Roland VP 540 advice

[goinmxn]

I've lurked and learned here for a while and now need some advice. I've been working with a sp 300 for 3 years now and love it. It runs at least 4 hours, up to 12 hours a day. Signs are one part of my business, lately though it has grown by leeps and bounds. We do lots of banners, real estate signs (coroplast) have gotten into heat transfer shirts, vehicle lettering, small graphices for vehicles etc. We do about 85% cutting, and the rest print. I would like to do more printing! Anyway I have found a vp 540 for around 7500, but..... it is a bank repo and I would not get to test it or even see it other than pictures before I buy. Then I have to have it shipped more than 1000 miles! Is this too much of a risk? I know I can use the machine at this point, I could easily run both machines 3-4 days a week to allow me to better keep up with my work load. Any advice is greatly appreciated as I must decide by Tuesday am.

Thanks
Steve

 

[jasonx]

It's a fairly new machine. Does it come with the balance of any warranty? If something is majorly wrong with it, it will be the heads.

Not sure what the price is for the VPs over there second hand, but over here that machine would be snapped up instantly at that price even needing new heads and other parts.

 

[Tim Aucoin]

If it's a bank repo, then common sense tells me it will have been unplugged and stored for a while... not properly drained, etc... You'll likely need new heads, possibly lines and who knows what else if the ink has dried throughout. Find out the price of replacing some major parts vs. what a good used one in your own area is. It really boils down to buyer beware... you need to be in a position to put a fair bit more money into it if it needs major parts.

Just my opinion!

 

[gps-hi]

you could probably just trade up with roland for a decent price.