How much would a 3 month old printer cost?

Question

I bought an HP900 3 months ago and now realize I need an all-in-one printer instead. What would be a reasonable discount I can give my buyer? What would be a good cheap scanner/copier/printer in the market that uses cheap ink cartridges as well.

Answer 1

Used inkjet printers typically sell for $50 or less. I've usually been able to find reconditioned printers for that price, and used ones present concerns: is there something wrong with it? There's a lot to go wrong with inkjet printers.

If you do very little printing, you're still going to have to replace your cartridges every six months, because they dry out - but in that case, cartridge expense would be relatively minor. If you do a lot of printing, you're going to drain your carts before they dry out, but in that case, the cost per page is going to be far more significant. Some carts have a lot more ink in them.

The manufacturers of cheap ink carts don't worry about 3-in-1 carts, because they are such a minor market. They concentrate on getting shelf space for regular printers, because that's where the volume is.

My recommendation is to NOT replace your printer, but simply to buy a scanner instead. The Canon Eide-50 scanner I have sits on edge when it's not being used, so it takes almost no space at all. I'm not saying it's the best scanner out there; in fact, being a couple of years old, it's almost guaranteed to be behind the times. But you should be able to find a scanner for $50 or less that will do the same thing. If you want to send the scan as a fax, you simply press a different button than if you want to send it to a regular file on your hard drive. Your fax modem will store faxes on your hard drive, and you have your choice of viewing them on the screen or printing them out.

If ink carts are a big issue, you might want to consider getting a laser printer instead. A black-and-white laser printer costs about 2c a page to operate, a color laser printer costs about 6c, compared to the 10-12c it costs for most inkjets. Laser printers do especially well on photos, because the toner doesn't smear like ink does, and the paper underneath toner remains flat instead of swelling up. Laser printers are very quiet, and they don't shake the desk like an inkjet. They're faster than inkjets, and they almost never jam.

It costs a little more for a laser printer in the first place, because with a color laser, you get four high-capacity toner cartridges; it's like the manufacturer is offering a "you buy the toner, and the printer is free" deal.

You might want to hold off on your purchases. The best prices of the year are always on Black Friday, and both Staples and OfficeMax tend to have phenomenal deals on what you're looking for. Sign up on their websites, and they'll email you their advertising inserts before they are available to newspaper subscribers. That gives you plenty of extra time to use a search engine to investigate the merchandise's good and bad points before the store opens. (You WILL need to arrive early, especially at OfficeMax, because they run out of some things.)

Answer 2

Nothing. Printers are pretty much depreciated to zero when they go out the door.
Canon has a little cheaper ink cartidges because they get less than half as many pages out of one as an HP. Something like an HP 7300 type will cost a little more, but will cost a lot less in ink than a Canon or Epson.

Answer 3

i hear canon has the cheapest cartriges

my lexmark twin pk cartridges cost $57, so i brought a new lexmark printer with the 2 inks in it already for $49 from kmart, what a bargain, ill just buy a new printer everytime i run out of ink!!!!

ps, id sell the printer for half price, people dont want to pay alot these days for something thats been used

Answer 4

yes I do and that, too. I can remember things back to actually being three years old. I remember hanging my doll's laundry on a clothes line. My mom even took a picture. Amazing and the strange fact I still enjoy doing it only with my actual clothes as an adult.