Hey ActiveRainers!
Thanks to all of you who welcomed us to the ActiveRain party.
I wanted to ask the community to provide feedback on how much you print, and how much you spend on ink?
At Kodak, we’re committed to providing you a premium solution whether you want to print, scan and go paperless, or imaging with our video and digital cameras. And, our Real Estate group is committed to providing education to the community with these Sponsored Posts. So, I’m going to blend some practical tips and considerations for each subject I write about and hope you all find it fun and helpful.
It’s year-end and many of you are looking at investing into new tools for next year.
Today I’m going to talk about printers. In general, we know agents print a lot more than average consumers, but how much more? One of Kodak’s main value propositions in printing is a low cost ink system combined with durable prints. As we work to positively impact real estate professionals, it would be great to start with community feedback – so let me know your experience and tell us how much you spend on ink and how many times you refill on your printer per month! Thanks for sharing the data!
If you print a lot, Kodak can save you money. For example, our KODAK ESP OFFICE 6150 All-In-One Printer utilizes $9.99 black and $17.99 5-ink color cartridges. Do you want to find out what you could save switching to Kodak? Check out our OVERPAYMENT CALCULATOR, enter your printer model or the printer you’re considering buying, and find out what you could save! In a market like this, you should be evaluating each and every cost and saving every penny!
Honestly, before I worked for Kodak, I never thought about how much I spent on ink. Whenever I purchased a printer, I looked for features and price. While those qualities are certainly important, the ink is where I spent the majority of my money, and that was a lot of $$$ over the years. But there are other important factors, and I thought I’d list some of the considerations we think are important when looking to
purchase your next All-in-One Printer.
What would I consider if I were buying an All-in-One Printer:
1. Cost of Ink – How much do the cartridges cost and what is their estimated yield (amount of prints the cartridge can produce)? That’s number one for me because it factors into my true cost of ownership. I had one agent tell me at a tradeshow that he spent more money on his inkjet printer refilling it in a month than his daughter’s Toyota Prius for gas!
2. Cost Per Page (CPP) – Behind cost of ink, the CPP is probably the most important long-term number. This is particularly important when considering black cartridge output.
3. Print Durability – Will the print (especially if you make photos, brochures, or documents for wet signature) last under harsh conditions such as sunlight, moisture and time? This is an important consideration with real estate agents when placing brochures in boxes or storing contracts over time. Kodak does have an advantage here with our pigment-based inks, which are water and
fade resistant.
4. ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) - In a business-class printer, you don’t want to skimp on this feature, pay the extra money and eschew units that don’t have an ADF. Get a robust document feeder that can handle multiple pages for fax, copy, and scan. 20 or 30 pages capacity is a good target. However, If you frequently scan larger documents, I’d recommend you also consider a compact, high-speed scanner. (Check out our KODAK SCANMATE i1120 Scanner as a starting point.)
5. Wireless and Smartphone Connectivity - I think it’s really important for a printer to have both wireless and hard Ethernet connection. This gives you maximum connectivity and the ability to place your printer in your network with the most flexibility. Wireless is so convenient and allows you freedom from your desk, especially for those of you with an iPhone, iPad and Blackberry. WIth Kodak, you can print photos directly from those devices, and you can print documents directly from the Blackberry too! Agents are doing so much with their smartphones these days, having the ability to quickly print a photo or document when you walk in the door is a big timesaver.
5. Robustness of the Print Mechanism – Most inkjet printers will last about 3 years maximum according to most industry studies. Reality is under use that number goes down. Brand and quality are crucial to your decision-making process.
6. Tray Capacity - This is important so that you don’t have to keep refilling the printer. It can get annoying to replace paper, so try to find a printer with at least 200 page tray capacity.
7. Ease of Setup – Printer manufacturers have gone to great lengths to automate setup. Make sure you ask questions about how easy that process is.
8. Speed – Yes, it’s important, but I would consider reliability, ink cost, and CPP over this one so for me personally it’s the last on my list. This may be different for you though. I’d look at the black output as your starting speed marker, because color can vary on the quality and coverage (how much color ink) is going on the page.
How would you rank these factors for yourself? Deciding which ones are the most important for you will generally inform which printer you should buy.
Do you already have a Kodak All-in-One Printer and have you been saving money? Tell us about it!
We're offering our ESP OFFICE 6150 All-In-One Printer for $129.99 with free shipping through the end of the year! Get this and 20% off most Kodak products and accessories through our U.S. site www.kodak.com/go/redeal
(By the way...shipping is FREE on any order over $100) Please feel free to share this offer with your friends and associates!
Comments(24)