ADV: The SATO printer.... A huge price drop... Now $625!

John Esak john at valar.com
Thu Sep 9 11:06:33 PDT 2010


Hello all,

A small development. Well, could be huge for me... HELP! 

The manager of the local eatery where I do just that, eat... said he would
buy the SATO printer for $600.  He has absolutely no idea what it's worth,
but he said if I would help him print out bar codes for something in the
basement of his place, he would buy it for $600.  He just knocked $200 off
my lowest price to be the way he is... Cheap... And thinks it will be a
bargain.  I told him he has no idea what he is asking for or why.  Then he
came up with the traditional question of the "lost"... "Oh, so you can't
really do it?"  


Well, no, I really can't. I mean he doesn't even know how he will use the
bar codes, he is just one of those uneducated who thinks it will make
something he does faster.  Because I was telling him how I was going to
supply whoever buys it with a quick tutorial on how to print bar codes with
the program we use call filePro.. I would do the same for him. I tried to
explain, that, no, I meant I would teach someone who is familiar with
filePro how to use filePro to print the bar codes they needed.... Again, the
dumb look and "What's filePro?"  and "Why can't I just use that, too?"   You
know, it's the sort of thing that programmers like us get all the time.
Someone wants to buy a car and thinks you can design one as easily as him
just going to a used car lot to pick from all the others already there.  :-)
I mean absolutely NO idea of WTF. :-)  :-(

Unbelievably, though, it does seem to offer me a fall back position.  I
wouldn't have to package and ship the thing safely and support that cost,
which will not be trivial.  I could use a typical Windows bar coding program
to print a sequential list of bar codes for him that would designate a
unique number on hundreds of bar codes. With the human readable number
underneath.  Then he could put these on all his "things" whatever they are,
and have someone type that number and its description into a two field
database...  They use Access on a 3 computer network.    Then, when he gets
a second and third and more of the "items" , they could have the Access
print another label with the same number ... But good God, what the hell
would he do it all for and how would it save him time.  He insists there is
a way.  I told him it would cost several hundreds of dollars above the cost
of the printer to do that for him, and besides, I'm retired and don't do
that kind of thing anymore.  He laughs and says he'll stop sending me all
the great porn email he sends me if I don't help him. (No, I don't really
enjoy his stupid emails, but he does send some interesting political humor
once in a while.  His idea of "porn" is bare breasted girls on a beach. :-)

Then he said he might consider paying me a little extra to do the "program"
for him. We left it that it was not a good idea for him...  Thank God....
But, I know if I don't sell it, he is going to bug me and bug me about it.
The very last thing in the world that I want to do is get involved in some
stupid project that is ill conceived and probably ill-implemented by me.
Besides, there is no way to write this thing and then cut myself off from
supporting it and everything else he does.  Not going to happen.

But, I did get the sense from him that $600 is a figure that sounds a lot
better for a mere printer, than $800. I think he may be right, and I
definitely want to move this thing off my stereo shelf where it is now. So,
even though I know it's worth far more... I will entertain (and accept) any
bid as low as say $625 (just to help me defray shipping a bit) and make it
impossible for me to have to ever get involved on this joy ride.  Of course
I would love to get the $800 minimum bid I had place before... And knew it
was well worth it when I did it....  If it will get it out of my hands and
to someone who is using filePro and just has to put regular English and
simple codes on an output format to get any label... I won't have to do as
much work or ever become someone this guy could call on for help.  He is a
very nice friend, but as a boss, he would be clueless and difficult.  I'll
take the drop of $175 to avoid that hell.  Plus, I'll have the thing out of
my tiny apartment.  

I know if I put this thing in my acclimatized storage space, it will sit
there for years just like the other stuff I have there now. All the stuff I
am in fact selling on eBay in bits and pieces as I get time.

Someone will be getting a fantastic deal in barcode printers...  At $625...
Or best offer until tomorrow at noon. Put up the first bid though, and I bet
you get it.  I'm thinking you could all send your bids to john at valar.com
directly.  I'll announce the highest bid tomorrow at 10am.  Then people
would have two hours to submit something higher if they wanted to.
Otherwise it will go to the highest bidder, which I'm guessing will be a
tiny increment over the opening bid I'm changing to $625... :-) I think to
make it a little more interesting, I'll remove the $5 increment requirement.
Just bid anything you want including pennies. My guess is $625.01 will take
it.





Who knows.  If you want a beautiful dnew printer sent to you free of
shipping cost, with a small roll of 4 x 4 labels ready to run, send in a bid
you think will take it.
Then check the list tomorrow morning at 10am Eastern.  I'll post the highest
bids then. Assuming I do get at least one bid!  We'll go from there. No bids
and I'll put it up on Ebay or Craigslist as originally planned.

John

P.S. - I mentioned NEW above. No it's not new, it'sprinted about 400
labels... But we've been through that. For all practical purposes it's new.
By the way, in case you care, Sata's technical support is among the best of
any company I'v dealt with across the board. They simply fix anything and
are never at a loss for an answer. Most important, you reach them within
five minutes of wait time.  Their manual is very good, but if you can't make
something work, they run you through it until it works. 

John Esak
Remember, send a bid directly to john at valar.com or call me at 717-889-4689.
$625 or higher.... Good luck.  To me, this would be like winning a $500
lottery ticket!


After re-reading this note, I'm betting I get a couple bids for $625.02.
:-)  Any ties will be listed... And there will be two hours to place one
higher bid.  



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