Thoughts on purchasing sign shop w/ older Gerber equipment

[icebiscuit]

Hey,

I have an opportunity to purchase a sign shop's equipment that used Gerber printers, plotters and software.

I can buy all of this for $3000:
Gerber Edge, 1- GS 15, 1- GS15plus, 1- Allen 30" cutter MD 830, Graphics Advantage Omega software 2.1.0.21, Composer v 2.1.0.457, tower computer 1.8Ghz 224MB ram- AMD athlon processor w/ Windows XP Home, All kinds of vinyl and foils and appears to be in normal working order. I've know the gentleman for several years and he closed his shop in Aug of last year.

I am an older person with 20+ years in screen printing and have knowledge using Illustrator mostly on Apple Computers.

My questions are do you think it has a value to be workable as is or would I need to spend money on computer upgrades and software upgrades? What problems will I most likely run in to if doing that?

The gentleman I am purchasing from stated computer requires a special port for the printer and or cutter? So if I upgrade to newer computer any suggestions on that?

Any help you can offer would be much appreciated, I am looking to operate this as a part time business to supplement.

I appreciate in advance anything you can offer me.

IceBiscuit

 

[icebiscuit]

Pics

It all appears in very good usable condition.

 

[J Hill Designs]

yep great deal if the edge/gs15's work well...

might wanna upgrade computer and omega

 

[Gino]

Ask him to run it for you and listen if there are any odds sounds or clicking noises that shouldn't be there. Look at the quality of the prints for scratches and if all looks and sounds good, then.... sounds like a good deal

 

[rjssigns]

What Gino said. Thermal print heads are thousands.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Ask him to run it for you and listen if there are any odds sounds or clicking noises that shouldn't be there. Look at the quality of the prints for scratches and if all looks and sounds good, then.... sounds like a good deal

All edges make wierd sounds, a better test is to print a solid 12'x12" square of a dark colour and another square with a 0-100% fade

 

[Billct2]

Yes do a few test prints and cuts and if all is well TAKE IT! You can upgrade the programs.

 

[omgsideburns]

All edges make wierd sounds, a better test is to print a solid 12'x12" square of a dark colour and another square with a 0-100% fade

Exactly. Unless you run an edge daily it's hard to tell good from bad, and even then the noises it makes can surprise you. If it prints good that's what matters. Those Edge LE's are great.

 

[RobbyMac]

We still run our edge on a win 98 machine. It doesn't have to be blazing fast if it functions as a sort of 'rip' machine specifically for the edge & plotters...
Both the dongle and edge require parallel ports (Bi-Directional I believe?). The plotter likely a serial port. Something to watch for if you choose to upgrade the computer, or OS.

Unless something is wrong with the system, I would assume you can continue to run it as is, maybe having to put in another hard drive or something. Network the machine to send files to it and you're good to go.

3k sounds like a heck of a deal. we'd almost pay that to have a parts machine around... well ok, not really, but close...

 

[J Hill Designs]

omega 1.5 here on an xp machine - usb dongle, but parallel port to the edge

 

[icebiscuit]

Re: Computer

Will this work on Windows 98 Pro w/ SP3?

 

[nashvillesigns]

if you want to keep doing work is panels when printing, its not bad. the issue is The gerber edge DPI is only 150 max. Most other shops can get better quality printing for the same price tier. while it is a great deal, unless you have modern equipment, you will be a 1980's sign shop. what year is it now?

 

[Tony Teveris]

2.1 will execute fine on that setup. Composer should not be a separate item, its part of Graphics Advantage.

If you ever plan to upgrade the computer or software please pay attention to the requirements before purchasing anything, many people put the cart before the horse and then do nothing but complain.

 

[Fred Weiss]

if you want to keep doing work is panels when printing, its not bad. the issue is The gerber edge DPI is only 150 max. Most other shops can get better quality printing for the same price tier. while it is a great deal, unless you have modern equipment, you will be a 1980's sign shop. what year is it now?

Spoken like a man who has never owned nor operated a Gerber Edge so as to be aware of some of its unique and valuable capabilities. The original Classic and LE versions of the Edge print using a 300 x 300 print head. Later versions such as the Edge 2 and FX us a 300 x 600 DPI print head. As far as I know, there has never been a 150 DPI model.

Edge owners fill a void most inkjets can't touch such as spot color printing, white on clear, metallic colors with no fumes, color management headaches, dry time or lamination required.

This 1980's technology was originally introduced in 1994 and continues to command retail prices in my shop ranging from $15 to $35 a square foot. My 300 DPI Edge LE is far from obsolete and continues to earn its keep on a regular basis.

 

[icebiscuit]

What are the minimum and maximum system requirements for this Gerber software?

 

[Tony Teveris]

I would check out the Gerber WEB site for software requirements on the current software. 2.1 is no longer supported but as I said it will work well on Win 98.

 

[TyrantDesigner]

I would probably buy it for that much ... but then again I would also try to haggle down to 1.5k.

 

[mikefine]

In addition to the equipment, have you considered the required extra inventory: masking tape, vinyl, racks to hold the vinyl, cutting table, tape and cutting supplies, plotter blades etc? Also, the repairs and upgrades to the equipment -- parts, etc? Not to mention the learning curve on someone's old stuff. The 3K will probably at least double to 6K to get started. You will need to make, what? 12K (maybe more) in business to cover the initial investment. That's a lot of small signs to produce to cover an old equipment opportunity. I would think there would be a lot more interesting alternatives in this industry, for your money.

 

[kylebrk]

Spoken like a man who has never owned nor operated a Gerber Edge so as to be aware of some of its unique and valuable capabilities. The original Classic and LE versions of the Edge print using a 300 x 300 print head. Later versions such as the Edge 2 and FX us a 300 x 600 DPI print head. As far as I know, there has never been a 150 DPI model.

Edge owners fill a void most inkjets can't touch such as spot color printing, white on clear, metallic colors with no fumes, color management headaches, dry time or lamination required.

This 1980's technology was originally introduced in 1994 and continues to command retail prices in my shop ranging from $15 to $35 a square foot. My 300 DPI Edge LE is far from obsolete and continues to earn its keep on a regular basis.

I've never seen Fred shut someone down. LOL. Entertaining.

 

[icebiscuit]

All good responses that will give me food for thought, Good to know there are plenty of people willing to share their road traveled, Like I said only looking to use as a supplement to other income for me and my Wife, We both have heavy backgrounds in graphics and screen printing. I think with the 20 plus years of old customers he has and my customer contacts over the last 5 could build into something good. The business I am buying has all the necessary tools, supplies and equipment to at least work slowly into it, and if I started from scratch w/ no customers it would still take a number of years to get to this stage, old equipment or not. Thanks again all...I will keep an eye on this post over time for future thoughts.

 

[mike ham]

aquired same equipment approximately 2 months ago with 50 used foils misc vinyl etc.paid $3500 spent 500 dollars 3rolls of 651 oracal and a couple z nine foils, machine has paid for itself already! not bad 80s tecnology lol.