There was a time when color laser printers were prohibitively expensive.  As with ink jet printers, prices have been dropping on color laser printers in recent years.  Hubby and I have three color laser printers.  How on earth did this come to pass?  Hubby publishes a kerosene lantern newsletter, which requires a good quality color printer.  He has the color laser equivalent of the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4 (one of the most durable and popular laser printers — at least with the US government).  The things never died, and eventually, the only way HP could get people to buy a new printer was to quit manufacturing the print cartridges.  Third party or recycled cartridges didn’t work as well as HP originals, so people despaired and bought new printers.  Hubby is reaching that point with his beloved ColorLaserJet.  He recently had to switch to third party black cartridges.  The color cartridges aren’t far behind, but, even after a couple of scares, the printer keeps going.

Which brings me to how we came to possess three color laser jet printers.  Hubby’s old reliable was showing signs of possibly failing.  He found a nice all in one color laser jet for $799.  I think this was in 2006.  At the time, we were geographically separated, so I decided that at that price, I could replace my nice all in one inkjet, so I went to my local iteration of that office supply store and purchased a matching printer.  Then hubby’s original color laser jet continued to function, and hubby didn’t really like the way his new printer worked. I loved how mine worked.

We have two houses, so my printer went to our Central Texas house when I retired, and hubby’s two printers remained in San Antonio.  Last year, hubby moved his newsletter production to Central Texas and brought his old printer up there.  Once again, it seemed as if it got damaged in transit, but after a few days, it began working again.

Since he doesn’t like the “new” all in one for his newsletter, that leaves him in a bind when his aged printer finally decides to die.  I looked at the HP Printer page today to see what’s available.  Today’s color laser jets are lightweight and sleek.  I wonder how durable they are — how durable any printer is, because the manufacturers seem to want them to be disposable. But if you want a color laser printer, price shouldn’t be a limiting factor.  You can probably buy one for what you paid for your last inkjet if you bought a fairly good quality one — not if you bought the cheapest printer you could find.  On the HP site, they ranged from $299-$699.

If you’re in the market for a new printer, give color laser a look.  Several of those also had Air Print capability, which would allow your iPad or iPhone to print.  Alas, with three working laser printers, I can’t justify a new one yet.