Get two colour laser printers for the price of one

I AM PROUD proud to recognise myself as a "cheap bastard". That's why I decided to start writing this monthly column, appropriately titled The Cheap Basket". But what really makes a person a "cheap bastard"?

I will stick to the book and recite the Jim Munroe Definition: "I go to extreme lengths to avoid extravagances other people term necessities, such as cars, and keep any recurring costs to a skin-n-bones minimum."

Of course, what is deemed an "extravagance" or not, often comes down to price.

He continues: "Most people are tricked into making bad investments. A car is a perfect example. People believe that a car will give them freedom, status, and free time, when all it practically does is give them about an hour of leisure -- an hour they lose when they have to pay that in wages for its upkeep. For those that see the connection between economic consumption and economic bondage, the cheap bastard is a freedom fighter." Okay, enough rhetoric, I guess you get my point already. That's why I will try every month to share great deals with you, cheap bastards out there. Or, if you feel insulted, replace the term with something more politically correct such as "cost-conscious buyers".

Be warned. Some of these offers might be only available in the US, and I apologise for my America-centred purchasing habits. That doesn't prevent buyers elsewhere, however, from taking advantage of the cheap dollar/strong Euro & Pound Sterling, and using some package forwarding company to get your own US mailing address. It has worked for me, so far.

As an appetiser, I will start by acknowledging that I, despite the current hype on stand alone DVD recorders, ended up purchasing the bulky-yet-exotic chinese Terrapin VCD recorder for $234 with free ground shipping. Why? I simply needed a replacement for my aging VHS, not a state-of-the-art high quality movie copier. The Terrapin's recording quality is quite good (VHS-looking MPEG-1), it uses regular 33-cents-per-disc CD-R (or CD-RW) media. Unless the industry agrees to pay me the price difference between 33-cent media and the near $3 dollars I'd have to pay for DVD-R disks, I'll stick to VCD for my non critical daily recordings, thanks very much.

The $499 Colour Laser Deal
A colour laser printer for half the price. Sounds good, doesn't it? Even if you are not a cheap bastard, and are ready to spend a thousand dollars on a printer: how about getting two colour lasers for the price of one? I found this by pure chance. I was trying to buy an inexpensive colour laser printer, for very light use in jobs that "need the laser quality appearance". I doubt I will end up printing more than 20 pages a month. This is probably a fixation on my part: I have been waiting for the day I can own my own colour laser, not for owning one per se but to claim independence from external print shops, that down here want to charge me over $2 per page for colour laser prints. I expect my first toner cartridges to last about a year, since I intend to continue using refilled inkjet for my daily prints.

Over the last few months, I noticed that the good printers, incidentally the ones with plenty of OEM and alternative toners available, are slightly over the thousand dollar mark. Some appear to be cheaper, like Okidata's $750 C5100n led printer, but if you dig a little you will soon find out that there are no OEM cartridges, no alternative toner, and no colour toner refills, so before you realise it, the manufacturer has grabbed you below the belt line and squeezed you to pay $150 dollars per colour cartridge. There are four carts in a colour laser. Believe me, you don't want that.

In the last two weeks, however, I noticed prices of one of my bookmarked printers of choice, the QMS/Minolta 2200 (on Amazon.com) starting to decline in price from a near-$1000 pre-Yuletide price to the current, rock-bottom $499. This is the same quality printer for which one local distributor wanted over $2,000 dollars not too long ago. I admit, in the local distributor's defence, that shipping an anvil like these heavy monsters across the globe does cost a bit.

Of course, the printers are new, parts for it are widely available, and you can even find inexpensive colour toner to do your own cartridge refills. Why the low price? Well, I suspect that now that QMS is promoting their new 2300 product line, Amazon.com wants to get rid of its excess 2200 inventory taking too much room in its warehouses. It's as simple as that. Like one user put it when he became aware of the price: "It's such a good deal that I might end up buying two 2200s, just to have one for spare parts, at the price I'd otherwise pay for a single printer". Find the printer here. Caveat emptor: if one of these printers falls on your feet or burns down your house: I didn't do it. I'm just telling you about good deals when I see them.

Own a VCD recorder or an entry colour laser? Did you like these tips? Hated them? Know a better deal? Are you a cheap bastard? Hate them? Let me know. µ