Posted by CentralNY on 10/27/12 6:38am
Msg #440691

Calling all accounting people or just good

calculators. Approximately how much does it cost to print 200 pages on a hp laser printer. Just a best guess. thanks

Reply by Kandy Britton on 10/27/12 6:49am
Msg #440695

i have a laser printer so one ream of paper legal bout 10 -12 dollars o has 500 sheets of paper, toner is usually 75.00 I get about 5 closings out of each toner the drum is about 100.00 dollars usually get about 7 closings out of it.

paper for one closing 6.50
drum 14.00
toner 15.00

so I would say approximatelye 35.00 to 40.00

Reply by CentralNY on 10/27/12 7:10am
Msg #440696

so $35 or $40 to print 200 pages??

that seems like a lot or is it the $6.50 figure?

Reply by Michelle/AL on 10/27/12 7:14am
Msg #440697

I agree w/CentralNY

If you go with the 6.50 you are only considering a fraction of your costs. It's a common mistake people make. This is why individuals who charge only $50 -$75 for edoc loans are losing money in the long run. Some thing volume will account for that loss but it doesn't, in my opinion.

Reply by CentralNY on 10/27/12 7:19am
Msg #440700

Re: I agree w/CentralNY

i am not good at that kind of figuring at all but if it is $40 a loan something is really wrong. i do not charge $50-75 for anything but was curious about the cost of printing for my $xxx jobs.

Reply by Michelle/AL on 10/27/12 8:06am
Msg #440703

Oops! I meant "Kandy"

It all depends on what you pay for your supplies but I still think your cost is more than $6.12 when all is said and done.

Reply by anotaryinva on 10/27/12 7:43am
Msg #440702

My consumables are much much less. Paper, I get incredible sales, letter size I'd say I average $7-10 a case, legal around $25 a case. Toner, about $26 for high yield, and my drum is still going despite the printer telling me to replace, I just keep resetting it.
When my router died last week I had to go to Staples, two loans printed for $20 (around 400 pages) w the ecpurchasing discount, even without that it was $42 or $21 per loan.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 10/27/12 8:11am
Msg #440704

"one ream of paper legal bout 10 -12 dollars o has 500 sheets of paper, toner is usually 75.00 I get about 5 closings out of each toner the drum is about 100.00 dollars usually get about 7 closings out of it."


Seriously, you need to look into bargain shopping. These prices are outrageous. You also can't count the drum in your calculations for the HP as it's replaced every time you change your toner. Off sale I pay about $5.50 per ream for legal paper (max) and and $35 for toner for my Brother. I used to pay about the same for my HP.

Reply by CentralNY on 10/27/12 8:18am
Msg #440705

i buy cheap stuff also. i am going to keep better track but anotaryinva, $20 sounds about right and sure better than $35 or $40. again, i am going to follow my printing closely. thanks all.

Reply by BrendaTx on 10/27/12 8:42am
Msg #440707

If you recharge your own toner cartridges

and buy paper in bulk, you can do it for less than $10.

Reply by MW/VA on 10/27/12 1:29pm
Msg #440770

Wow! What kind of printer are you using that only gets

5 signings from each toner cart. I have a Brother HL-5240, use 580X carts. that cost me about $22 each & last about a month. I only change drums about every 6 mos.
All that doesn't factor in time, etc., only operating costs.

Reply by MikeC/TX on 10/27/12 6:23pm
Msg #440833

I'm not following your math

Assuming each package is 150 pages x 2 (includes BO copy):

"i have a laser printer so one ream of paper legal bout 10 -12 dollars o has 500 sheets of paper, toner is usually 75.00 I get about 5 closings out of each toner the drum is about 100.00 dollars usually get about 7 closings out of it."

If you get 5 closings out of one toner cartridge, that's only 1500 pages per cartridge. 7 closings per drum is only 2100 pages per drum.

You either need a new printer or a better toner/drum supplier....

Reply by Debra Hamlin on 10/27/12 9:04am
Msg #440709

I have an HP Dual Tray Laser Printer. I get the large capacity refill at Cartridge World, by taking advantage of their monthly specials it runs me around $106 (and it is 2 1/2 times the size of the regular cartridge). I buy my paper by the case (legal from Costco, letter from WalMart). Legal runs me $5.50/ream and letter $2.39/ream. I get approx. 17 closings from a cartridge so my best estimate would be for 1/2 letter 1/2 legal and toner for 200 sheets would be $6.24 for toner and $1.10 for the legal, $0.48 for the letter for a total of $7.82 per closing. I think the other amount was exceedingly high.

Reply by Deborah Breedlove on 10/27/12 10:28am
Msg #440727

That seems really high

I have a dual tray HP LaserJet 4050. The large toner cartridges print 10,000 pages, or about 8,900 legal. I buy the cartridges online for about $60. I usually get letter paper from Sams for $26/case, and legal usually runs about $55. I figure it costs me between $4 and $5 to print a 130 page package, including the borrower's copy.
That doesn't include depreciation of the cost of the printer. Mine has over 200,000 pages on the meter, so far, and is still going strong after two rebuilds. Original cost was about $750, but it would cost less in today's prices. Each rebuild kit was about $100, so I have about $950 in it altogether. At 200,000 sheets, that amortizes to about .00475 per sheet. So add another 1.24 to the cost of printing a loan package.
Total cost about $6.25.
That doesn't include the electricity, though. At .1273 per kWh, that would be about.....um, never mind.

Reply by Clem/CA on 10/27/12 1:25pm
Msg #440768

My printers are Lexmark T640's but here you go

paper @ 25.00 a case
25.00 / 5000 sheets= .005 per sheet

I get 4 refills before the cart my wears out. carts are rated @ 21000 per page, but I get 18000 per fill
I buy refurbished carts for $56.00, They come full of toner
3 refills = $18.67 so $56.00 + 18.67 = $74.67 per cart life..
18000 x 4 = 72,000 pages per cart life $74.67 / 72,000= .001037 per page

.001037 (toner) + .005 (paper0 = .006037

.006037 x 200 pages = $1.21

This does not include wear and tear, electricity, cost of printer, or time involved.

Those big old numbers I read here are way off of my cost.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 10/27/12 4:12pm
Msg #440813

And a couple of other things to consider...

My hard costs for printing are more in line with Clem's. However, I think we're all looking at the wrong things when considering printing expense - unless you're paying the higher costs mentioned in earlier posts, then it's even worse.

I believe the biggest expense we have these days related to printing docs is opportunity costs and our time. Let's take the latter first. However fast your printer might be, you still have to be there to get it started, feed it paper, change the toner when needed, package it up, etc. (Other doc prep you have to do regardless of who prints.) Unless you have a staff - which involves all kinds of other issues, like confidentiality, etc.) you can't be doing a signing while that's getting done!

As for the former, i.e. opportunity costs, this becomes a big factor when docs are late or coming in close to the time of the appointment because it involves either running back to your office, or worse yet, getting them printed somewhere else and having to pay THEIR prices. It also greatly affects how many signings can be done and that's the biggest expense of all. (Undoubtedly, that's why so many have been looking into setting up some kind of mobile printing capability.)

And speaking of having a set of docs printed somewhere else, how do you think Staples or FedEx Office, etc. calculate out what to charge per page for their printing? I guarantee you their actual hard costs for paper and toner are waaaay less than any of us can get away with, but they make sure to factor in ALL their overhead and a certain amount of profit - which is why they are in business in the first place...

So yeah, we should know what our real out-of-pocket costs are (and they will vary greatly from person to person), but we also need to make sure to count the intangible costs and include a reasonable amount of profit - or why else would you be going through all these headaches?? Same concept applies to travel expenses.

This issue has definitely been on my mind the last few days, as I had to turn away a record number of potential signings.