The wife even encouraged me to get one. I was agog with excitement.

I haven't had color printing capability since I shitcanned my last inkjet when I got tired of shitty prints, clogged print heads and empty ink tanks.

Jumped on Amazon and started shopping. Looked at Brother printers first since I've had such a great experience with my Brother monochrome. Reviews were lukewarm and hey, I had permission so I upped the ante a little and looked at HP and Lexmark.

Found one I liked at a price that only made me cough a little (vs. full-on respiratory arrest) and was seriously contemplating pulling the trigger.

Then I looked at supplies. Specifically, toner cartridges. $200+. Each. Need three colors and monochrome. So...$450-ish for the printer and $800-ish for toner?

Yeaaahhh...uhhhhh...NOPE! Non-stop flight to Fuckthatville.

That's a whole lot of trips to Walmart with a thumb drive...

Don’t buy HP toners as they cost an arm and a leg.

I have a HP color printer and buy after market toners that are MUCH cheaper and print just as well.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Non-stop flight to Fuckthatville.

Stolen!!! LMAO!!!

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:I thought I wanted a color laser printer

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
The wife even encouraged me to get one. I was agog with excitement.

Dude, get out more. It's a machine that prints.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
That's a whole lot of trips to Walmart with a thumb drive...

I don’t know what your options are like and I don’t mean to suggest that you haven’t checked, but if you’re looking for printed photos, many drug stores have little kiosks as well. My Walgreens and Rite-Aid have them.

quote:

if you’re looking for printed photos, many drug stores have little kiosks as well. My Walgreens and Rite-Aid have them.

And there are even easier websites to upload, print photos from and have them delivered to your home in a couple of days.

Easy peasy.

What kind of printers are you looking at? I have an HP laser jet pro 200 (color all in one)......it was around $250 on sale. The OEM toners are around $79-99 each and last a very very long time. I've had the printer for a few years and it's been flawless.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
Non-stop flight to Fuckthatville.

Stolen!!! LMAO!!!

Cleared to Fuckthatville via vectors to first_waypoint then as filed, maintain FL 240, expect higher in ten.

^^^^^^
Makes you wonder what kind of approaches they have...

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
^^^^^^
Makes you wonder what kind of approaches they have...

They have the Get the fuck in here approach...…..of course!

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:
What kind of printers are you looking at? I have an HP laser jet pro 200 (color all in one)......it was around $250 on sale. The OEM toners are around $79-99 each and last a very very long time. I've had the printer for a few years and it's been flawless.

Hmmmmmmm. I'll have to look into that. Thanks.

I have a Brother 2 sided color laser printer.... cartridges cost around $90 each and how much they will print is way over rated,,,, I probably go through 2 of all of them a year.. but I use it in my one man business and I print just about every thing.... Just had to replace all the 'drums' that hold the cartridges... that was a meager $125 for all four....

The truth about printers is they always get you with replacement cartridges... that's how they make their money. I've been told that the other way is almost all printers have a maximum number of pages they will print and then they just die.... built into their software.

I bought a used (read old model) HP 4650DN at a local used computer surplus/recycler cheap a few years ago. Works great, and it is old enough that genuine HP supplies are easily bought on eBay relatively cheap. I don't print a lot, and this is a commercial grade printer with large capacity cartridges, so they last quite awhile.

I have one printer that cost $3200 to refill. The other two are around $1600 each.

I have one that drinks $200 in white ink alone a day.

I have an HP. It cost about 140 bucks, and Amazon sells cheap cartridges, maybe 30 bucks a pair. I use two a year.

Yeah, if you're printing photos, Wal Mart has a site you can load them to, print them, and have them mailed to your house (or anyone else) for about 20 cents a copy.

Yes, they are expensive. But IME, the toner cartridges last a LOT longer than ink. Plus no danger of them drying out.

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
^^^^^^
Makes you wonder what kind of approaches they have...

You can pretty well expect a 35 kt crosswind and heavy fog.

Look at what you’re printing, the expected volume of printing you’d get from a toner cartridge and do the math vs getting your printing done by someone else. We had a Brothers laser that did quite well and aftermarket toner lasted a long time. Once the wife no longer had to do as much printing it became cheaper to source it out.

Yeah, I once thought a colour laser printer would be the bee's knees, too. Had a top-of-the-line Xerox model at work that was just terrific. So I got my wife a more economical version from the same model line.

That was a HUGE mistake.

First clue was watching the lights dim oh so subtly when it printed. Yikes, what a power hog. Then came the first time we had to replace a colour cartridge. Hideously expensive. Then she misread or misunderstood something from the manual, bought and used the wrong paper for photo-quality printing. Fouled up the fuser and Lord knows what else, requiring expensive servicing. It never was quite right after that.

The next time it gave us serious enough trouble it was out the door with a huge sigh of relief.

Never. Again.

We've had a Brother model MFC-J615W inkjet printer in its place ever since. Ten years if a day. It's never given us a lick of trouble.