Why Are Copiers So Expensive?

“How much is a copy machine?” is a question that can have wildly different answers. Copiers may be the one piece of office equipment with the greatest fluctuation in quality. Computer and other electronics costs have a wide range but none that differs as much as a copier ‘s price.

You’re asking ‘how much is a copy machine?’ – Well, you can get a copy machine for as little as $30, or at prices that exceed $3,000.

To understand that, you’ve got to know what goes into a copier’s price.

How Much is a Copy Machine: Price of a Copier Explained

Quality of the Machine: Consumer vs. Commercial

Copier machines at the edge of the price range are the ones offered by big-box retailers like Best Buy. The less expensive a machine is typical, the more expensive its supplies are. Companies are selling the machine cheap to make their money back by selling supplies at a huge markup.

On the one hand, if you’re making just a few dozen copies a day, a less expensive copier might just fine-tune your needs. On the other hand, if you make several hundred copies a day, you ‘re going to want to look at copiers in a higher price range.

Low-end machines are cheaper to buy but they are costlier to run. In the long run the cost per page ends up being higher.

Commercial higher-end machines are more expensive up front but are more affordable to run over the long term. Commercial machines are also robust-designed for high volume so you won’t run into delays or regular maintenance.

Another factor that will affect how much is a copy machine is specialized parts. We’ll go into that next.

Cost of Specialized Parts

Just like a car, what you see in the showroom isn’t always what you’ve got to leave with. There is a large variety of parts that can transform a copier into a computer with output.

The heavy-duty automatic feeders are one of the most popular add-ons lately. More people scan than print, and having a heavy automatic feeder means that more pages can be queued for scanning at one time.

Simply because they can work with larger papers, computers that are designed for ledger-sized 1117 paper are in a completely different price range.

Other common add-ons affecting a copier ‘s price include staple finishers, saddle stitch finishers, fold and staple finishers etc. You can get add-ons to finish documents any way you like but they’re all going to add to the cost.

Price of a Copier: Conclusion

It is important to be aware of what goes into a copier ‘s price when shopping for a new machine.

If the price seems too good to be true, it means that in no time you can pay a lot for toner.

Commercial devices have a higher sticker price but because they are more economical to operate, they can save on running costs.