Dealer DPM (17/F948) alone has sold more than €800,000 (£700,000) worth of used presses at the show.

"It's been manic; we bought four machines from a Heidelberg agent at Ipex on Wednesday and sold them on Friday," said DPM sales director Dean Beckett.

The dealer bought two Heidelberg Speedmasters, a CD-102 fiveand six-colour plus coater, as well as twoand five-colour SM-74s. It sold all four to printers in the Far East.

Rival firm Grafitec (17/E935) has also reported good sales, racking up more than £200,000 worth of sales so far. This includes a Heidelberg QB-200 binder sold to UK-based Vario Press for £22,000.

"Its been better than expected, with everything that's gone on in the market and the threat of a BA strike and ash cloud we expected it to be quiet but we've had customers from all over the world," said

Robert Hogg, Grafitec finance director. BBR Graphics (17/E953) has also seen an unexpected upturn in sales at Ipex. Its deals so far include selling a Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 two-colour press to a printer in Germany. The Yorkshire-based dealer also bought two KBA presses at the show.

"There seems to be a general shift in the market - everybody is looking forward to an upturn in business this year," said John Godwin, sales manager at BBR Graphics.

Although there have only been a handful of used digital press sales, the digital sector is also benefiting from the current economic climate.

"It's been a hard year for trade, but the used machinery side of things is definitely going to be the flagship part of our business. We are finding that business is better for us now than two years ago when our main focus was on new equipment," said Derek Wood, senior engineer at Digital Print Technology (17/F950).