Epson Stylus Photo R2880 - buy or not?

[MP640]

(I am usually on the Canon forum, hence my name)

I have the opportunity to buy an Epson R2880. It's about 5 years old and is allegedly not used very much. In fact, it has not been used in the last year.
I am not familiar with Epson printers. What are the chances that this printer will work after a year of rest? I asked the seller to make a test print, but since 3 colors need to be replaced (I've seen the screenshot) it is not posssible to print right now.

I'm afraid of a clogged printhead. If it is clogged, is it easy to unclog?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

 

[The Hat]

If you can get the printer for buttons then you have nothing to lose, but remember you’re going to need a plethora of new paraphernalia to enable you to print with this Epson, so factor in the additional costs.

It’s also going to be a big learning curve getting the printer working again, but if you have plenty of time and patients then it’s achievable.

The answer to your clog question is no, but have fun anyway..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I don't know what your relations are to the seller and what price you have discussed. A printer idling for a year may work or not - there is no forecast possible. You would have to spend some effort to unclog the unit, get a refill cartridge set, some nozzle cleaner, and a set of new cartridges . And who is paying for that if you are not successful ? There is a Windows utility WICReset which can tell you the number of printed pages, and the fill status of the waste ink container - indications for the usage of that printer. The driver needs to be installed for WICReset but reading out the status data is free. Overall I would be rather reluctant to buy such unit, getting the printer into working condition again should be the job for the seller.

 

[MP640]

Thanks Hat and Fingers, for your helpful replies.

Of course, what I wanted to hear was: "Sure, go ahead, no problem. These printers will work without any problems after a year of sitting idle."

Would it make a difference if the price is euro 100? Will it still be a negative buying advice?

 

[shotupdave]

i would ask the seller if you can't get it working will they let you return it

 

[mikling]

If you can obtain a good nozzle check from the seller that greatly escalates the value.
It is likely that the carts are empty and a nozzle cannot be run and the seller does not want to acquire a cartridge/s to determine if the printer is of value. A standoff of sorts.
If no nozzle check can be done, then it is purely a gamble as to how much risk you can afford to acquire an unknown. Now if you had another R2880 with carts, then the outlay is small and the appetite for the chance is perhaps greater.
In these circumstances used printers are valued very low and a FRACTION of the asking price since no one is willing to purchase a set of OEM carts to find out the head is clogged...the purchaser would be out the cost of the printer AND supplies.

Today I acquired a used iP3500 "as is" as part of a deal for a wide gamut Asus ProArt PA249Q demo model for less than 1/2 the MSRP of the monitor. The iP3500 sat there "as is" and no one was willing to take a chance. All OEM carts in it so...there's a chance and I have two MX870s waiting. I think they might use the same printhead anyways. Essentially the store was willing to throw it out with the monitor to make shelf space. How low? the asking price was $10CAD...Approx $8 USD.

Oh yeah, if the R2880 has OEM carts in it, it is likely the mileage was low. Cost to feed it, thwarts heavy use. BTW, the R2880 is highly underrated. It can produce better details than the ones that replaced it. The R3000 and P600. Its' print quality is so close to an SP3880 and it also lacks the potential problems of the switch box of later models. You also have direct access to the printhead as well and you can have full control by being able to reset even the ARC chips when refilling. Not a shabby machine at all for archival prints. Joe (tooolman) has videos on refilling the OEM carts but it is quite involved.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Would it make a difference if the price is euro 100? Will it still be a negative buying advice?

- It's your money - 100€ are probably o.k., if you can get the unit working again for another 100€ investment - cartridges - cleaner - but if not you loose 200€ , and nobody will give you a sure bet that you can revive that unit. I wouldn't do it - if somebody is interested to sell his printer he should get it in working condition, I only would take that unit for spares, if at all, and not spend much time on it otherwise because there might be more issues than the clogged printhead - the cleaning unit, the sponge there is dried up and may have to be replaced - you may have ink dried up in the tube from the pump to the waste ink reservoir and some more of that, and if the printer was standing there without all cartridges inserted it's over anyway.

 

[The Hat]

Would it make a difference if the price is euro 100? Will it still be a negative buying advice?

@MP640, you’ve had several replies giving you good reasons to or not too buy the printer, but look at it from the sellers’ point of view.

He has this piece of junk just sitting there in his way and he wants it gone at no further cost to himself, because he’s not even prepared to spend another penny on it, but you are willing to go there and remove it for him and pay €100 for the privilege.

Once you bring the printer back home, all the costs will now fall solely upon you, so what I’d suggest is, put a proposal to him, like if you can get the printer to work again you’ll give him what remains of the original €100 asking price, that’s fair..

 

[MP640]

Thanks again for all the advice.

Got the price down to 50, but decided to let this one go. Don't want to take the risk to buy a new Epson cartridge set and than find out that the printer is clogged. Seller did not want to share the risk.

I'll keep looking for another A3 photoprinter.

 

[The Hat]

MP640 Won, seller Nil..