Repair Cafes are part of a new brand of anticonsumerism. The cafes and other efforts try to offer an alternative to mass-produced, disposable goods that have dominated the economy for the last half-century.
I’ve definitely bought a new printer before because it was cheaper than ink. More than once.
Nowadays I’ve got a Samsung B&W laser that gets most of what I need to print, and a brother MFP inkjet for the rest. I’m keeping my eyes out for a color mfp laser when I visit thrift shops…I’d gotten one before and it worked well for a while but it was an HP so it broke and became non-economical to repair (and really, I didn’t need/want a giant corporate LaserJet in my home office).
But I don’t even really print in color…very rare that is even needed. If it is, it’s probably stuff like kids birthday invites and I’m gonna be better off sending it to a print shop like Staples or Kinkos or just order it online, anyway.
In fact I’m fairly sure the heads on the inkjet are a solid glob now.
I found my pair* of Brother color laser MFPs on Craigslist, being listed by a small business that was getting rid of them. I think you’ll have a lot better luck finding them via some method like that than by checking thrift shops.
That said, they are pretty giant, being designed for small/medium office use. However, I’m not sure there even is such a thing as a “small” color laser, since they inherently have to contain four sets of rollers instead of just one.
(* if you find somebody selling more than one of the same model, definitely get two so you have one for spare parts.)
Man I know it.
I’ve definitely bought a new printer before because it was cheaper than ink. More than once.
Nowadays I’ve got a Samsung B&W laser that gets most of what I need to print, and a brother MFP inkjet for the rest. I’m keeping my eyes out for a color mfp laser when I visit thrift shops…I’d gotten one before and it worked well for a while but it was an HP so it broke and became non-economical to repair (and really, I didn’t need/want a giant corporate LaserJet in my home office).
But I don’t even really print in color…very rare that is even needed. If it is, it’s probably stuff like kids birthday invites and I’m gonna be better off sending it to a print shop like Staples or Kinkos or just order it online, anyway.
In fact I’m fairly sure the heads on the inkjet are a solid glob now.
I found my pair* of Brother color laser MFPs on Craigslist, being listed by a small business that was getting rid of them. I think you’ll have a lot better luck finding them via some method like that than by checking thrift shops.
That said, they are pretty giant, being designed for small/medium office use. However, I’m not sure there even is such a thing as a “small” color laser, since they inherently have to contain four sets of rollers instead of just one.
(* if you find somebody selling more than one of the same model, definitely get two so you have one for spare parts.)