That $200 blueprint plotter at the pawn shop was a total scam

Picked up a used HP plotter marked as 'gently used' and it jammed on every single sheet after three days of fighting with it. Anyone else had better luck with refurbs from actual suppliers?

2 comments

2 Comments

danieltaylor1mo ago

Had a buddy who bought one of those pawn shop plotters last year for his home office. He was so excited about the deal until the thing started eating paper like it was a snack. He spent a whole weekend taking it apart and watching YouTube videos trying to fix it. Ended up having to buy a replacement roller assembly online for like 80 bucks and it still never worked right. Finally gave up and got a refurb from a place that actually tests them before shipping. Pawn shops just take whatever shows up no questions asked you know?

christopher_west11mo ago

My neighbor Jerry picked up a DesignJet 500 from a pawn shop for 150 bucks and it lasted exactly one week before the ink system clogged up so bad he had to toss it. The thing with pawn shops is they never run any test prints or even check the carriage movement, they just wipe it down and put a price tag on it. If you go with a refurb from a place that actually refurbs them properly they'll usually swap out the rollers, the service station, and run a full calibration before shipping. I've had good luck with HP itself for refurbs since they give you a warranty and you can actually call them if something goes wrong. Just make sure whatever you get comes with at least a 30 day return policy because these machines have a lot of moving parts that can fail.