I work remote. About once a month I have to print a shipping label or something for drop off. Having a printer in the house greatly increases turn about on that and important papers
A simple black/white laser printer for documents and more importantly, shipping labels. It would be annoying for anything that you're returning to have to print out the packing slip and label at the local shop. Then anything that you actually need color or quality printing, just send it out to get printed at the local shop.
It's also annoying to buy expensive ink, debug printer issues and have the printer take up space in your home. Guess it's a matter of what annoys you more
Brother, you just described why I bought a toner based printer. The ink is cheap AF, doesn't dry out, doesn't require frequent test pages, doesn't brick if I disable the ink subscription because I don't print that much, the drivers are all released GPL by the printer company, and it can just sit on a shelf I wasn't using anyway. I haven't looked at it in weeks and as an added bonus I dropped the print contrast to increase the longevity of the toner cartridge.
I said to buy a laser printer and you're complaining about ink. Tell me you don't understand what we're talking about without telling me. I last spent $60 on toner in 2019 and the printer still works great. 5 years of printing when I need it is worth the cost instead of driving to staples every time even though it's literally 2 min away.
Hm, looks like I equated laser printers with ink ones. I have no experience with laser printers, so they may actually be a lot better. Still, the upfront cost of printer plus accessories is not worth it for me when I print so rarely
i our household it definetely is. selling stuff on ebay or returning packages is most of what we use it for, and 200-300€ plus 10-20€ in ink bottles every year or so will eventually be cheaper too.
not saying you have to buy one for yourself, it's just worth the money for many people.