Monday, April 11, 2011

Why I Stopped Selling Used Color Copiers...

This post is from one of my good pals in the industry! 

As a sales rep, it can be easy to get greedy and try to sell the item with the greatest amount of gross profit, especially if your paycheck is based on gross profit from copier sales. One of the more profitable areas in the copier business can be in the used copier market, but it can also be one of the most aggravating and least desireable areas to be involved with. We look at used copiers a bit differently than we did a few years back. Now a used color copier is not nearly as desireable to sell for me or the other copier dealers I work with. We work with people who sell copiers in Houston, copiers in Chicago, copiers in Boston, and we sell copiers in Denver! So, why have we lost that lovin feeling for used color copiers?
We have been getting tired of customers complaining that supply levels are too low, and then eating the cost to get them to an acceptable level. There are imaging units, fusers, toners, transfer kits, waste cartridges, etc... we see 10 to 15 consumable items on most color copiers, so by the time they are all "up to spec" we can be in the copier more than what a small new copier would have cost.

Color quality concerns. After 3 to 5 years, image quality can suffer. Who wants to explain why the color copier looks worse than their new $299 color HP Laserjet printer when they spent 8 times more to buy the copier.

The new units have come down a ton in cost. Now, the supplies are cheaper as are the units, so trying to make a used copier can be a real challenge when you see all of the incredible deals on color copiers and color laser printers in the market!

Techs are busy keeping older equipment running, so a lot of the used color copiers are more in the lemon catagory as many who like their current color copier are keeping it for an extra year or two.

It's just easier to convince a customer a new copier will last. Customers want to know the color copier they are buying today will last for years to come.

So, we have decided that because of the headaches involved in getting a used color copier ready to go, the costs being so close and the image quality not being as good on a used color copier, we prefer to sell new color copiers instead.
 
-=Good Selling=-

5 comments:

Copier Girl 1 said...

I can't say that I agree with that at all actually. I have been in this industry for a little over 2 years now with the same company and I have never had any problems selling our certified color machines. Depending on what company you are buying from it will make a huge difference I think. I work for IKON office solutions which is now a Ricoh company and when we sell used machines they are put through a certification process so when they do hit they field they have new fusers drums ect. In this economy companies want the benefits of having color within their business without having to spend a lot and certified machines are a great option for them. If the company you are buying from or for that matter selling for takes machines right off one customer floor and sells them to another without it going through any cleaning/remanufacturing process that is where the problems are going to arise.

Thanks
Copier Girl

Unknown said...

I agree with CopierGirl. We sell more used color than new color, at least so far this year. We have had great luck bringing in low meter color systems at a great price and can still get them to the customer at a great price. When I started in the industry over 6 years ago I would have agreed with you 100%, but the quality of color systems has increased so greatly over those years that we can't not sell used color now.

Anonymous said...

Spoken like a true newbie.
You have to love the enthusiasm
though. Love your insight Art.
Great site.

rory benson said...

i just ended up with 5 nice very young imigistics machines and am looking for a buyer. any interest from you copy sellers? in columbus ohio

rbenson@techrenew.com

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing this. I love color copies! This is why I am trying to find a place where they sell color copy machines in Cincinnati OH. Any requests?