Re: [gentoo-user] Picking out a printer. Questions.

[Dale]

Rich Freeman wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 3:43 PM Manuel McLure <manuel@××××××.org> wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 21, 2019 at 11:40 AM Dale <rdalek1967@×××××.com> wrote:
>>> On that note, I thought about going to some lawyers offices and Doctors
>>> and asking them to let me know when they upgrade their printers.
>>
>> A lot of those bigger printers/print centers are leased, so you might not have a lot of luck getting a used one.
> That, and large companies usually go through some kind of asset
> recovery service which will do auctions or sales.
>
> Note that you're not going to get some kind of "crazy deal" on stuff
> like this.  These are workhorses whose value is well-extracted by the
> time they're sold, and then they're sold for what is probably a very
> fair price.  If they are cheap, it is because they're not expected to
> last all that long or they're expected to not be worth the upkeep
> costs.
>
> Of course, as an individual your tolerance for fussing with hardware
> to get a good deal might be different.  A company that has to dispatch
> somebody to drive to an office to fix a printer when it jams will have
> a lower tolerance for this than somebody who is willing to get their
> hands dirty to do it themselves.  Just as back in the day companies
> would happily spend $150 on an LED light bulb simply to avoid the
> expense of sending a union custodian to climb a ladder to change one
> in an inconvenient fixture.
>
> I'd certainly look at your used options, but you can get a nice
> monochrome laser printer for under $200 which will last a very long
> time with a respectable per-page cost.  It is true that the cost per
> page goes down as you scale up all the way to printing presses the
> size of buildings, but you really need to weigh capital vs operational
> costs.  I'm obviously at the other extreme by paying Staples
> $0.10/page for monochrome, but with zero capital outlay.
>


I hadn't thought about them leasing tho.  When Manuel mentioned that, I
knew that was a deal breaker. 

That's the other thing, I don't want a printer that requires a dedicated
240 volt outlet, pulls power like a short circuit and is as big as a
stove, all to print a few thousand sheets the first few months and maybe
a few hundred a month after that initial surge.  I've seen some large
printers that can do almost everything but wash dishes.  They would be
more than I need really. 

I've dug around, none of the other printers I find are listed on
openprinting.  I'm likely going to get the Lexmark.  Maybe prices will
come down some on the cartridges or I can refill them myself a time or
two and it work well.  I've done that on mono cartridges in the past. 
Usually you can get one refill before the cartridge starts to have other
issues.  Sometimes twice if lucky.  Still, it has to be better than
those cheap crap inkjet things I keep throwing away.  :/

Thanks to all for the ideas and helping me to know I'm getting one that
*should* work pretty easy. 

Dale

:-)  :-)