Cheap EPSON 1400 A3 printer !!!

[kris_hm]

Hi,
Just found good deal and want to share it:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/epson-sty ... 2-pdt.html

[Paul]

Well done mate! Just shame iam skined right now

[Justin]

Excellent price, many thanks for sharing

[JSR]

That's certainly a fantastic price that will sway anyone who was thinking of going for a B1100.

Unfortunately, I have two 1400s here already (and a selection of others). I don't think I could justify another one, even at that price.

[DREAMGLASS]

The only downside of the 1400 over the 1100 model, is a higher initial investment in ink if you are planning to use it for sublimation work.

[bms]

The only downside of the 1400 over the 1100 model, is a higher initial investment in ink if you are planning to use it for sublimation work.

But you do get more ink, so yes you pay more but you get more and you get 6 colour print with the 1400 and only 4 colour print with the B1100. So for an extra £25 ex vat you get an extra 100ml of ink and 6 colour printing (this is the difference between the prices of the Artainium EasyFlow Systems only on the 1400 and B1100).

[DREAMGLASS]

Without deviating too much off topic, I really don't know where we end up with a situation where the ink costs considerably more than the printer itself. My personal opinion is that those excessive start up costs put a lot of people off sublimation as a print method.

It would be nice to think that if prices were a bit lower and you had a more buoyant sublimation industry, the suppliers of blanks could sell a lot more and bring their unit costs down. That's a much better solution than charging high prices for what in effect is a captive market.

[Kaz]

Dream

That's the joys of the monopoly on the market where inks are concerned

[DREAMGLASS]

If you take said ink charges for initial quantities and calculate the cost per gallon, it somehow makes the whole £6 a gallon petrol argument totally insignificant.

Joking aside though, it is not just the costs of the inks, but also the costs of the blanks that the manufacturers produce that means it hard for sublimation to compete with other print technologies out there. For example my subli tees printed up at £9.75 are now getting competition from dtg printed tees at the same price (albeit different designs) and they can print onto dark tees that cost two thirds of what my subli-t blanks cost.

[JSR]

But you do get more ink, so yes you pay more but you get more and you get 6 colour print with the 1400 and only 4 colour print with the B1100. So for an extra £25 ex vat you get an extra 100ml of ink and 6 colour printing (this is the difference between the prices of the Artainium EasyFlow Systems only on the 1400 and B1100).

Yes, and how ridiculous that situation is. The B1100 is a 4-ink system, and the R1400 is a 6-ink system. If ink is about £50/100ml then the B1100 CISS should be £100 cheaper than the R1400 system - not just £25!

The reason the two systems are so similarly prices is because Sawgrass insist on us buying 2x100ml of black ink for the B1100 just because it has two black channels. The two black channels are there to speed up printing - it's not because the printer uses twice as much black ink as any other. Surely 100ml is more than sufficient to feed both channels when starting out? But no, all they're interested in is selling the ink - not helping the industry.

They might as well not bother "supporting" the B1100 because, by making the CISS prices so similar, they've effectively killed any cost saving the B1100 offers to the first time start-up.