Printer and laminator deals

If you are still deciding what you want for Christmas, or if you are in the market for a new printer, I have some suggestions for you.

I have been using an Espon Artisan 800 for just under three years now. Unfortunately, my beloved printer broke down earlier this week. After talking to tech support (Epson has very good tech support, btw) it was confirmed that there wasn't much to be done for it, and naturally as old as it is, it is out of warranty.

So I started shopping around. We had just bought a new box of ink, so a printer that used the same ink was the preference, plus I really loved several things about the Artisan. So the first place I checked was Epson's website, where I was delighted to find they currently have an Artisan 730 on sale for only $100!!! This looks to be essentially the same as my old printer, minus the fax, which we never used anyway (not having a land line to plug it into). I guess the white "arctic edition" must not have sold as well, or maybe it's just more festive for a winter sale.

Whatever the reason, that's a steal. If you want a nice printer-all-in-one, check it out. It comes with about $75 worth of ink, so you're really only paying about $25 for the hardware. Yes, the ink is expensive, which is the one thing I haven't liked about this printer, but I think it's worth it for the high quality (that's just me, though; you may feel differently).

Epson gives free shipping on orders over $125, so you may also want to throw some extra ink or photo paper into your cart. Photo paper from the same brand as your printer will almost always print best (although we have found Costco paper to print very well on it too). A note on buying ink for the Artisan: there are two different choices when you buy color ink: 99 (regular) or 98 (high capacity). We have found it to be worth while to buy the high capacity. I lasts much longer. (I don't know about you guys, but I do a lot of printing.) And make sure when buying extra ink that you buy both a box of black and the combo color pack. The combo pack does not come with black.

I also learned this morning from My Blessings Above that Amazon is having a sale on the Scotch Thermal Laminator today only. This is the same laminator I have, and I like it. It's about as cheap as you can get, but mine is still going strong after... (actually, I am not sure how many years we have had it). It requires laminating pouches of the same brand. I like to buy mine from Dick Blick. I have found that by buying them in bulk, even with shipping they are a much better deal there than from anywhere else.

I have found a laminator and a good printer to be homeschool essentials. This is a good chance to set yourself up for under $200.