Posts by Mark Perez4

wiredotter14 said:People who go with tank models get thousands of pages out of every refill, plus you can visually monitor the ink levels and top them off whenever needed. As for inkjet printers using standard cartridges, swapping those out is a breeze—just a quick click and you're set.

Lasers tend to be more reliable, though they can become quite an expensive hobby if you're looking for A3 scanning and printing capabilities, especially since the cost per page isn't necessarily lower than inkjet.

So, what's the actual damage when it comes to the ink costs?

A heavy-duty printer or a commercial-grade copier equipped with those large, refillable tanks is definitely going to come with a hefty price tag for everything else too. Plus, you have to deal with the much higher risk of mechanical failures or dried-up nozzles...

Wait, laser printing isn't cheaper than ink?? 🤔 🤔

To be honest, that’s news to me, but I guess we'll see...

I’m definitely not interested in an inkjet printer. When you’re cranking out 500 to 600 pages a month, you end up constantly swapping out ink cartridges or dealing with messy refills, and honestly, I just don't have the patience for that. There would also be those annoying times when I'm not even home and someone else has to deal with it—and I can't risk some clueless person making a complete mess trying to fix a cartridge. I’ve been around the block since the early days of computing, so while I’ve handled plenty of weird technical workarounds and DIY fixes over the years, I'd rather just avoid the headache entirely. For me, it's laser all the way.

wiredotter14 said:Also, do you actually need A3 printing and scanning capabilities, or just the printing part?

Thanks for getting back to me. Regarding the A3 requirement, I definitely need the ability to copy A3 directly onto A3—so that means both scanning and printing are essential. I also need to be able to upscale A4 documents to A3 size...

Since I have three students in the house—one in elementary school and two in college—we find ourselves constantly printing out lecture notes, study guides, and various assignments. It’s also quite handy to be able to bind everything up with some plastic comb binding once in a while, so I’m considering picking up a standard multifunction copier that can handle up to A3 size, along with a dedicated comb binder and hole punch.

Looking at our needs, I keep thinking about how much more we'll be doing through official government portals soon, which means a constant stream of documents to print. Between online lectures and digital handouts, the kids often prefer printing their study materials so they don't have to stare at a screen all day. Our volume isn't massive—maybe 400 to 500 pages a month, occasionally a bit more. A big factor for me, though, is where we live; we're pretty far out from the city, so we don't have easy access to a local print shop or FedEx Office. I really want to be self-sufficient.

Since I'm not running a business and can't just write off these expenses, I don't want to sink tens of thousands of dollars into this. I'm looking to stay within a budget of, say, roughly $300 to $400, and I'd love some advice or personal experiences regarding costs and reliability and overall quality.

I'm primarily looking at new machines, something like

https://www.amazon.com/example-printer-mb472dnw

https://www.staples.com/example-copier-price

I am also open to used equipment, perhaps something slightly higher-end. I'm not even dreaming about color printing right now... but does it make sense to buy a used photocopier? If so, what should I be looking for (besides the total page count and how soon the drum might need replacing)?

darkmaker94 said:The statutory default interest rate is sitting at 6.11% annually right now, but it’s dropping down to 5.89% starting July 1st.

That's why there are no limits on those "fees"—which is just a fancy way for them to mask interest rates. As long as you can dress up a shady practice in a more legitimate-sounding name, everything works out exactly as they planned...