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Buying a Second Hand Printer
Tips and traps
The first point is that it is very difficult to find a good, working, second hand ink printer. Users of ink printers, even the more expensive models, tend to run their printers until they break or are worn out. Remember that ink printers usually work by some sort of print head assembly sliding back and forth on a metal rail or bar.
Over time these parts wear eventually affecting the quality of the printed output. If you buy a printer in this condition you may well have a working printer - just not a very good one.
Use the ability to ask the seller questions about the machine you are thinking of buying. Most importantly you should ask if the printer is in current use and, if not, when it was last used.
Ink and Laser
A number of ink printers particularly those made by Brother, Canon and Epson, have built in print heads and the ink is the lubricant. If one of these has not been used for some time then there is a possibility that the ink has dried in the print head. If this has happened the printer will be unusable and very unlikely to be repairable.
Ink printers made by Hewlett Packard and Lexmark tend to use cartridges with the print head built in so that each time you change a cartridge you change the print head. The effect of the ink drying is not as bad with these machines as all you need to do is change the cartridge. However, in some cases new cartridges could cost you the best part of $200.
You can get good quality laser printers second hand but, again, you need to ask questions. Assuming that the printer is in good working order, and not displaying any error messages, you need to concentrate a little more on the toner cartridges.
There are two systems used by laser printer manufacturers. The first uses an all in one toner cartridge which contains the photo sensitive drum. The largest and best known user of this system is Hewlett Packard. The second system uses a toner cartridge which fits into a drum unit. Both items need changing but at different intervals. For example you may have a Brother printer with a 3,000 page toner cartridge and a 20,000 page drum.
With the first system you may have a toner cartridge costing anywhere between $150 and $500 depending on the printer. With the second system you may have a toner cartridge costing from $60 to $160 and a drum unit costing between $120 and $320.
Clearly the condition of the consumables is important.
If you can, get the seller of a laser printer to give you the details from the printer's configuration page. This will tell you how many pages the printer has printed and, in some cases will give you details of drum and cartridge life remaining.
Getting these details is particularly important for colour laser printers. Depending on the printer model a full set of consumables for a colour laser printer can cost over $1,000. Rather than spend this sort of money on consumables some people will try to sell an older machine and buy a newer model for less than the cost of the consumables they need. Bearing in mind that you can get a very good colour laser printer for under $800 this strategy is understandable. However, you don't want to be the one stuck with the bill that the seller is trying to avoid.
This brings up a most important point. Before you look at second hand printers make you know what you would pay for a new printer with the features that you want. You may be surprised at how affordable quite sophisticated printers and multifunction devices are.
Finally, if you do decide to buy a second hand printer allow some money in your budget for a professional technician to look at it for you. If you pay for the printer to be cleaned and serviced before you use it the technician will be able to give you a report on its condition and on any hidden maintenance issues that may not be readily apparent
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