Modern manufacturing is mind-blowing

[Cameron Wood]

The printer quit working- no power, and was apparently not economically fixable. The identical replacement cost about $200.

All this stuff was designed, manufactured, assembled, packaged, shipped across the world and delivered for that price. Not pictured is the toner cartridge, it's holder, and a bunch of fasteners and tiny stuff.

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[George Yetka]

Disposable society. Id pay 1000 for a printer if it lasted 40 years. but wether you spend 100 or 500 they dont last very long. In that pile of parts are purposely placed weak links.

[Doug Garson]

Go to any big box retailer say Costco. Look around at the number of manufactured products from toothbrushes to TVs. Multiply that by the number of Costco around the world. Then imagine someone from a remote village in the Amazon (not the online retailer, the other one ), seeing it for the first time. That would also be mind blowing.

[Brian Runau]

I sold for Sealmaster, Chicago Rawhide, THK Linear Motion and others over the years. All had much lower cost competitors. I buy the highest quality I can afford. Many Manufacturers are playing the 'how do I drive out cost' game. All we can do now is support those higher quality products when we can afford to. Brian

[Edward Weber]

When I worked as a mechanic, I used CR seals as much as I could, they lasted longer than others IME

I'm of the mind of buying quality regardless of cost, within reason.
I would pay a premium if I knew was getting premium. The problem these days is that you can pay for something labeled & priced as premium and it's only slightly better than the everyday average priced variety. So often it's just not worth it, like Georges example.

[Earl McLain]

Go to any big box retailer say Costco. Look around at the number of manufactured products from toothbrushes to TVs. Multiply that by the number of Costco around the world. Then imagine someone from a remote village in the Amazon (not the online retailer, the other one ), seeing it for the first time. That would also be mind blowing.

About 25 years ago, a missionary who had spent the prior 25 years in rural parts of Africa. He had come back to the US about annually, but mostly for family & fund raising. He & his wife were staying with her parents and he was sent to a supermarket one morning for corn flakes & milk. Not having been in one here for 25 years or more, he was stunned just at the cereal aisle, and had a lot of trouble finding Kellog's Corn Flake amid the apparent chaos and sensory overload. Then he went to check out and had no idea of what the question was when the cashier sped through the word "paperorplastic", which we no longer hear. He painted a great picture of that scene.

To this day, when i walk down a cereal aisle i'm in awe of the array of different products. I don't eat cold cereal, but i make a trek down that aisle just to be reminded of the richness of our lives here!!

[Jason Roehl]

I’ve read that the unraveling of the USSR was due, in part, to Gorbachev visiting a U.S. grocery store.

[Brian Runau]

Disposable society. Id pay 1000 for a printer if it lasted 40 years. but wether you spend 100 or 500 they dont last very long. In that pile of parts are purposely placed weak links.

George, Home printers are throwaways. Have you looked at a more expensive office style printers? Not a floor model, a desk top larger footprint, but one with greater paper/ink capacity.. these seem to be better made for higher volume use. Brian

[Brian Elfert]

I bought a Xerox higher end office printer on clearance in hopes that it would last longer. The bigger issues if you want a laser printer that lasts decades would be drivers for newer operating systems and the availability of toner cartridges long term.

[Bill Howatt]

Disposable society. Id pay 1000 for a printer if it lasted 40 years. but wether you spend 100 or 500 they dont last very long. In that pile of parts are purposely placed weak links.

Given his description, I'd say the problem likely is not in the cheap looking plastic mechanical parts but in the fancy electronic circuit board.

[Brian Runau]

Given his description, I'd say the problem likely is not in the cheap looking plastic mechanical parts but in the fancy electronic circuit board.

Absolutely. Canon home printer crapped out after 2 years, I've done better with HP even though their ink is outrageous. The office printer at my last job lasted many years without service work. Just think their internals are higher quality, but you pay more for it. Brian

[Bill Dufour]

I chuckle at the adds on clist or facebook where someone is selling a junky horrible fright level tool. Clearly labelled "industrial". "professional" or "heavy duty" on the name tag and called such in the title. Like selling "heavy duty drill press"and it is a little china made table top drill press looking thing.
I also laugh at the heavy duty bumper guards, light protectors etc on jeep type vehicles made of plastic. I have even seen bumper mounted big clevis towing links obviously made of black plastic.
Bill D

[Brian Tymchak]

My guess is that the printer is sold at or below cost to establish a recurring stream of revenue from ink and toner, which is where the profits are really made. Much like razors and razor blades.

[Edward Weber]

My guess is that the printer is sold at or below cost to establish a recurring stream of revenue from ink and toner, which is where the profits are really made. Much like razors and razor blades.

The low price hooks the customer and then they're beholden to buy proprietary ink for the life of the product. This is a tried and true method of sales.

[Brian Elfert]

Way back in the 1990s I worked for CompUSA for a while. HP printers were basically sold at cost meaning CompUSA made no gross profit on the sale. I was told we sold HP printers because people expected us to have them. We also made money selling HP ink and toner.