Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer

I bought this printer when I got my first computer in May of 1984. It’s nearly the identical age as my son James. And, appropriately, I stored it in James’ closet for many years before he moved out. From my discussion with him last night that was a bit of a sore point with him over the years. He told me he frequently uses the story about the printer in his closet of an example of me being a packrat or something. I’m not sure why he would think it is evidence of that but whatever.

As I was unpacking in my new Clock Tower residence I came to the printer and decided it was time for it to go to the great recycling pile in the sky. But it was painful. It still looks to be in pretty good shape. Barb L. offered to try selling it for me which eased the pain some.

She has a bid of $50 for it! Amazing.

EpsonPrinter

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6 thoughts on “Epson MX-80 dot matrix printer

  1. Vintage computer hardware often does well. Well, because people like me want to relive our early experiences. About what I paid for similar functional printer of the era.

  2. I have a Panasonic 24-pin dot-matrix printer, still. Probably some ribbons around for it someplace, though they’re likely dried out now. And I still have a box of 80-column fanfold too! Some day, for fun, I ought to install a banner program, and see if I can still make some of those.

  3. I had one of those, and remember those ribbons. It was a workhorse. Kind of like the original ImageWriter was for the Mac, and the LaserWriter was later. You just couldn’t kill those things.

  4. There’s a mailing list, “classic computers”, for people who are into old stuff. I think I saw this exact model mentioned there just days ago. This is where you’d find people who understand (and sometimes repair) core memory, and PDP11 computers, and stuff like that. A 1980’s era printer is right up their alley.

  5. I still frequent plenty of places that have an odd interest in carbon invoice/reciept forms which require an impact printer of some sort and the daisy wheel printers didn’t seem to have caught on. In the last 3-5 years many seem to be converting to new PC based POS systems and laser printers but some will do anything to keep their old system going.

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