Mar (03-04) - Scarcity? You're kidding?

March 22, 2004 Editorial

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So here's an interesting turn of events: dealing with scarcity.

Not since the late 90's dot com collapse and ensuing recession have we found ourselves in a market for which scarcity may be an opperative word. Most dealers who have not been around since the last recession and recovery in the early 90's may not remember the difficulty. Prices tend to stay low on given models until the supply dries up completely, then prices shoot up. This is particularly hard on the dealer community, and especially on those that carry inventory. I am reticent to raise prices until there are no more in the market-- I don't want to force my customer to go shopping and find someone with some old stock at the former prices. Seems that the costs go up faster than prices, until the bursting point is reached. That is, prices won't rise until gear is rare. That is starting to happen (believe it or not).

Over the past several years, corporate layoffs and bankruptcies caused a lot of equipment to come to market. With the flood, prices tumbled. Now that the economy is beginning to grow (although painfully slowly), gear is not so abundant. Clearly there is no cause for panic, but equipment stocks are quite low in many lines. Those of us in the inventory business have taken notice. Packages just aren't out there like they used to be. So here's the advice: If you will be needing gear, don't wait until the last minute. Tell your managment the simple rules of supply and demand. Getting a great price today does not help you two months from now when the prices may be higher. The higher prices are NOT good for the dealer community. The profit margin on gear in a rising market is usually thin, and no one likes an upredictable market.

As you can see, the uptick in activity continues:

End-users: If you are on our mailing list, look for our new mailers showing up soon. Our new marketing campaign will focus on the core values: Honesty, Quality, Competence, Consistency.

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Ok, so that having been said, here are the hots and the nots:

Sweet spots:
IBM 3151, 3472, 3482, 3486, 3487, 3488 terminals - and please check out the CLI et1500, et2000, et3000, and et5000 lines or the I/O TC4000. Also check out the BOS line
IBM 3900-0W1 Venerable printer can be upgraded to the 4000 series.
IBM 4224-201 - you can add internal ethernet to these and they last forever.
IBM 4230-201, 202, 5s3, 5i3 - (check out the internal ethernet for the 4230 family)
IBM 4332-001, -004 32ppm and 40ppm workhorse beats all comers for least cost per page
IBM 6262- all models
IBM 6400-010, -012, -015 Units sitting with most features.
IBM 4525 (1125n) -- less than 11 left
IBM 4247-A00 NEW in box at refurbished prices.
IBM 4247-001 NEW in box with coax and parallel.
IBM 4322-001 Finally some breathing room on the IP21's
IBM 3160-002 high volume laser printer
Lexmark 2480 - fast and durable desktop narrow carriage impact printer
Lexmark Optra T610n, T614, T616n, T620n,T632, T634 - We have some GREAT machines
Lexmark Optra S1255’s – sitting
Lexmark Optra S2455 -- sitting
Lexmark Optra 310 -- 8ppm desktop lasers. Cute!
Lexmark Optra W810 35ppm and 11x17 in one solid printer.
Lexmark Multifunction laser printers (T610sx, T614dx, W810s, X720, X632) and kits (OptraImage x242, x443, 725). They are really quite impressive but unworthy of the staggering list prices attached to them by HP, Lexmark, and IBM. Ours, of course, are very inexpensive. Long live the secondary market!!
Printek 4503 Great metal printer with multi-tractors for multiple forms Also have the cutters)
Tally T6050 135 pieces 500LPM with internal ethernet... A home run.
MarkNet N2000 Internal 10/100 Ethernet Fits: Optra T520, T522, T610, T612, T614, T616, T620, T622, M410, M412
MarkNet S Internal 10/100 Ethernet Fits: Optra S1250, S1255, S1620, S1625, S1650, S1855, S2450, S2455, Se3455, SC1275
HP C4224A HP 1100 Laser Printer -- Little desktop 8ppm laser
11k0681 250 sheet drawer
11k0688 500 sheet drawer
11k0722 duplexer
11k0724 mailbox
11k2224 Hard drive card and hard drive
11k2800 Finisher
12L0246 Finisher
28p1842 coax/twinax adapter
28p1983 250 sheet drawer
28p1984 500 sheet drawer
28p1991 stapler/finisher
44h0011 coax/twinax adapter
53p7946 duplexer
43h0382 500 sheet drawer
43h5101 500 sheet drawer

Tighter:
Lexmark Optra S1855’s – sitting (most with ethernet). These seem to be tightening. Careful.
Lexmark T612's -- go figure
Lexmark T520, T522
IBM 4317-001 – yes, we have Ethernets (There are still several hundred in the market, but the quality is not so great. That means that you must be patient to get good refurbed units.)
IBM 4320-001
IBM 1120, 1130, 1140, 1145 (45xx series)
IBM 4230 twinax
IBM 4224-1e3 twinax
IBM 3153-BGx terminals

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