BTW, I’ve had my Brother laser MFP for 11 years and still on the original toner.
The last printer I got cost 40€. Print shops charge 10ct per copy. That’s 400 prints just to amortize the cheapest garbage printer you could buy 10 years ago. And the ink doesn’t last 400 prints. Owning a printer just doesn’t make sense.
Paid 55€ for my old used laser printer a few years ago and some toner for 20€, both will last me well over 700 pages, not to mention the time saved by not having to go to a print shop and I can print whenever I want, even on sunday (Germans know what I mean).
If I need to print something in color I could do it at work or at my fathers place, but that didnt even happen yet.
You pay for the convenience.
I don’t often need to print something, but when I do, it’s usually outside of the opening hours of a print shop and I’m in a hurry.
(95% of my printing are fantasy RPG floor plans that I’ve downloaded literally 5 minutes before the players show up.)
Toner in laser printers is powder. Can’t dry out what’s already dry. If you get a brother laser printer, it will last forever.
It is hard to clean all the dust off your printer for the once every 3 years you might need it though without also blowing the toner everywhere.