SignosaurusRex
Active Member
Sold mine last year for a few hundred....."Commodore" just announced the other day that they are entering the market again!
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Who's got the oldest signmaking computer?
- Thread starter Dave Drane
- Start date
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Dave, I don't know if you know of a guy name of Peter D'Maagd. He was in the sign supply end of things in Australia and made a market in used Gerbers in Australia. We were fortunate enough, when we upgraded to Sprints, to have him buy our three Signmaker 4's for more than we paid for them ... because he was able to get an even greater price for them on Oz.
SignosaurusRex
Active Member
Leave it to you Fred!!!:ROFLMAO:
Dave Drane
New Member
No, I hadn't heard of him Fred, But I do know that us Aussies were ripped off something chronic. Esselte/ Letraset were the distributors of Gerber and they were in bed with 3m punched vinyl. We were brow beaten into taking "maintenance agreements" @ $1,000/year and if we used any other vinyl then it became null and void. A japanese vinyl "Fuji Film" came on the market at a much cheaper price and the quality was very good but they were taken to court over the punching system. They got around it by making an elongated slot where the 3 pins went.
Later it came to my attention thay a guy had a breakdown and they let him pay the agreement to get him up and running after I had been paying it for years without a breakdown. The MA's became redundant after that because I kicked up a stink. All said and done I do think Gerber made a very reliable product. There was one other supplier in Aus. from Belgium selling a "thing" called CSR (computerized Signmaking Robot) which I didn't mind because they kept breaking down and my competition would come to me in emergencies for quick lettering which I would sell at emergency prices!!
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
No, I hadn't heard of him Fred, But I do know that us Aussies were ripped off something chronic. Esselte/ Letraset were the distributors of Gerber and they were in bed with 3m punched vinyl. We were brow beaten into taking "maintenance agreements" @ $1,000/year and if we used any other vinyl then it became null and void. A japanese vinyl "Fuji Film" came on the market at a much cheaper price and the quality was very good but they were taken to court over the punching system. They got around it by making an elongated slot where the 3 pins went.
Later it came to my attention thay a guy had a breakdown and they let him pay the agreement to get him up and running after I had been paying it for years without a breakdown. The MA's became redundant after that because I kicked up a stink. All said and done I do think Gerber made a very reliable product. There was one other supplier in Aus. from Belgium selling a "thing" called CSR (computerized Signmaking Robot) which I didn't mind because they kept breaking down and my competition would come to me in emergencies for quick lettering which I would sell at emergency prices!!
Yes, I remember a report from D'Maagd when he was selling our Scrappy Friction Feed Adapters. He had sold one to the City of Melbourne and Letraset demanded that they remove it or Letraset would withhold all service to their Signmaker. While we were paying 75¢ a linear foot for punched Gerber/3M ScotchCal here in the States, you guys were paying around $3.00 a foot.
They played hardball in those days.