this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Quite honestly, back in the 90s I thought it was essential to have a printer. Back then I used to buy a binder, and a bunch of those plastic paper holding sleeves. And I'd print out entire gamefaqs which were sometimes 300 pages.
Then ink started to get expensive. So I stopped. Then now these new printers have DRM. So I just never bought a printer since the 90s.
And I feel I'm not alone. I bet there are millions of people who would be printer customers if printer ink weren't the most artificially expensive substance on the planet.
If I could go out and buy a printer replacement ink pack for $5.00 and have it last a few months, I'd just buy them regularly. Instead I haven't paid one dime in close to 25 years. Gee, guess that financial decision paid off for them....
The solution is to just buy a cheap Brother mono laser printer.
for bonus points get a used one!
If you're extra lucky, it'll still be running on the original included demo toner cartridge.
I have a brother multifuction laser. From a thrift store. 6 years so far on a 3rd party XL toner...
I've spent more on paper than the printer+toner
Bonus bonus points: get a free new one!
You might want to look at laser printers. If you're just doing black and white documents, whatever the latest Brother printer is will do a good job, do it fast, and not screech at you about your cyan running out.
It's a few hundred bucks up front, but the toner cartridges print a ton of pages and don't dry out if you don't use them. I can't recommend it enough if you have even a passing desire to make hard copies of documents.
This. I have a brother color laser printer I bought years ago. Literally before COVID happened, so I've had it about 6 years. I replaced the black stock toner, haven't replaced any others yet. Thing still prints like a champ even though it'll randomly forget Wi-Fi settings.... Lol
I bought an HP* color laser before Covid too. It's starting to bitch about cyan, but holy hell I abused the shit out of it during my studies and it's still good as new.
*I know, but their enterprise grade stuff is actually decent.
The only downside is up replaces the entire toner and drum cartridge. I prefer brother since they're separate. Drum is now expensive, but I doubt I'll ever use it enough to need a new drum lol.
Agreed, I have a (pre-HP) Samsung laser printer and it works whenever I need it to. Sure, it only works via USB and only has one button and an on/off switch, but it works when needed.
That's ideal; the less connected it is, the less chance I'll have to shoot it
I went directly from a dot matrix (ImageWriter II ftw!) to a laser. Except for photo prints, I find it immensely practical to be able to print stuff at home.
Nowadays you have tank printers. They're more expensive upfront but the ink is much cheaper. It's even cheaper if you go for aftermarket ink. I have an Epson and it's great. Don't think I'll go with the cheap ink however, I just don't use it that much to justify the savings