Black Friday Sublimation Printer Deals 2026: What to Expect

Updated: September 22, 2026

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Black Friday sublimation printer deals are one of the biggest sale periods of the year for the machine you have been eyeing. The catch: most discounts you will see are on regular EcoTank printers, not on sublimation printers – and those are not the same purchase. Below: when the deals start, which models get marked down, and what to check first. If you already know which machine you want, my breakdown of the best Epson printers for sublimation compares every model side by side.

When Is Black Friday 2026, and When Do Printer Deals Start?

The best black friday sublimation printer deals are not on Black Friday itself. Black Friday 2026 lands on Friday, 27 November, the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday follows on 30 November. Printer pricing does not wait for the date, though. Retailers start dropping prices in the first week of November, and strong EcoTank offers can appear a week or two before the actual Friday rather than on it. I would not assume the 27th is automatically the low point.

Amazon also runs an autumn sale in October that regularly includes EcoTanks. If you see a price you are happy with then, nothing says the 27th will beat it – and stock on the popular models runs out.

Which Sublimation Printers Actually Go on Sale?

The pattern is about where, not whether. EcoTanks are mass-market printers sold through many major retailers, so they get used as doorbusters and frequently appear in Black Friday printer roundups. Dedicated sublimation printers are sold through specialist dealers, and that is where they get promoted instead. Machines like the Epson F570, the Brother SP-1 and toner-based systems show up in those dealers’ holiday sales rather than in the big-box roundups, often as bundles with ink and blanks and sometimes as a direct discount. Compare what is in the box and not just the number.

The models worth watching are the ones most crafters buy anyway: the ET-2800 at the budget end and the ET-15000 for wide format. Which of the lookalike models to take is the next section.

The Black Friday Trap: A Discounted EcoTank Is Not a Sublimation Printer

This is the part that costs beginners money every November. An EcoTank on sale is a regular inkjet printer. To sublimate with it you fill the empty tanks with sublimation ink instead of Epson ink. The printer still puts ink on paper afterwards, but sublimation ink is not made for everyday documents, and switching back to standard Epson ink means flushing the ink system. In practice you should treat a converted EcoTank as a dedicated sublimation printer. Thousands of people do it – but it costs extra, and it has a consequence Epson states plainly on its own product page: using non-genuine ink “could cause damage not covered under the printer’s limited warranty.”

A dedicated machine is the opposite trade. Epson describes the SureColor F170 as ready for “easy printing right out of the box,” with dye-sublimation software and a one-year exchange warranty. You pay more, but nothing about it is a project.

What you see on sale	What you actually get	Extra needed
Epson EcoTank ET-2800 / ET-2803	Regular inkjet, needs conversion	Sublimation ink, paper, warranty risk
Epson EcoTank ET-2850	Regular inkjet, needs conversion	Same as above
Epson EcoTank ET-15000	Regular wide-format inkjet, needs conversion	Same, plus larger paper
Epson SureColor F170 / Sawgrass SG500	Sublimation printer, ready to use	Paper only

My tip: if the deal is an EcoTank, budget for ink and paper in the same breath. The step-by-step is in my guide to converting an Epson printer.

Where to Find Black Friday Sublimation Printer Deals

Most black friday sublimation printer deals turn up in three places: Amazon, where stock is deep and returns are painless; Best Buy, which matches on the popular models; and Epson’s own store, which bundles ink – worth less than it sounds if you plan to convert anyway. For dedicated machines, specialist dealers are where the offers actually are.

Before You Click: Models That Look Different but Print the Same

This is where November money gets wasted. Epson sells several letter-size EcoTanks that look near-identical in a listing thumbnail, and the price gaps between them buy office hardware, not better transfers. The first three below all print the same 8.5 inch width; only the ET-15000 changes that.

Model	What the extra money buys	Better prints?
ET-2803	No meaningful difference for sublimation. Epson lists it with the same 522 ink bottles, the same stated page yields and the same flatbed scanner as the ET-2800. Retail bundle and warranty terms can vary, so buy whichever is cheaper on the day	No
ET-2850	Automatic two-sided printing, plus a different Epson ink system with different stated page yields. For sublimation you replace the ink anyway, so duplex is the part that actually reaches you. Not sold in every market	No
ET-4800	Document feeder, fax, ethernet	No
ET-15000	13×19 inch wide format through the rear feed – the one upgrade that changes what you can make	Bigger, yes

So if the ET-2803 is the one that is cheap this year, take it – it is the same machine. If an ET-4800 is discounted harder than an ET-2800, what you are paid to accept is a document feeder, fax and ethernet. The ET-2800 already has a flatbed scanner, and neither machine prints a better transfer than the other. The only jump worth paying up for is wide format.

Two more to watch. Epson’s newer letter-size EcoTanks, the ET-2980 (announced March 2025 as the start of Epson’s seventh generation) and the ET-2900, have a much shorter conversion track record than the ET-2800, so the community profiles and ink recommendations you will want are thinner. Epson does not support converting any of them. And the WorkForce Pro WF-3820 is a cartridge printer, not a tank printer. Converting it means running refillable cartridges with chips instead of pouring ink into an empty tank, and Epson says of this model that other brands of cartridges are “not compatible and, even if described as compatible, may not function properly.” That is one more part that can go wrong than on an EcoTank. Fine if you already own one, a fiddlier Black Friday buy if you do not.

Is It Worth Waiting for Black Friday?

If you are shopping for an EcoTank, yes – that is the line that moves, and November is usually one of the strongest sale periods for it. Epson and the large retailers do discount EcoTanks at other times of year too, so a good October price is not automatically worse. If you want a dedicated machine, waiting buys you less than people expect.

There is a second cost nobody mentions: the weeks you spend waiting are weeks you are not practising. If you are starting from zero, my beginner guide covers what to learn first. If you want to be selling by Christmas, buying early at a slightly worse price and having your settings dialled in beats buying on 27 November and fighting ghosting in your first week of orders.

What Not to Buy on Black Friday

An ordinary laser printer cannot be turned into a sublimation printer. There is no equivalent of the EcoTank conversion: you cannot fill a laser printer with sublimation ink, because it works with toner rather than liquid ink. What does exist are purpose-built toner-based systems such as the Uninet iColor 350, which uses specially formulated dye-sublimation toner rather than ordinary toner. That is a different product category from an office laser printer you find in a Black Friday roundup. Be equally careful with unbranded “sublimation printer bundles” from sellers you have never heard of. Support, ink compatibility and replacement parts are often unclear, and that is the part of a bundle you only find out about after the return window.

No Deal on Your Model? What to Buy Anyway

Deals are a bonus, not a strategy. If nothing drops on the machine you want, the ET-2800 remains one of the most established low-cost conversion options, and the F170 remains a straightforward dedicated choice for anyone who does not want a project. My breakdown of the cheapest sublimation printers covers what each really costs once ink and paper are in the basket; for bigger prints, the wide-format guide compares the 13×19 machines.

One last thing: the printer is only part of the budget. Paper, ink and a decent heat press can add substantially over time, and those go on sale in November too.

How I Judge These Deals

So you know what this page is built on: Epson’s own specifications for print width, ink system and warranty terms; what specialist retailers actually promoted in previous years; how well each model is documented for sublimation conversion; and which machines readers here look at most. I do not own these printers, and nothing on this page comes from hands-on testing. Where a claim comes from Epson, I link to the page it is on so you can check it yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions