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What happens to all the repossessed printing equipment?

Pat Whatley

Pat Whatley

New Member
I'm curious...I know of three digital printers locally that have been repossessed by the leasing companies and if there are three here there must be 10,000 across the country.

Where are they?

I know where to buy repossessed furniture, cars, homes, and just about anything else but I don't think I've ever seen a repossessed sign printer sale.

(not that it really matters, I'll buy new if I ever buy a printer, I'm just curious)
 
astro8

astro8

New Member
We get them over here, sometimes complete signshops, printshops and big ones...
They go up for auction...get some great deals.
 
FatCat

FatCat

Premium Subscriber
There is a big outfit in West Virginia who deals a lot with repo sign equipment. I was thinking about buying a printer off them a while back. However, they have -NO- detailed info on any of the units other than if the printer powers on. Most of them I assume were pulled right out of shops without the proper shutdown procedure. I would also assume you might be dealing with bad heads, capping station, etc. From the prices I've seen them ask there was too much risk. Other repo outfits might be different.
 
astro8

astro8

New Member
From the ones I've seen they look as if they still have half printed graphics in them. On some of them the heads aren't even parked.
 
M

Molson

New Member
From what I have seen they get reposessed and put into cold storage. From there they turn into a dried up pile of junk that they want to sell for full running price.
 
Craig Sjoquist

Craig Sjoquist

New Member
yes wonders myself ... although no money or knowledge on printers, much less software hope to one day

been seeing sign shops selling equipment on Craigslist more & more some good deals some prime dollar, so it only stands to reason as more close up, seen 3 in the last few months within 5 miles full printing equipment etc. and expect several more, mostly the shops that have no idea what advertising is and don't care to learn closed or are close to closing, also seeing disparate measures like prices at break even point they are now dropping wraps to ...HALF at what they where a few months ago

wonders how much more this will hurt the rest of us or for those that hold strong how it will help in reality
 
Typestries

Typestries

New Member
From my extensive research, big machines like vuteks and gandis are put to bed properly before repo or lease turn in. Smaller machines like mimakis HP 9000's and mutohs are often not. Many times a lot of the stuff is also end of lease and the lessee decides not to take the 10% buyout option. Either way, the leasing co very rarely pays a tech to put the small machines up properly for storage as its not worth it.

I "bought" from a leasing liquidator based on pictures posted on the web. I wanted it for parts only. A DJ9000 for 3k (worth it for heads and capping station assy alone). Initial pics looked good. Funny thing was when I pressed the issue for more photos before I drove 10 hrs to get this thing, the add'l photos showed the machine was beat and no where near worth 3k. I didnt loose any money, but as the saying goes there's an ass for every seat and someone will eventually hit on it.

Buyer beware (squared) when buying this stuff. If you are into rebuilding a printer, and have the time and patience, it may be for you. If you expect to hit a home run and get a cheap machine ready to run, that's probably unlikely.
 
Vinylman

Vinylman

New Member
Earlier this year I was able to secure a FANTASTIC deal on an almost new MimakiJV33, A MimakiCG160fx cutter and a Royal Sovereign 1650H/HR.
Having access to good people deep inside leasing company's is the key to getting great deals. These contacts are nurtured and well kept secrets.

My contact saved me $20,000 on my purchase.
 
P

pointjockey

New Member
Ask the printer company who they use for leasing. Contact leasing Company Directly. They often use a 3rd Party to liquidate the equipment. You may can strike a better deal.
 
M

mondo

New Member
One question. Do printing company who had their printer repo'd has to pay for the remaining of the lease term? Why they didn't sell them before the lease term ended? Can you even do that? I know one guy who did that on his car.
 
J Hill Designs

J Hill Designs

New Member
I got a 64" full-solvent printer for $600 at an auction -- a little (read: a lot) of TLC (but no hardware changeouts) and I am now in the printing biz :thumb:
 
J

Just Another Sign Guy

New Member
there are deals to be had...but most of the time they are not deals if you can not do the repairs due to neglect yourself.

the majority of the equipment that i see is either repo OR unpopular equipment that ppl couldnt wait to get out of their shop and move onto something new.

i was present at a leasing companies leased warehouse where they had a mobile trash compactor for lack of a better word come and crush literally hundreds of printers that had been returned to them that they simply could not get rid of.

the other thing i have seen happen is that if it is a lease company that really has a presence in the sign industry and one of their clients that has a lease with them is having equipment problems and they have a like machine that has been returned to them, i have seen them swap them out (on rare occasion) but i have seen it happen.
 
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Mosh

Mosh

New Member
We have bought some equipment at aution. Keep your eye in the public notices in the paper. We have also bought two shops out before they filed, got stuff for pennies on the dollar. And yes one of them was a competitor.
 
I

imagep

New Member
We once purchased an entire offset shop for $10k (we were the only ones to show up to the Bankruptcy auction). I sold to pieces of the equipment at redicuosly low prices, but those two pieces of equpment put the $10k back in my checking account, so everything else, counters, bindery equipment, a $35,000 imagesetter, paper and ink inventory, etc, was profit. I still use most of that equipment to this day.

More recently, I bid about a thousand bucks per item on a bunch of offset printing equipment on a sealed bid auction, the only the we won was a $45,000 (new price) automated bagging machine. I rented a truck, drove to Atlanta, picked it up, and got it setup in my shop, all in one day. A few days later while I was bagging a shirt job an equpment broker came in and asked if we had anything we didn't use. I sold him the bagger (really dont bag to many shirt orders) for $4k on the spot. I figured that was a pretty easy $2k profit (after labor and moving expenses) for a days work. I am sure the equipment dealer could sell the thing for $10k+.

EDIT: Oh yea, I asked the equipment dealer if that was the best deal he had ever gotton, he said "no" and told me about getting a $20,000 offset press for $1, and about being given a very specialized coupon machine which he then sold for $70k.
 
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