Buying a used plotter ... what should i ask/need to know before

[clarkracing]

Like the title says im looking at buying a used plotter. The plotter is a Copam 2500. The seller is located on the other side of the country and i want to ask the best and most useful questions before i purchase it. This will be my first plotter purchase too so I have limited knowledge but we all gotta start somewhere. Please help me out with some great questions I can ask. Thanks, Matt.

 

[Techman]

Passs on it. Personally, I have never heard of it.
IF you get it then there will be very few who can offer some guidance with it if it is a pain to operate. (which it will be)

Get a local machine with a common name brand.

 

[daveb]

Read the thread from NCR Grafitti, and then find out how willing he is to stand behind his equipment (her post really ticked me off). If not, go directly to a reputable dealer, new or used. The good people on this site can refer you to a few. You're investing a few thousand, don't get screwed.

 

[FatCat]

If you spend the time reading all the threads here that reply to this weekly question you'll hear over and over again Graphtec, Summa or Roland.

 

[tomence]

If you got $1400 that will get you a brand new with stand graphtec ce5000-60 which is 24" cutter. Since you are in Indy you can drive up to chicago and pick it up but i believe this place has free shipping. Also they include Flexi Starter software for a limited time.
http://www.signoutletstore.com/071021 check them out i got mine for $1400 without the software.

 

[jasonx]

Your profile says you have a graphtec?

 

[yahhoo]

I agree the graphtec CE quicker 57 inches per/sec...twice the speed of most....the roland pro series are as fast too but....in the past i always found roland cutters to be noisy and crude controls. look on the beacon graphics site...the graphtec 24" is cheaper and faster than the roland 24" and faster....so a good entry level machine.

 

[CES020]

I have a Copam 2500 sitting here with a cover on it. It was my first plotter. Prior to that, I'd never seen one, never used one, knew nothing about it. It paid for itself many times over in 3 months or so. I had some minor issues with it, but overall, it was a decent plotter. Biggest issue is it's not USB so you'll have to work that out. I bought several serial to USB converters and never could get any of them to work right. Finally just bought a serial card for my computer and ran it that way.

It was a test for us. We knew nothing about any of it, and we felt we were getting screwed by a local sign company that was cutting our vinyl for us, so we thought we didn't have much to lose. If it worked, we would be ahead, if it didn't, we weren't out too much.

Less than a year into it, we decided we needed to get a proper machine and bought a graphtec. I haven't used it since then.

If I had to do it all over again, I would just have bought the graphtec from day one.

It's not a bad machine.

 

[Craig Sjoquist]

Why buy a used plotter ?? to save money on solid name brand plotters, ...
>> but off brands really doesn't make much sense, since they are cheap anyway normally under a $1,000 or around ..brand NEW and only expected to last a few years good and will be outdated faster so life off a used off brand plotter is limited.

Just my 2 cents ...
I also bought a cheap plotter but new. it works and I'll replace it with a american made.

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA...................................

 

[neato]

Copams are supposed to be good plotters. I'm sure it would serve you well. However, I think you can get a brand new Copam for about $650. I wouldn't even consider buying a used one unless it was $300 or less.