I've bought two laser printers, both for about $50.
My 1997 laser just died this summer. That's 27 years of runtime. Even if it was $500, that's $18/year, with thousands of pages printed, and I think I replaced the toner once.
Glad you have a printer nearby. I do to, but it would take me an hour to print one page, because I'd have to copy it to a thumb drive, then go to the print shop (15 min, using fossil fuels to get there), then deal with printing and hope it prints right, then shuffle back home.
I mean, yea, that's a fabulous approach. Do that 50 times and I've paid for my printer.
That sounds 100% worth it. I would also pay $500 if I knew which could last so long. I'm talking the inkjet garbage that doesn't last and ink is more expensive than the machine.
The library is a mile from me too, that's a 30 minute round trip, or I have to drive and pay for parking
I bought a $60 inkjet 10+ years ago. Every 3-4 years I buy a multipack of aftermarket ink for $30. Every 18 months when the cartridge dries up half full in my printer I chuck it knowing the $5 of ink I just wasted saved me $400 in billable hours
I specifically bought this to print photos, ink is not ridiculously expensive like other models, is like $150 per liter, which is still high considering that's colored water, but not the usual $5000 per liter.
If I need to leave for an emergency trip at 5:00 in the morning, and I wouldn't print stuff out for immigration before then... I basically need to have a printer at home. To be always available
People are coming over for game night, I'll just print out a bunch of character sheets... I didn't have a printer I'd have to plan ahead.
Availability, provides optionality, provides convenience. Making life easier.
But, I'll concede, when I had available access to 24/7 printers I didn't buy my own. Only when I lost that access did I buy my own printer