't think I've ever come across a media with a suggested shelf life of over 2 years (most are one). Maybe throw them $50 for the vinyl roll holder/stand thing.

 

[Mike Paul]

No,
The wax liner breaks down and
Compromises the adhesive eventually.

Not worth it failing and replacing the graphic at a later time.

Buy new product

 

[tulsagraphics]

Unfortunately, it's basically all trash. I used to always "buy extra" so I'd have plenty of stock on hand, but films -- regardless of the film's durability rating or how well you store them -- degrade while on the shelf. In my experience, after about a year, the adhesives (or perhaps the liner?) gets a lot more aggressive (on the roll), making production a lot more difficult. Where possible, I try to buy full rolls instead of by the yard knowing I'll likely trash the remainder -- just to avoid those situations where a specific color has been sitting in a distro's warehouse for a long time and I'm sitting there with knife / tweezers fighting something that would've otherwise cut beautifully. Fresh roll vs. 1-1.5 years old could be the difference between using fingers vs. duct tape to separate the backing from the film. Print quality and weed-a-bility also greatly affected, and not in a good way.

My inventory is in a 72F shop at 40% humidity year round. Awesome (albeit expensive) environmental control. Even so -- after a year or more? I might as well toss rolls in the trash, at least in most cases.

In addition to all of that ^, you cannot guarantee project success. Warranty is gone, lifespan is heavily degraded, and you end up with a lot more frustrations in production. It's not worth it. That's some seriously overpriced trash.

 

[tulsagraphics]

They should be giving away stuff that old. I don't think I've ever come across a media with a suggested shelf life of over 2 years (most are one). Maybe throw them $50 for the vinyl roll holder/stand thing.

The cardboard tube is worth more than the vinyl by now. lol

 

[White Haus]

Hard pass. Not worth the effort of loading/unloading/storing it even if it was free.

 

[netsol]

several times we took older material when it came with buying a printer.
rarely was it usable...
15" punched vinyl for the gerber edge & plotters, the vinyl shrinks & the holes on the vinyl don't line up with the holes in the backing, causing all sorts of jams

 

[Stacey K]

I would pass. I have a few partial rolls that are just a couple years old that I use for stickers around the house and shop and I feel like even at 2-3 years old I would be leery about using them on a project.

 

[guillermo]

No,
The wax liner breaks down and
Compromises the adhesive eventually.

Not worth it failing and replacing the graphic at a later time.

Buy new product

besides that.... the actual vinyl will stick (weld) to the release liner and you may not be able to remove, I have one roll of 30" green vinyl, bought it about 8 years ago and more likely it was very old from the vendor, I still have it because is a good example for people to keep material a short time, use it or lose it.

 

[RabidOne]

No, just walk away.