We recently had our local state crime lab decommission their ABI 3130 sequencers, and the guy running the lab there is one of our alums. He reached out to us to see if we were interested in taking them over. I called tech support and of course they quoted me an arm and a leg to move and re-install them; they claim that the optics get knocked out of alignment if the instruments are not packaged properly for shipment (which would then cost an arm and a leg to repair). Does anyone have any insight into just how true that is, vs. how much Fisher is just trying to rip us off? We would be using these primarily as enhancements for undergraduate teaching and research, and if we can’t do this on the cheap we may give up entirely. We are a primarily undergraduate state university and don’t really have a lot of extra money sitting around to do this…
thanks,
mike