[steplock]

They're expensive because they GIVE you the printer!

Pay me now -or - Pay me later. Old saying but still is true. I can get you a brand new 1200 dpi ink jet for $9.99 and $40/refill
OR
you can go the better way and buy a laser - big bucks up front - lowest cost/page overall

The last I checked (it's been a while) a laser printer would cost ~$.04/page whereas the color inkjet could run upwards of $0.30/page.

[HitmanLV]

I bought a used laserjet 4 on ebay - clunky and ratty, but works fine. An ink cartrigde lasts forever on my printer, over a year usually. I buy the carts cheap at about $35 on ebay. If it lives to 5000 pages, that's 1/2 a cent of ink per page. Not bad.

[MHT]

Any laser printer you recommend?

[hford02]

I was sucked into the save big with a laser printer myth. Laser toner cartidges are $120-150ea and it takes four of them, and color lasers eat drums($150) and oil rollers(60) voraciously. I figure that my $1500 Laser costs about 2.5x as much as my HP or Epson inkjet... We print consistently 750-800 pages of color a week so our expendables are very consistent. I recently bought a large Epson printer with huge refillable cartridges which will finally get my costs to the .05-.10/page range after 6 years of trying everything else.
The other alternative of a bulk ink system is great for a volume user.... just remember that those $150 printers do wear out (two HP's and and Epson in 3 years).