A sign of the times

[Jules Richardson]

Chuck Guzis wrote:
> The time came to replace the OPC drum in one of these--after pricing 
> the remanufactured ones and checking the deals on eBay, it turned out 
> not to be practical.  I found that I can get a factory refurb Brother 
> 5240 from Staples.com for $40 shipped.   When it runs out of toner, I 
> can just buy another one at that price (1200 DPI, 23 PPM and most 
> important--a parallel interface).

Well, 'not practical' covers a lot of bases. :-)

Does the old printer do what you need better than a new one (build quality, 
interfaces, print quality, reliability)? (although you hint at some answers to 
that above)

Does the potential to fault-fix on the older printer play a part?

How does the expected lifetime if given a new drum stack up against the cost 
of new printer(s) (which IME don't seem to be very serviceable or built to last)

How guilty do you feel about sending something which could be repaired off to 
landfill?

> But nobody collects printers, not even vintage ones.

There seems to be a healthy interest in keeping older printers going for 
active use, however.

At the very least, try freecycling it or something rather than outright 
scrapping it, I'd suggest.

cheers

Jules