Help! What printer would you suggest?

After several days of frustrations, I would appreciate your help.
I recently got a new consulting client, a mortgage broker. As part of the service, I offered to mail his leads.
I want to use a postcard with merged names and addresses.
Since my old inkjet printer is about done, I thought I'd grab a laser.
That's when my troubles began.
Printing on card stock, the laser rolls the paper through putting a curve in the paper that just doesn't want to come out. Then when I try to print the opposite side, it won't pick up the paper.
I have tried 2 different printers in the last 2 days and fought constant jams and other problems.
Since budget is a consideration, here is what I tried.
Samsung CLP 300 and HP Color Laser Jet 1600.
The Samsung was fast but created the worst curl.
The HP had trouble picking up the card stock even with the initial print before curl.
As I type this, I'm trying out a cheap Epson inkjet. Surprisingly, I think this will work for now.
But, I'd like to be able to expand my services to do more desktop publishing for my clients. Perhaps brochures, newsletters...
Even though this cheap inkjet may solve my immediate problem, I'm looking for a longer solution.
Thanks, as always.
Larry Foster

Larry,

I had the same problem a few years ago and ended up buying a postcard printer. A dedicated machine made just for that purpose worked really slick. There are a few of them out there.

Today I find that the easiest and cheapest way is to not print them at all. It makes no sense to print them yourself when the USPS is willing to do all the work for you....

http://www.usps.com/netpost/sendregu...egularbusiness

Jim

Hi, Larry,

I tried every machine available locally when my old Canon inkjet finally bit the dust after many years of hard use. Super machine would print on danged near anything. Customer service was excellent. A new Canon was not cost effective at that time.

My experience with HPs (several models) were a bad joke...constant jams no matter what and extremely difficult to unjam.

Epson worked okay but not good for high volume use as it has too many plastic critical parts.

Lexmarks were all over the place...some problematic and a couple really great ones. Lee uses a Lexmark X3350 and loves it. Lexmarks are not known for their longevity (by reputation but not our experience) but they're certainly consumer friendly price-wise for both machine and inks. If you go that route, do get the high capacity tanks as they last far longer than they claim and work great...for not much more than the standard tanks.

I finally got a Brother MFC and love it. No problems at all no matter what I try with it. Hardest problem with the machine was the setup with our phone system for the fax etc.

All the machines I tried were inkjets as the lasers are not good for asthmatics and, from recent reports, for anyone else either health-wise.

Hope this helps.

Sandi Bowman

Larry,

Here's a Great resource that reads Consumer reports and other magazines for me without the membership...

And of course, there are all kinds of business ideas & possibilities in Reviews and Summaries...

Good Quick reviews & summaries...
http://www.consumersearch.com/
http://www.consumersearch.com/www/computers/index.html

Phil

Thanks everyone for the great feedback.
James, the reason I can't use USPS.com is the client wants the postcard livestamped. Not sure why.
Sandy, is the Brother you're using an inkjet? I always liked my Brother MFC which was 2 printers back.
What I ended up getting was an Epson R260 Photo printer. But it's an ink hog.
Staples gives a 14 day trial, so I may get an opportunity to try a few more.
Phil, I'll be checking the resources you gave.
Thanks again.
Larry

The Brother MFC is a model 420CN inkjet. Office Depot runs catalog specials on the ink rather frequently so you could save some money by subscribing to their free catalog and updates. Staples also runs specials occasionally on the inks.

Sandi Bowman

Thanks Sandy.
I think my problem is specifically related to card stock because or rigidity.
I really enjoyed my Brother (as much as you can enjoy a printer).
I'll definitely check it out.
After posting, I did a little surfing and it seems that serious desktop publishers have several printers for differnt jobs.
I've had my eyes on a large format for some time because I've been kicking around a print weekly. Print on 11X17 stock and fold in half.
Larry

Larry,

The card needs to stay flat when printing. If it bends when heated, it will stay that way.

You're going to run into that bending with whatever printer you try unless you get a postcard printer that is specifically designed for just that purpose.

I bought a postcard printer around 7 years ago that worked really slick but I haven't seen them advertised anywhere for quite awhile.

But why even bother with doing them yourself when it's so cheap to order high quality cards online.

http://www.vistaprint.com/vp/ns/spla...9%3A06%3A25+PM

Jim

Hi, James.
One reason to do them in house was the turn around time. I got this list on Wednesday and if I didn't have so many printer problems, should have mailed Friday.
They will mail tomorrow.
I only got final approval for the copy on Thursday
I did a search for "post card printer" on Staples and came up empty.
What brand do you have?

Hey Larry,

I spend a LOT of time looking for a great color laser with great color and paper handling capabilities and picked up the Okidata c3200n at Staples for about $300 about a year ago. They don't make that model any longer, but you can get a rundown on everything they offer at http://www.okidata.com/mkt/html/nf/LED_color.html

It's a great printer with beautiful glossy prints and the quality is much better than the HP printers that were out at the time. I haven't done enough printing to have to change the cartridges yet, but I think the cost per page based on the MFG's numbers was about $0.20 a page. The funny (sad?) thing though is that it costs about as much for all new cartridges than it does to buy a new machine - but I found a source for toner on eBay and I'm going to refill these cartridges when I need to and see how their toner looks.

In regards to paper handling, I took some cardstock into Staples when I was shopping and tested it out on the different models on display to see which worked the best. Because the Oki's a single pass printer and paper can exit straight out the back it's excellent for post cards or anything you want to print with heavy stock.

Hope this helps, but feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them if I can.

Cheers,

Steve