Lady E.
Not every Epson printer can be used for sublimation. I have done several hours of research on this before deciding what equipment to buy.
The dye-sub inks are only made for specific models. I own an older Epson Stylus EX (11x17) and was told that it could be used for sublimation, but the inks specific to this printer were problematic and expensive and not worth the bother. I also have an Epson R300 and was told there were no sublimation inks for it at all. I guess you could buy the empty ink cartridges and bulk inks and do some experimentation, but the ink is so darn expensive that I would not want to risk the $250+ on an experiment that would probably fail or give you bad results. You also need an ICC printing profile for the specific printer, based on whose dye-sub inks you buy. I do not recall seeing one for the R200 and R300 series. Without the profile you might get purple skies and red faces on your mugs....
I ended up buying a new Stylus C88+ (8.5x11) with a bulk ink system. The C88+ printer is only $79 at the local computer store and $73 on the web. The bulk ink system and initial inks were over $300, so the package itself to get started was around $425. Then add the mug press and transfer papers to that.
Initially, I am just doing mugs and limited T-Shirt transfers as well. I have just set up and will be experimenting over the coming weeks.
Zarg
how good or bad is the Epson R220? 
