November 2017 – America's Top Toner Buyers

Why We’ll Still Be Using Printers 20 Years From Now

The concept of the paperless office has been thrown around for many years now.

Those who’ve been captivated by the applications of technology think that this is a real possibility.

As such, they’ve been calling death to the printer for some time now.

Are they misguided or do they have a valid point?

I’ll admit – so much has changed in the printing landscape.

The digital world has taken over a lot of the publishing industry.

Since publishing and print go hand in hand, this has also affected the printing industry to a degree.

To top it off, the ever expanding information age that is upon us is putting even more demands on traditional print.

We now have a need to distribute information more rapidly and more efficiently than ever before. The need for a safe way to store that information also has a big part to play.

With all that said, make no mistake, the printer isn’t on its way out as some people are predicting.

At least, not in the next 20 years.

As of where we stand today, the paperless world is still one of fantasy, and I’ll tell you why.

The printer will still be around for at least two decades for some key reasons:

1. Digital solutions are not as bulletproof as people make it out to be.

The digital world is the most robust way to store and distribute information, right?

Perhaps it is.

But there are other variables to consider.

Sure, technology has transformed the way we handle data. In a majority of cases, it’s been a positive change.

After all, printers are an application of that technology.

However, there are major problems with the argument that printers will become obsolete.

Consider the alternative of storing and using information in a purely digital form.

It does not prevent the gradual decay of that data as time goes on. Software applications change and file formats evolve.

This means that you can still lose some of your information in the process if a file format is no longer compatible with the current technology.

There are solutions.

An easy one might be to use cloud storage. Some printers even offer that capability. But it doesn’t come without a security risk of your information being stolen.

Hackers are rampant, and for organizations that print sensitive information, it’s a major concern.

Then there’s the cost factor. Cloud storage will cost you for every GB of information stored.

This brings me to my next point.

2. No replacement to paper matches its cost effectiveness and convenience.

I’ll go out on a whim and say that paper will always have utility in our world.

First of all, it’s way easier on the eyes. I’m not sure that technology will be able to mimic the perfect contrast of black ink on white paper.

That reading experience is still valuable to many consumers.

Put simply, no solution offers the exact benefits of a sheet of paper.

The immediacy, flexibility, convenience, and cost are just a few of the elements that can’t be replicated.

Software applications change, and file formats evolve.

This means that you can still lose some of your information in the process if a file format is no longer compatible with the current technology.

In some industries, the paperless concept may be more applicable than others. In a tech space, it’s not impossible to imagine that electronic devices are the norm.

But across the board, this is not yet a feasible option.

Perhaps when decent tablets and phones don’t cost hundreds of dollars, printers may make an exit.

For now, they’re still one of the most efficient vehicles for the transfer of information.

For an office printer, that can translate to upwards of 20,000 pages per month

3. The printer will simply evolve to meet the growing demands as it has always done.

The printer hasn’t always been as sophisticated as it is now.

The devices that sit on our office desks today are so much more compact, elegant, and offer way more application than they’ve ever had.

Some of these applications include:

Cloud storage. This is where you store your information on a cloud database. It allows to access and print your documents over the web from any location. This relatively new feature has the potential to replace the traditional printing infrastructure of entire organizations completely.
Multi-functionality. Printers now have a myriad of functions including photocopying, fax machines, and more. This eliminates the need for having several devices that take up space. Especially for organizations where office real estate can get costly, this is critical.
Higher duty cycles and faster printing speeds. It’s not uncommon for a quality printer to print 20 to 30 black and white pages per minute. For an office printer, that can translate to upwards of 20,000 pages a month.
Network and wireless connectivity. This way you can easily connect your printer to your computer without the hassle of using wires.
Economy options. Duplex printing and page scaling are just a few of the options that can help save on printing costs. If you’re familiar with the printing landscape, you know that ink can cost you more than the printer itself. Any option that helps to undercut these high prices is a saving grace for many people.

These are just a few of the capabilities that printers today provide.

Chances are, they will continue to be even more powerful and convenient for users. As long as there is demand, manufacturers will make sure of it.

A final word

We don’t know what the distant future holds for the printing landscape.

Technology will no doubt continue to put a strain on the use of paper.

In any event, the consensus is clear.

Paper is too important with to be completely replaced by digital solutions.

It’s convenience, cost, and user experience is unmatched.

We must also remember that the printer is also the offspring of technology. As such, it can just as easily evolve to meet the ever changing demands.

After all, that’s the mantra of the world that we live in:

Evolve or die.

It’s way more likely that printing technology will achieve more adaptive perfection rather than die off.

5 Ways Toner Optimizer Helps You Work Smarter

“Every silver lining’s got a touch of grey.” – Unknown

Thank Goodness! We can now use the Toner Optimizer to make our printing smart. Toners have come a long way. Copiers have since graduated from being an encumbering equipment that required high-level technical training to operate. Toners are no longer feared for their likelihood to cause health problems or even explode without warning.

Printing now happens at the push of a button. If the printers have any problems, they show us error codes to indicate the exact problem, and we’d just fix it.

There’s finally a silver lining! We can now print in a breeze — anyone, anytime, anywhere. Wow! Things are looking up.

Or are they?

OK, maybe indeed things are looking good, but there’s a touch of grey in this silver lining. If you have a business and use toner printer, then you may already be worried:

Your printer BLEEDS more toner than it needs and this is costing you money,

Printing resources are hard to account for,

You are contributing to the landfill and environmental problems that cartridges are causing (without any hope of reducing your carbon footprint),

Printer troubleshooting and printing issues waste a significant amount of time, energy, and money,

Your WAN is getting overloaded by your network of printers, and that’s causing a leak in your organization’s performance.

These concerns are genuine. The truth is that your resources are indeed leaking away, and your toners are encumbering the environment.

But there’s another silver lining!

You can STOP the leak, boost productivity, and reduce your carbon footprint. What’s more? You can do all that with just a software — a Toner Optimizer.

A while ago Xerox introduced the Toner Optimizer tool. The software helps you reduce your carbon footprint while keeping your print speed and quality at its highest; it cuts printing cost, improves toner efficiency, and improves business productivity.
Let’s examine five benefits you stand to gain from using a Toner Optimizer tool.

1. The Best Print Quality with the Least Amount of Toner

Image Credit: Pixabay

You want to reduce your printing costs; the Toner Optimizer tool does exactly that does for you. The software identifies multiple elements on a page, such as graphics, texts, colors shades, and images, using advanced algorithms. This optimizer then reduces — to the lowest level possible — the amount of toner that goes into that printing work, while enabling the highest print quality and in the shortest time possible.

The software can save you up to 35 percent of pixels on text and 18 percent of pixels on graphics.

In short, Toner Optimizer saves you money, elongates the lifespan of your toner, and improves your print quality. This point alone is a big deal. There’s, even more, benefits to using Toner Optimizer Software Read on.

2. Saves the Environment

Image Credit: Pixabay

Authority sources report that the volume of toners that go to landfills yearly would easily cover 100 standard-sized football fields. The figure is currently at 350 million toner cartridges and is growing every year by 12 percent. In less than ten years, we’d have thrown enough toner cartridges away to cover ALL the stadiums in North America

Apart from the toners themselves, other resources like aluminum, oil, and plastic go to waste. In fact, 33.6 million kilograms of aluminum, 3.5 billion liters of oil, and more than more than 126 million kg of plastic are consumed every year as a direct result of landfilling with toner cartridges.

What’s more? It takes 1,000 years for a toner cartridge disposed of off in a landfill to degrade. Without considering the carbon cost of producing the toner itself, the manufacturing process of one mono-toner cartridge (again, just the cartridge alone) releases 4.8 kilograms of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas we have today.

Toner Optimizer identifies and removes excess pixels from prints, without compromising on print quality. By reducing the volume of toners you consume, you have directly cut your carbon footprint and lowered the 12 percent growth rate in toners that go to landfills yearly. You have also lessened the waste that results from toner cartridge packaging and transportation.

3. Captures Useful Data

Your Toner Optimizer grants you the opportunity to oversee your printing infrastructure. You can see insights on all directly connected USB devices. Toner Optimizer makes it possible for you to identify and capture information about your printing infrastructures, such as paper and toner usage, number of connected users, the volume of printed pages, and all job tracking details.

Gathering data helps you make management decisions, cut costs and monitor waste. You’re in a better place because you know who’s using the most resources, whether the resource use is efficient, and what kind of printers to buy or replace.

4. Productive Printer Networking

Image Credit: Flickr

If you’re a large organization and have offices in multiple geographic locations, effective printer networking can be a hassle. Of course, a Toner Optimizer would be helpful if your company wants to manage it’s printing across the whole building — not across geographic locations.

Now, what’s to happen if your company decides to centralize its printing and have it managed over its wide area network (WAN)?

What would you do?

First thing would be to optimize the organization’s WAN.

Since you’ve decided to network all the printers over that WAN, your printer network would contribute a lot of traffic to your WAN. For this reason, you want to make your printing priority.

Applying the insights you gathered from your Toner Optimizer can help you manage, and even eliminate, wide area traffic from your printing. As an effect, optimizing your printing traffic supports your organization’s wide area network (WAN) to become efficient as a whole.

Having a centralized print management software dramatically reduces printer support issues. As an example, if you’re experiencing a slow network when you need to update a printer driver, the printer servers may be unreachable or even crash.

The problem described above can be hard to detect and deal with individually — a print management software would be ideal for the situation. Your Toner Optimizer furnishes helpful troubleshooting tools, centralizes control and manages individual printer queues, and helps maintain complex networking needs without hassle.

5. Integrates Well with Your Existing Workflow

The Toner Optimizer is highly responsive. With its self-configuration and self-discovery abilities, a Toner Optimizer tool blends effortlessly into any print environment. You can adjust them to fit your specific needs and configure them to work with a particular group of users.

Toner Optimizer software runs in the background. Other software-enabled tools that need to work can work simultaneously with the optimizer. The print management software won’t interrupt existing business process or workflows.

A good Toner Optimizer should be very flexible. It should fit into the company’s goals effortlessly — the organization should be better at acquiring, shrinking, growing, cutting, and evolving in any way it deems fit or needs, without struggle or stress from the software.

The goal of the optimizer tool is to help businesses across the globe simplify, secure, automate, integrate, and optimize their everyday tasks. It also helps them use their resources more efficiently and responsibly.

Image Credit: Preton

Conclusion

The silver lining in the environmental and financial burden foisted upon us by the toner cartridge industry is the Toner Optimizer tool. For now, we can’t place a finger on any “touch of grey” resulting from this software, and it probably doesn’t have one — yet.
For now, be assured that the Toner Optimizer lays most (if not all) of your worries to rest. If you haven’t started using the software already, it’s one to try. Remember that vendors may call it by other names like Pixel Optimizer, even Xerox calls their Xerox Assessment Tools or Print Awareness Tool.

What Are The Differences Between Standard and High Yield Toner?

It’s easy to get confused when buying toner, especially if you’re just starting out.

There are quite a few different terms to describe sometimes very similar things.

The terms that sound the most straightforward describe the yield of the toner, or how many pages that toner will print. Standard and high yield cartridges are exactly what they sound like, with the high yield printing a larger number of pages over the life of the toner.

Manufacturers look at what is known as page coverage as well, meaning how much of the page is actually being printed on – 5% appears to be pretty standard as an industry rating for pages printed. Beyond just counting pages and ink coverage, there are some pretty significant differences in the two yield types that not everyone thinks of when making a buying choice.

Environmental Concerns

With the increased number of pages printed by high yield cartridges, there are fewer overall cartridges needed. As manufacturing toner produces greenhouses gases and other pollution, this can reduce some of those emissions.

Using cartridges with higher yield also means that fewer cartridges are being shipped overall, reducing transportation emissions and fossil fuel use. Landfills are also being packed with dead toner, and each one takes several hundred years to decompose.

Overall Costs

It may sound a little silly to say that something costing more will actually save money over time, but high yield toner ends up printing pages at a much lower cost each than standard toner. Like some hybrid cars, the higher up-front costs are overcome by lower operating expenses, making the initial investment worth the premium.

Service and Maintenance

Many offices lease or rent their printers from a company that may also require service contracts. In some cases, this could include replacing the toner.

If you have a choice in what kind of toner is used, requesting high yield could save you money on maintenance and service charges. Even if you own your equipment, the time someone spends purchasing and replacing standard yield toner could be better spent somewhere else.

Lifespan Concerns

It may be tempting to run out and buy the highest yield cartridges you can find to save time and money, but these types of toner might not be best for everyone. Toner comes from the factory with both a warranty and an expiration date, which means that there is an actual possibility that the toner can go bad and cause quality issues.

If you aren’t able to print enough to use up the high yield toner before it expires, you may face lower print quality or even damage to your printer. Take a look at the number of pages a high yield cartridge will produce and determine your actual printing needs over the course of a year. If you aren’t getting anywhere near the high yield cartridges’ capacity, a standard yield toner may be best for you.

OEM and Generic

Most printer manufacturers offer both a high and standard yield version of toner for their printers. If you happen to own one of the few that don’t have an OEM high yield option for your printer, you may be attracted to generic choices that list your printer brand as being compatible. Believe it or not, there is probably a good reason that your printer manufacturer doesn’t offer a high yield version of toner for that printer, and it isn’t just because they want more of your money.

There may be a technical reason the printer can’t handle high yield, whether it be page feeding speed or a power supply issue, and using a generic toner cartridge in one of these machines can cause some real problems.

Outside of voiding the warranty, you may actually wear or damage the printing surfaces inside the printer by using a cartridge that isn’t designed to work with that machine. In these cases, it may be best to look at a different type of printer that can handle high yield cartridges.

There are plenty of situations where buying standard yield toner is the best choice for your needs, whether it be your actual printing usage or compatibility with the type of printer you have. It pays to do some research on your actual need and your existing equipment to determine how (or if) a high yield cartridge choice will benefit you.

If you own a printer that can’t handle high yield toner, don’t be tempted to try a workaround by buying generic or compatible toner.

Many printer manufacturers sell the machines at a loss, knowing that they will make up the difference on toner over the life of that printer, so the costs to switch to a machine that can handle high yield may not be as tough as it seems up front.

7 Common Toner Problems and How to Fix Them

Talking of common toner problems, Matthew Inman comes to mind — known for his satirical drawings. Inman is witty. He’s perfected the art of overdosing his readers with fits of laughter while delivering worthwhile messages.

So what’s a comic to do with toner problems?

Inman understands your pain with printers. He’s captured the story so nicely in his famous work titled “Why I believe printers are sent from hell to make us miserable.” OK, you probably don’t share his strong opinion on the subject, but you get the point. Printers, in this case, those that use toners, can cause grief if you don’t understand what’s going on.

Toners are laser printers’ alternative to inks in inkjet printers. If you use a laser printer, then you’re familiar with toners and fusers.

Let’s examine common toner problems you may have experienced or might face in future — with solutions to help you get past the mess.

Low Toner Error

Image credit: Flickr

Cause: You may have just replaced your toner only to find your computer giving you “low toner error.” Printer error messages are sometimes unreliable. Unless your toner cartridge is broken or damaged, resetting your printer is all you need to fix this glitch.

Cure: Use a hard reset. Hard resets are usually simple to follow. Find the particular printer model’s reset instructions on the manufacturer’s website. Some printers even come with video guides, and you can also call your manufacturer’s product support for help.

Blotchy, Streaked or Faded Printouts

Your printer works but produces blotchy, streaked or faded printouts. This problem is common. Have you used the correct paper, and verified that your printer’s components function well? Then check your toner.

Cause: If you seldom print documents, your toner might have settled and would need to be “awakened.”

Cure: Remove your toner and gently rock it from side to side — DON’T shake the toner. Make sure you don’t touch the toner roll as it may leave fingerprints.

Fuser Errors

The fuser is a part of laser printers that fuses the toner and paper together. The toner is useless without a functioning fuser.

Image credit: Dell

Just like other vital parts of the printer — the toner cartridge and the drum unit — the fuser would eventually need replacing. HP and Dell says that the fuser has a lifespan is 100,000 prints. Most consumers wouldn’t need to replace their fusers in a very long time. Albeit, regular printer problems, like paper jams, wears out the fuser faster.

Image credit: HP

Causes: Fuser errors indicates there’s a problem in your fuser driver circuit. Here are all the fuser errors you may experience and what they mean.

50.1 and 50.8: Low temperature in the fuser.
50.2: Fuser warm-up service error.

The 50.2 error is common with HP laser printers. The error happens if your printer’s thermistors (which reads the fuser temperature as it warms up) fails to give an accurate reading of the fuser temperature in the expected time frame.

The 50.2 error is indicative that a component of the engine control board or fuser is malfunctioning.

50.3 and 50.9: Fuser high-temperature error.

Fuser error 50.3 signals that your machine is overheating. Your fuser may overheat due to the type of paper you use. If you use thick paper for a prolonged printing session overheating is likely to occur. Your printer would have to heat its fuser to a higher temperature to bond the toner to the thick paper. If your printer’s fuser runs at a higher temperature for a prolonged period, it would overheat.

50.4: Faulty fuser

Change the fuser if this error occurs.

50.5: Fuser inconsistency (shows as 13.2 error in some cases)

This error signifies that the inserted fuser isn’t the correct fuser for that model of printer. In some cases, the error code would be 13.20 error.

50.6: Open fuser error

This error signifies that the Alternating Current (AC) needed to warm up the fuser isn’t completing its circuit. The incomplete circuit may be happening from inside the fuser or the current is breaking from the power supply.

50.7: Pressure release mechanism failure error

Much like the fuser warm-up service error, the pressure release mechanism failure results from inadequate power supply — having other power usurping devices in the same circuit as your printer may cause the machine to work improperly end up giving you a 50.7 error.

Cures: You can use some solutions to prevent fuser errors. Since most fuser errors are interconnected, it wouldn’t help much to give you individual solutions for each error type. Use the solutions here to minimize or eliminate fuser errors:

Improve power supply: An error may result if your printer runs on a power generating source that doesn’t meet its power requirement. Most fusers need as much as 350 Fahrenheit (i.e., 177 Celsius) to 425 Fahrenheit (i.e., 218 Celsius) of heat to work — that’s a lot of power consumed. When the power supply is less than required, the temperature control for your fuser won’t work, causing it to malfunction.

Improve your printer’s power supply by plugging the machine straight to the wall outlet. Do not connect any other heating device to the same circuit or outlet as your printer.
If you are experiencing a 50.6 fuser error, there’s very little you can do about it. Reseat the fusing unit to ensure it’s making proper contact with the connector.

Verify shipping: If you’ve just replaced your fuser, check if you were shipped the correct fuser for your printer and voltage standards. As an example, fusers for HP printers 4240, 4250,4350, and M4345 models look the same and even fit in the machines, but won’t heat up well resulting in a bad print quality and errors (usually a 50.2 fuser error).

If you’ve been shipped the wrong fuser then you can return it to get the appropriate one. It’s helpful to know the return policies of your seller before making a purchase.
This solution fits error code 13.20 or 50.5. Take the fuser out and check its barcode label for the part number and then verify if the part number on your model printer matches; this verified if you are with the correct fuser or not.

Unplug your machine for 20 to 30 minutes: Unplug and leave your printer for 20 to 30 minutes, and then turn it on again to see if the error is resolved. This solution comes handy when dealing with 50.2 and 50.3 errors.

Ventilation for the machine: Make sure your machine has adequate ventilation. Give three to four inches of space on all sides of your device to allow it cool. Ventilating your printer prevents fuser error 50.3.

Break large printing jobs into smaller tasks: Breaking large print volume into intervals gives your fuser time to cool off. Just like in the point above, breaking tasks to smaller bits prevents fuser error 50.3.

Reconnect the connectors: If you are technically inclined, then reconnect the connectors of your printer’s DC controller PCA and fuser control PCA (here’s a glossary of laser printer terms to help). Ask for professional help from sales support, or a local printer maintenance support.

Replace the fuser: Under certain conditions, the best line of action is to replace the fuser; these conditions are

If experiencing fuser errors 50.1 or 50.4.
You should also replace the fuser if you’ve tried all alternative solutions (as explained above) when experiencing a 50.2 fuser error.

Half-page Printouts

Your printer rolls out half-page of content and leaves half the page blank — a number of things could cause this. Yes, your toner may be responsible for the half-page print-out, but you want to run a few checks before concluding.

Cause: Half-page printouts could result from some errors. To find out what’s going on, follow these steps in ‘Cure’ below.

Cure: Diagnose for errors following these steps.

Unplug your printer,
Turn off your computer,
Restart both devices.
Run a page to test if the printer is back to normal

If this test page doesn’t come out well, you should notice some error lights on the printer. Search Google for what the error lights mean and take it from there.

Toner or drum unit problems would go with corresponding error messages. Usually, error messages would explain the problem, if not, a quick search online should lead you in the right direction.

Black and White Image with Color or Traces of Color

Image credit: YouTube

You may have noticed that having all your colors turned on in spite of printing black and white documents gives a richer look. Your document’s better look results from the better gradations and smoother color tone that’s only possible if all your colors are turned on. In contrast, using black ink alone — for a black and white image print out — produces poor prints.

Cause: If you find color traces or colors on your black and white images, then you have a color leak. Your toner may need replacing.

Cure: Remove the leaking ink and clean the printer, and then replace the bad ink or toner with a new one.

Gray Background or Print

Your printer’s photoreceptor or print density setting is usually responsible for gray text printouts — instead of black. If your laser printer has print density control, then it allows you to manipulate the tones of your printed ink. You can decrease or increase your print density for a lighter or darker hue.

Cause: If your printer’s print density isn’t the cause of your gray text, it’s the photoreceptor. Your photoreceptor wears out over time and reduces the charge it holds, consequently transferring less toner from the printer’s developer to your page.

Cure: Increase your print density setting to make your prints black again. However, over time your photoreceptor would need replacing. On the flip side, excess toner from a high print density setting would give a gray background. Find the best setting by slowly adjusting your print density setting.

Spots Spaced at Regular Intervals

Cause: You can determine the cause of spots on a printed page by observing the pattern of the spots. Toner deposits on the fuser would leave spots at regular, close intervals.

Image Credit: HowStuffWorks

Cure: Turn your printer off for a minimum of 15 minutes for the fuser to cool off. Make sure the fuser completely cools off to avoid getting burned. Check for toner deposits on the fuser cleaning pad, and if necessary, replace the cleaning pad. If the spots persist, seek professional help.

To Wrap Up

Inman says “Your printer will always stop working at 3 AM when you’re trying to print out a report that’s due the next morning,” and that’s probably right — if you don’t have this guide handy.

One more thing. If you have unused toners and want to sell, we pay the best market rates, and you don’t have to ever haul anything down to a store, the whole transaction happens online — just let us know.

How Millennials Can Beat Stereotypes in the Workplace

Being a millennial is stressful enough when graduation day rolls away and the workforce looms ahead. It’s scary, intimidating and the rest of the world has this preconception of you that can destroy you before you even send out the first job application.

Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone in this battle to prove yourself and your worth.

In fact, many millennials battle with the prospect of finding a great job after college and settling into ‘adulting’. This is mostly due to the stereotypes already in place at the workplace about millennials and their many shortcomings.

Let’s take a look at some of these stereotypes and little tips to beat them.

Entitled to Feel Entitled

Often times, millennials are viewed as the over-ambitious, ladder climbing generation, reluctant to put in the years of hard labor. To the older generations, that can cause conflict when the new guy (or gal) suddenly gets all the sweet promotions and company benefits. It causes a disconnect between staff members and the blame lands on the generational difference when it all boils down to some workers believing that millennials feed of entitlement. It’s harmful to a collaborative work environment and could hurt productivity.

The Fix – Ask an employee who has been there longer than yourself to look over a project for you or include them in your research process. It shows that you value their opinion and they get to see you in a new light as the person who is able to ask for help.

Technology is life

This is the generation of Twitter fingers, selfies and snaps so it’s natural for people to assume most millennials are just scrolling through social media to double tap their approval on high definition photos. Yet the internet is a hub of constantly changing information and building lasting connections. There is so much happening and changing in the world that it’s important to keep updated with business trends and services to ensure withstanding the competition.

Fix- Explain to your employer the importance of staying up to date on Twitter. Pitch ideas that can help the company grow a strong social media presence. Talk about how helpful technology can be to the company’s marketing strategy. The goal is to show that your use of technology is justified and useful to your organization.

Job-Hoppers

Post-graduation, the goal is to find a job that can make ends meet. It can seem like millennials walk away from more jobs or bounce in between but research shows that Baby Boomers bounced around jobs in their twenties just the same. In order to settle into a job, they would search around for higher salaries, career growth, and cultural fit. It’s almost unfair to millennials that they get penalized for finding their career path.

Fix – Explain to your employer the benefits you’re looking for. Be vocal about what you value in a company and what you are willing to offer for that value. If career development is important to you, this is the time to communicate it. If you’re looking for support with work and life balance, here’s where you explain your preference for flexibility. Don’t feel bad about being vocal about your goals. It can save you some job hopping stories and land you right where you want to be.

Laziness

Not only applying to the workplace, millennials are considered lazy in almost every aspect of life – including parenting and financing. Yet a study among American employees found that 59% of millennials said competition is their biggest motivator, compared to the 50% Baby Boomers. Perhaps laziness isn’t the issue but working smart and efficiently is.

Fix – Show your employees how thorough you are while you work. If you need to finish a project, get into the habit of doing so in a timely and professional manner. Exceed company sales trends and aim to go the extra measure to answer company problems. Regular displays of diligent work can help beat that one pesky preconception.

The most effective way to bet stereotypes is with consistency. Millennials are held back in the workplace, not because of their attitude but because of the company environment and the stereotypes within. Don’t shortchange yourself. Take a deep breath and go prove these guys wrong – you’ve got this.

Toner Connect proudly employees hardworking millennials. Everyone can use extra cash; sell us your unused toner at tonerconnect.net

Toner Connects to Cryptocurrency

Like many industries influenced by changes in technology, banking and finance have evolved greatly in recent years.

Most of our thoughts when it comes to banking have evolved or are completely different than they were a decade ago.

This rapid change can be attributed to the internet and advances in technology, which have made transfers of large sums of money very easy and incredibly fast.

Banking and finance have now entered the digital world, creating its own currency and economic models, complete with a trading platform and market.

Cryptocurrency is basically digital money which can be stored and exchanged completely online. Transactions are verified through a central ledger system, with users’ identities held privately and encrypted. These currencies have exploded in growth over the past 5 years, some to the tune of a 1,000% or more increase in value.

Some of the most popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are worth nearly $4,000USD each, which can make investing in them both difficult and intimidating.

What does this mean for you? Why are you reading about cryptocurrency on the Toner Connect blog?

There are a couple of key connections here:

1. Investing in cryptocurrencies can be very risky. Using funds that have been earned from selling toner means that any losses will not impact other parts of your business or budget.

2. There are times when people will want to store things like Bitcoin “offline”. This can be done by printing the currency and basically creating paper money. High-quality toner and paper are essential to making this work.

Whether you’re selling the unused toner you have lying around or buying resale toner, you will end up with savings that can be used elsewhere, either in the business or in other areas.

Businesses generally have a budget line specifically for things like printing-related expenses, which include the costs of staying stocked with quality toner.

Money saved in this area can be moved to other areas of the business, saved, or invested, which leads us to the cryptocurrency discussion.

When you end up with savings on a line item in the budget, even small, this can sometimes feel like free money.

While we all know that isn’t true, it can be put to use as free money without negatively impacting the rest of your budget.

Cryptocurrencies, like all other investment tools, can be very risky if you’re jumping in blindly.

There are some very well established “brands” in the space, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and (yes) Dogecoin, so there will be some research needed to find the one(s) that meet your needs.

Another avenue to research is index investing, which looks and behaves just like the index funds you can trade on the stock market or probably have in your 401K somewhere.

As with all investments, it would be dangerous to view these types of things as get rich quick schemes.

While cryptocurrencies have seen explosive growth, some doubling or more in a very short period of time, they can sometimes fall just as quickly.

In almost any other situation, that risk is enough to make most companies run for the hills, but with the investment funds coming from surplus budget dollars, in this case, the losses may not sting as much if they come.

Printing Paper Wallets

The other big way that the toner world collides with cryptocurrencies is in the creation of what is known as a paper wallet.

While these types of currency are nearly all based online, many people choose to print a paper certificate that they can store just like cash.

Security issues aside, storing something like Bitcoin on a piece of paper requires quality toner and super high-quality paper.

You’re basically minting your own paper currency by doing this, so printing something that will stand the test of time is important.

Since toner uses plastic that is melted onto the page using heat, it does not degrade as quickly over time as ink does.

Combined with heavy cotton paper, genuine toner will produce a paper wallet that is ready to hold up for a long time to come.

Even though cryptocurrencies have been around for a while now, they haven’t really become mainstream.

Given how hard it is even for banks to get all of their customers to use a mobile app or online banking, this isn’t surprising.

But what is shocking is the explosion of value that currencies like Bitcoin have shown recently.

It’s a hard thing to ignore, but investing in digital currencies comes with a healthy dose of risk.

Taking precautions with research and studying the market is the best approach, and using savings from purchases of toner to use for seed money is a great way to jumpstart your investments.

Investing in cryptocurrency can be an easy way to make money; so can selling your unused toner to us

10 Ways To Make $100 By Black Friday

With Thanksgiving approaching, retailers are buckling down for the ultimate day of shopping: Black Friday. A day when shoppers can get their hands on the latest and greatest “must have” gifts for the loved ones on their list and you can score some sweet deals on the things you’ve had your eye on all year.

However, if the only thing coming out of your wallet is moths this year, it can put a damper on your holiday spending. That’s why we compiled a list of how to make some quick cash before the big day so that you’re not left out in the cold.

1. Sell Your Unused Toner

Toner Connect has a great buyback program when it comes to your unused toner and it’s a perfect way to get some cash quick. As long as your toner meets our requirements, we want to buy it! Simply fill out our form, upload your list, or snap a photo of your toner, and we’ll get back to you with our price!

2. Donate Plasma

Donating plasma can be a great way to make money and also help save lives. Plasma is used to help make life-saving medicine for patients with chronic, rare and inherited diseases such as hemophilia. You are compensated for your donation and can donate up to twice a week.
The amount of compensation depends on the location but pay usually ranges from $20-$50 each time. Visit Donatingplasma.org to learn more.

3. Become a Seller on eBay

Got any items lying around you’re ready to part with? Selling on eBay is a great way to earn some extra cash and to purge your closet at the same time. You know what they say, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”.
Just be sure to sign up to become a registered seller first. You can also sell your wares on sites such as Letgo and Offerup.

4. Got an Opinion?

Good! Did you know people will pay to hear it? Companies such as Ipsos, Inboxdollars, and Swagbucks will pay you to fill out their online surveys.
Not only that, you have more options with Swagbucks to try out games, search shop sites and explore online content for compensation.

5. Show Me That Receipt

There is an online company called Ibotta that rewards you for taking pictures of your receipts. According to Penny Hoarder, they offer cash back rewards every time you shop.
They give the example of purchasing from Best Buy, uploading their receipt and getting 2% cash back. Similarly, a Target receipt got them $0.25 back for any amount. You just need an email to sign up and can request payment through Paypal or Venmo.

6. Test Drive for Cash

As of right now, Hyundai is offering a $50 prepaid Visa gift card if you come in a test drive their vehicles. You just need a valid DL. Check their website for local participating dealerships.

7. Craigslist Gigs

Another source of quick income is by browsing Craigslist gigs. While there may be some rather interesting requests out there, it’s a good place to find some quick work for fast payment. Oftentimes people will request workers for odd jobs such as painting their house, mowing their lawn, artist commissions etc…
Just be sure to communicate with the ad poster first and be smart with deciding whether or not a gig’s for you. If it sounds shady or too good to be true, it usually is. Craigslist is also a place you can try selling old items.

8. Money is Honey

Another survey/video site you can earn on is called EarnHoney. Basically, the site pays you in what they call “Nectar” and for every nine nectar you get you earn 1 honey dollar. You can watch videos, play games or complete surveys. So far they payout in Amazon gift cards and Paypal.

9. Declutter with Decluttr

Decluttr is an online store that will purchase your old electronics. From DVDs, Blu-rays, video games, cell phones, consoles etc…They offer free shipping and even have a mobile app that allows you to scan your barcode and immediately get an offer from Decluttr. If you’ve been wanting to get rid of your physical media, now’s the time.
Another way to get rid of old games and consoles is by selling to games stores like GameStop. Simply bring in your items and you’ll get a quote right then and there. And while sometimes difficult to find, FYE is another brick and mortar that will buy old DVDs, Blu-rays and VHS’s. Use their location finder to see if there’s one near you.

10. Earn with Ebates

Ebates is a company that basically pays for what you want to do. Shop. Simply sign up to create an account and then when you’re ready to shop online, visit ebates and select one of the stores you’re purchasing from. They offer a wide variety of online retailers including Walmart, Macy’s, Kohl’s, Amazon and more.
For each purchase you make, you earn money back which you receive either via check in the mail or Paypal. For the full list of companies listed on Ebates, click here.

We know you have your Christmas list ready when it comes to Black Friday. Don’t start off the holidays empty-handed. Use these tips that Toner Connect has provided to make sure that wish list is fulfilled.

Three Issues Every Boss Must Face During The Holidays

As the holiday season approaches, every employer must establish a plan and schedule for the next few months. It’s stressful enough that you must fight the crowds at the mall and wait in endless lines in order to enjoy holiday activities, but running a business or managing a team of people during the holidays can be especially trying for business owners.

Manage Vacation Time

If they haven’t already, people will likely start giving their requests for time off during the holidays. The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is such a popular vacation time that you may have a hard time getting anything done.

Some businesses will close for a few days during the holidays to save on operation costs, but that may not be an option for you. If you already have a great scheduling system to manage your payroll and track time-off requests, then you’ll be ahead of the curve.

For everyone else, a good old-fashioned calendar will do.

Sit down with your team and get their time-off requests logged on the calendar so you can see where your weak spots will occur over the holidays. Scheduling vacation time together as a staff will help your employees understand the complexities of staffing through the holiday period and will cut down on the grumbling over who gets which days.

Plan Holiday Parties

The office holiday party is either something people love attending or something people dread, and it doesn’t seem like there is any middle ground. It’s really tough to plan something that is entertaining, not too cheesy, and not too edgy for HR, but it can be done.

Depending on the size of your office or team, you’ll want to involve a wide variety of people in the planning process.

Try grabbing folks from several departments, so you’ll get a wide lens on personal tastes and what people want. Chances are, among your employees, you’ll find people who enjoy party-planning and are looking for an opportunity to contribute.

The other issues that arise around holiday parties are all the horror stories like “Steve from Accounting got so drunk he wouldn’t hand over the mic after karaoke.” That’s terrible for the people listening and extremely poor judgment by Steve, but it also means that there probably weren’t enough things going on at the party to keep folks engaged and entertained.

Try planning an agenda that keeps the activities flowing (rather than the booze), but also feels fun and relaxed. Give plenty of wiggle room between events like speeches, dinner, awards and so on. Many times, these events are used as team building or to honor employee performance. That’s great, and should be a part of the celebration, but make sure you’ve set up the agenda to include some fun as well so it’s not all business.

Close Up Shop

Unless you’re in a service business like a restaurant, you will probably have days during the holiday season that the office will need to be closed. Days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day are a given, but there are other times where it might be beneficial to close the business. Quite a few people ask for Black Friday or Christmas Eve off, so you should take a look at how many sales you expect to conduct on those days.

Is it even worth opening the doors?

Certainly, a retail business will be open on Black Friday, but what about professional services firms like CPAs or Law Offices? It may cost more to be open these days than can be made in revenues.

Once the decision to be closed has been made, it’s important that you’re communicating the closure days to both your employees as well as your customers or clients. Nothing will look worse for your business or feel as bad for your clients as it will when they show up at your door, only to find a “Sorry We’re Closed!” sign hanging there.

If you have a mailing list or email list, make sure that you’re noting the closing days there. Facebook, LinkedIn, or other social media posts will go a long way to getting the word out as well.

Change your phone answering messages well in advance of the dates so that anyone calling hears the dates and times that you’ll be closed and put up a sign somewhere in your offices so that visiting customers will know when you won’t be open to serve them.

The holidays can be a time to enjoy the giving spirit and celebrate the year’s accomplishments, or they can be a stressful couple of months that you have to weather every year. Where you fall on that spectrum will depend on how well you’ve planned your operations for the season. Taking care to set your customers’ expectations and organize your employees’ celebrations and time-off will go a long way toward making your life easier when the holiday season comes around.

How to Protect Network Printers from Hackers and DoS Attacks

People you don’t know could use your printer to hurt strangers you’d never know. That’s like participating in a crime without knowing or doing anything.

Using specialized search engines like Shodan, hackers could gain access to your copier, hijack it and use it to attack websites and other internet-connected devices. All without you knowing a thing about these attacks.

That was what happened in October 2016. Attackers used the Mirai botnet to hijack more than 100,000 internet connected devices and then used those devices to attack services like Spotify, Etsy, Twitter, Reddit and Netflix, even Russian Banks.

Your network printers could be attacked or used to others. A survey sponsored by major ink and toner manufacturer and independently carried out by Ponemon Institute revealed some staggering facts and figures.

From the survey, sales and human resources departments were the most vulnerable to security breaches. Results gathered from 93 percent and 76 percent of sales and HR respondents, respectively, shows they have the highest printer-related vulnerabilities.

This is what a Shodan search engine report page looked like when I searched for “Printers.”

Printers: Entry Point for Hackers

Of course, HR and sales were not the only departments with lax access to their printers and that had poor security practices. Printers used by executive management were found open to attacks and hackers.

In fact, 60 percent of the companies that responded to a major manufacturer’s survey have had data breaches that involved printers. Not so surprisingly, almost half of the enterprises surveyed were utterly unsecured from unauthorized access to their network-connected printer mass storage.

Peter Kim authored the book The Hacker Playbook 2: Practical Guide to Penetration Testing. Kim is a hacker and top-rated penetration tester, he’s been able to compromise several companies (including financial institutions) using their printers as entry points.

Image Credit: Paul Digby

Printers are so vulnerable that only 30 percent of companies in the Ponemon survey have a process for spotting high-risk printers. Most companies don’t even have a clue what printers to discard or disconnect from their network in the event of an attack.

Printer Security is the Blind Spot of IT Admins

Employees and IT administrators instinctively overlook printer security risk. According to 64 percent of respondents in the Ponemon survey, their organizations perceived laptop and desktop computers as having more data risk than printers.

Consequently, at 44 percent, less than half those companies included network-printers in their security policy.

Interestingly, 62 percent of survey participants are doubtful that they could prevent hackers from stealing data from their printer mass storage. Printers are vulnerable to unauthorized access via open ports and WiFi.

IT admins hardly see multifunctional network printers as the networked computers that they are. Hackers see that lax in security and exploit it.

The above-mentioned survey showed that 56 percent of participants believe that their company’s employees don’t think printers pose any serious security risk. Company staff would easily expose confidential and sensitive information, unknowingly when using printers.

Let’s explore specific actions you can take to secure your printers from device compromise, unauthorized access, print configuration changes, and eavesdropping.

Indicators for investigating Potential Cyber-crime Risks on Printers

Financial institutions and CIO of corporations (and startups) need to take more proactive steps to stop cyber attacks. Your company must develop and continuously update security policies, technologies, and processes as new solutions and concerns emerge.

Your management should consult cybersecurity specialists to create measures for mitigating cybersecurity risks. The organization should assess its end-to-end technology and levels of cybercrime risk exposure on its printers using the indicators below:

Any unauthorized configuration changes or alterations that you can’t explain.
Unusually high bandwidth usage or delays in network time of devices.
Increased communications with unknown email and IP addresses.
Time-stamps are illogical or do not align.
The organization’s firewall must cover the printers.
Restrict devices not from the company from connecting to your printers.
Fixed maintenance schedules should be kept for firmware review, update, and implementation.

Manage Your Company’s Printer Access

Ideally, you should get a network security specialist to help you with your managed printer access. However, you should have some knowledge of what the network specialist is doing. Managing your organization’s printer access involves three processes,

1. Restrict your printer from the public internet.

2. Change the default password of your admin control panel webpage.

3. Use only connection that’s encrypted when accessing your admin control panel.

Restrict your printer from public internet and devices

Restrict your printer from open internet and make sure it’s configured to work with only networks and devices you’ve approved. Here’s how to do it

Consider using an RFC1918 private IP address space to restrict printer access to your company hosts. This step ensures printers are unreachable from the internet.
Use an IST network firewall to restrict access to your printers.
Restrict device or subnet access by configuring your printer’s access control list (ACL).
Disable internet routing to restrict printing to your local network segment. Implement this step by removing the default gateway in your printer’s IP configuration.
Block your printer from public internet access using a low-cost hardware firewall.
Set up a separate machine as a dedicated printer server with appropriate access controls.

Change your admin control panel webpage default password

Just as simple as that. Change your admin password.

Hackers start attacking from the simple things like finding out if you have weak passwords. Hackers could use your default password to

Alter your printer’s network address and reroute your printing
Make the device inoperable through a Denial of Service (DoS) attack.
Use the printer to attack or hack other systems within your network.
Install malware and access the printer remotely

Use only connection that’s encrypted when accessing your admin control panel

If you’re accessing your printer interface over a web browser, make sure to use an address with a secure socket layer (i.e., https://) as against one that doesn’t have it (i.e., http://). If you use a command line access, block eavesdroppers by using SSH in place of Telnet.

Restrict Printers from Running Unverified Services

Lots of printers are running on automatically enabled, unnecessary, and insecure protocols like FTP, Telnet, and HTTP. Hackers could access your printer data directly if you keep the default services running. Malicious attackers could enter into your printer’s hard drive and collect all the data stored there.

Protect your printers from being used for unauthorized purposes by disabling its default services. Breached printer storage could be used to store pornography or deployed as an FTP server for copyright protected documents, movies, and music.

Effect Updates and Patches Promptly

Printers, just like desktop and laptop computers, need updates and patches. Make a habit of checking for firmware updates on your printers and network devices. Updates may patch security vulnerabilities and have improved or additional security features.

Final Words

Security is a complicated issue to address efficiently and is growing more complex with advanced challenges like DoS and ransomware attacks. Hackers are looking for overlooked and little-known security leakages. Unfortunately, IT departments are not seeing printers as computers, so savvy attackers are utilizing that loophole to their advantage.

Using the help of qualified security professionals to help manage technical issues and the guidance of this article, you can save your company some serious money and damages.

Toner and NFL: Why Paper Still Dominates the Game

What makes an NFL genius like Tom Brady? The New England Patriots quarterback is probably the nation’s best. 39-Year-Old Brady is also crowned the best signal caller in the league.

Apart from his outstanding records of success, Tom Terrific has the uncanny ability to remain mentally stable. The quarterback keeps his focus on the game even with his team down by three points in the last five minutes of gameplay.

Brady’s mental strength has paid off. He’s led his team to victory consistently. In the last one year to August 2017, Brady has bagged accolades like,

1. The most passing yards in a Super Bowl, 466.

2. Played the most number of Super Bowls, seven.

3. Super Bowls won, five.

4. The highest number of completed passes in a Super Bowl game, 43.

5. The most career passing yards in a Super Bowl, 2,071.

6. The highest number of pass attempts in a Super Bowl game, 62.

7. The most career passes attempted in the Super Bowl, 309.

8. The highest number of Super Bowl touchdowns in a career, 16.

In short, Brady commands success at will. What’s the quarterback’s victories to do with toners and papers?

Quarterbacks, Toners, and Papers

Image Credit: Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports

Sitting on Tom Terrific’s wrists in every game is his playbook. That’s where he calls the signals from. That cheat sheet is printed with toner on paper.

That playbook is used for every game. Everytime. And, nope, Tom Brady isn’t the only quarterback using cheat sheets.

Defensive schemes have grown complex and quarterbacks have befriended wristband playbooks to stay competitive. Approaching the end of his rookie season on the New York Jets team, Mark Sanchez, now quarterback for the Chicago Bears, started using wrist-worn cheat sheets. Sanchez has since played for the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.

You’d find cheat sheets on the wrists of most quarterbacks (even entire teams!). Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alex Smith who played for the San Francisco 49ers and now plays for the Kansas City Chiefs. Tim Tebow who played for the Denver Broncos and the New York Jets.

Eli Manning stopped using cheat sheets in 2009. Before the New York Giants quarterback started memorizing his signal calls, he’d depended on playbooks.

According to NJ.com, Kurt Warner commented on his experience with using a wrist-worn playbook. Warner who’s played for the New York Giants, Arizona Cardinals, and St. Louis Rams said,

“I finally used it in Arizona. You’d love to have somebody call the play to you (via the helmet radio), so you get to hear it one time. And then you get to call it a second time, so it gets to process in your mind twice.”

Tom Brady and other quarterbacks happen to be benefiting from a half-century old culture of wearing cheat sheets on wristbands. Quarterbacks started wearing playbook wristbands in 1965.

How Papers Got into the Game

Baltimore Colts quarterback Tom Matte’s cheat sheet from 1965, displayed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Image Credit: NJ.com

The 1965 Baltimore Colts quarterbacks, Johnny Unitas (who was the starter) and Gary Cuozzo (the backup), had sustained season-ending injuries. The only hope left for the team was Tom Matte.

A loving wife, an index card, and a magic marker in the kitchen table of a suburban Baltimore home were the humble beginnings of the playbook wristband some 52 years ago.

Tom had been in Baltimore Colts since 1961 and was familiar with their play. The team’s offensive coordinator Don McCafferty came up with the idea of the playbook to make things easy for Matte. The cheat sheet worked out well.

McCafferty’s wife, Judy, helped with writing a crude version of the cheat sheet. She wrote the playbooks for the final two games of the 1965 season, and then the playoff between the Colts and the Green Bay Packers.

Matte is now 78 years old. Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio has the former quarterback’s original cheat sheet wristband on their display. Tom is amazed at how the playbook has gained wide acceptance. He says “I cheated my way into the Hall of Fame.”

Habits and Paper-centric Departments

Gartner’s Vice President of Research, Ken Weilerstein, says that printing initially surged with an increase in online content. According to Mr. Weilerstein, printing volumes rose in response to the abundance of content online.

Let’s take a look at the stats here. Back in 2015 – that’s a long time considering the growth speed of online content – every minute (i.e., every 60 seconds),

204 million emails are sent out,
1,400 blog posts go live (that’s over 2 million articles every day),
Facebook gets 2.46 million posts,
Twitter welcomes 277,000 tweets,
Yelp 26,380 reviews and the list goes on.

According to Hosting Facts, we have 1.24 billion websites as of August 2017. Since British physicist Tim Berners-Lee published the first website in 1991, we’ve had a mind-blowing 124 billion percentage growth in websites!

I can’t think of any other technology that’s grown as fast as the internet. And it’s still growing.

People feel more comfortable reading lengthy texts on paper than on screens. So they print. The growing volume of online content encourages more printing.

Infotrends released a study in January 2016. In the study, 60 percent of printing done in companies of any size were essential – 40 percent were optional. Millennials (18 to 29-year-olds), counter-intuitively, didn’t show any significant drop in their printing habits.

NFL teams hire an average of 3,739 people, including office staff. The Infotrends studies say human resources, accounting, and legal are the most paper-centric departments. Activities that happen regularly like invoicing, printing notes and onboarding consume paper.

In the words of Weilerstein, “It is easier to read long documents on paper than on-screen. Paper is universally accepted as valid for contracts and other legal documents, and the signatures are familiar and accepted to a greater degree than any digital signature.”

IDC’s Keith Kmetz, who serves as the organization’s program vice president for imaging, printing and document solutions shares Ken Weilerstein’s views. Keith pointed out that many companies, including some NFL teams, have initiated a “paperless light” concept.

Almost all internal processes are entirely paperless, in a “paperless light” concept. However, integrating external processes into that internal system would involve some printing and scanning.

To Wrap it Up

Papers will dominate the game for the foreseeable future. Tom Matte’s legacy won’t be digitized anytime soon. The NFL and teams in the NFL, just like other large organizations in the Infotrends studies, have accounting, legal, and other paper-centric activities that’s not about to go obsolete.

Papers will dominate this game because they help ensure victory. And, hey, who doesn’t like winning?

Free Insurance on Your Unused Toner Cartridges (No Gimmicks)

If you’ve ever enjoyed the benefits of a buyback program, you’d be quick to see it resembles an insurance policy — but without the pains of the insurance cover.

We All Love Safety and It’s Perfectly OK

If you have an insurance policy or manage one for someone else then you know the goal — reduce or eliminate exposure to risk. Insurance covers for your losses or reduces the impact of a loss.

Insurance is a tool for managing risk. If your business would have gone under, an insurance cover could be the rescue. If theft or damage leaves you exposed to never having a car again, an insurance policy could save the day. If a serious illness or accident makes it impossible for you to ever work again, an insurance coverage could help. You can insure just about anything these days.

We all love safety, so we reduce our risk exposure. Risk management has three core areas:

Risk identification
Risk assessment
Risk control

How Risky is Owning Toner Cartridges?

Image Credit: Pixabay

Let’s be clear. I’m not talking about fire or theft insurance or any of the other outrageous outcomes — you can mitigate those kinds of risk exposure in other ways (includes taking up policies with an insurance company, if you can). But that’s not the point here.

Cover for theft and damage related risks if you can, but how do you cover for risks you have no way of anticipating?

I can hear you whispering “what kind of risk are you talking about?” Let’s take three scenarios.

The first scenario: Falling demand for OEM or compatible toners or inks.

It’s September 18, 2016. You’ve just bought your laser or inkjet printers for your company — perhaps a dozen or more printers. You also bought toners or inks — lots of them. You’ve taken care of your printing needs; the work is done and dusted — or so you think.

Fast forward to October 10, 2016, just days after a major ink and toner manufacturer decided to discontinue some of its copier cartridges. A friend brings to your attention to the cartridge discontinuation announcement. The cartridges you just acquired for your dozen new printers are being phased out!

Suddenly all the warranties on your printers are nulled.

You’re forced to think of solutions to a problem you didn’t see coming. OEMs (and compatible) cartridge manufacturers discontinue productions a lot; they do it when demand for a product falls for too long. Decreased demand signals to the manufactures that they need a new product and can’t support warranties on the old one any longer.

When manufacturers discontinue a cartridge, they also force you to buy new office supplies. Phasing out a product is part of their business plan! You just don’t know when the phasing out will happen.

The second scenario: OEM sabotages compatible toner manufacturers.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Apart from fallen demand and the need to improve sales, OEM cartridge manufacturers discontinue their products to undermine compatible cartridge manufacturers.

Last year in the Netherlands, the same ink and toner manufacturer from earlier publicly admitted to deliberately destroying the compatible cartridge market using this ‘printer error’ technique. They programmatically annulled the use of compatible cartridges on their printers.

The third scenario: Your copier stops working for no good reason.

You’ve just stocked up on your ink or toner supplies, only to have your copier machine breakdown. After a technician checks it up, he says it’s best to purchase a new printer.

There’s just one problem — you wouldn’t be able to buy that exact copier. Possibly, your copier machine is no longer available in the market, or it’s too expensive, or for some other reasons, it’s just out of your reach for now. Suddenly you have a pile of ink or toner cartridges you wouldn’t need anymore.

What do you do?

Cry, hope and pray for a miracle? What if you had some form of insurance to cut the losses you’ve incurred, would that help?

In all of the scenarios, you’d have invested hundreds or thousands of dollars only to lose that money to unpredictable circumstances.

How do you insure against these three scenarios above without paying unhealthy insurance premiums? Let’s find out. Read on.

How to Get FREE Insurance on Your Unused Toner Cartridges

Image Credit: Pixabay

If you ever get caught up in any of three scenarios I described, a toner buyback program will help. Now, don’t jump on just any repurchase program. Repurchase arrangements differ one from the other — look closer.

Staples, Best Buy, OEM manufacturer ink cartridge programs, and even a governmental website (The County of Kaua’i) all have printer cartridge recycling or buyback programs. You want insurance here. You want to cut your losses — not make things worse.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if you know what to look out for when deciding what buyback programs to use?

I guess you nodded in affirmation.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Now, what ingredients should you look out for in a cartridge buyback program?

Speed: You shouldn’t have to go through processes that overwhelm you, waste precious time and wait forever to have your printers bought (or rejected). You want a quick quote and status updates.
Ease: You shouldn’t have to haul a truckload of cartridges across the street or to a city nearby. An excellent unused cartridge buyback program should worry about the transportation of your cartridges, so you don’t have to.
Pays well: What’s the point if your insurance cover pays you next to nothing? Great insurance companies pay well if you ever need to claim your cover. Your cartridge buyer should feel like a great insurance cover, especially when paying you the money.
Pays fast: I should say “pays first.” A great program should be quick to pay you once they’ve decided to buy. A quick payment removes the uncertainty of waiting and curbs the temptation to sell to someone else. Fast payments benefit everyone.
Instant Shipping Labels: No one wants to wait to have shipping labels emailed to them. You should be able to print them on your own.

Most toner and ink cartridge buyback programs don’t have all of these five ingredients — some programs don’t even have any of them!

Full discretion, we are promoting ourselves here but we do have all of the above features. With our new website, you also now have one-stop access to every step of the process from when you ask for a quote until we receive and inspect your ink and toner.

Cold Weather Care For Your Ink and Toner

If the coming winter makes you worried about your printers — especially your cartridges — you are not alone. After all, it’s your investment is at stake here!

Talking of investment, what’s likely to expose your printer to risks?

Would your printer be spending the night out in your freezing car? Would you be leaving the copier in an unheated trailer, cabin or tent? Would your office heater be switched off on weekends?

Are you considering to buy a new printer from a store and worried that they might have exposed the machine to the cold weather? Is your printer exposed to the weather in any way?

If you answered yes to any of the questions above, chances are your paranoia would rise as temperatures drop. And it should.

Let’s save your copier machine. Use the cartridge tips here to weather the storm.

Printer Maintenance in Winter

We’ll examine different scenarios and give tips on how to handles them. Now, let’s assume you just acquired your printer from a store that’s likely exposed it to cold weather.

The first tip would be that you shouldn’t turn on the printer immediately after unwrapping it. Allow, at least, two hours before powering it on.

Condensation in your cartridge can cause your toner to clump. Clumped toners can damage your printer.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

To prevent damage, give your new printer sometime before powering it on. The delay allows time for your printer to reach room temperature, and allow internal condensation to evaporate. Leaving your printer to rest for a while before turning it on saves you the risk of damaging sensitive printer parts.

Toner Cartridge Tips for Winter

Statics build-up is a concern for toner cartridges during winter because they influence print quality significantly. Laser printers depend on static to charge your printer’s drum and then attract toner particles from the drum to the paper.

When your machine has excess static, printing problems follow. You may experience streaks, blotches, excessively bold or overly faint prints, or background haze.

Toners have almost no challenges with cold weather, except for static buildup and condensation issues. Let’s examine some toner cartridge (or related) maintenance challenges you might experience during the winter or cold seasons.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Stock up on Toners and other static-sensitive components: Toners, Transfer Rollers, High Voltage Power Supply, and DC Controllers are all static-sensitive components. These components are prone to discharge during winter, and that could damage other components of your printer. Stock up on these components during the winter months to protect your cartridge and copier.
Use anti-static wipes during maintenance: When running maintenance on your machine, clean inside and the outside panels with anti-static wipes. Cleaning your copier with anti-static wipes won’t eliminate static, but it’s the best option when running maintenance on your printer.
Use Energy Star® Laser Printers: Energy costs go up in winter, so you’re probably looking for ways to bring them down. Brother HL-2140 Personal Laser printer and HP Color LaserJet 4700dh are Energy Star® Laser Printers you may want to consider.
Turn off your laser printer when not in use: This is another energy saving tip.
Batch your printing: Toner printers require lots of heat to work, so they go through a heating up process. Your printer would need more heating energy during the winter. Batch your printing task and do them all at the same time to take advantage of the printer’s warm-up process as it’s turned on.

Ink Cartridge Tips for the Winter

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During cold or winter seasons your ink cartridge stands the risk of being severely hit by the bad weather. The ink cartridge’s composite material is responsible for its fragility:

An emulsified mix consisting of pigment,
A proprietary mix of some surfactants and glycerine acting as a liquid pigment carrier,
A humectant such as 2-propenol, and
Water serves as an aqueous carrier of the humectant.

Based on the ratios of these mixtures, ink freezes at temperatures near or below zero degree Celsius (i.e., the freezing point of water). When your ink starts to freeze, particles of the ink pigment will begin separating or settling, as water causes your plastic cartridge to expand the container may crack. Worse of all, when your ink cartridge eventually thaws the ink would be destabilized and wouldn’t re-emulsify.

In short, don’t let your ink cartridge freeze!

If you plan to print regularly during the winter season, you should consider acquiring a thermal printer. Thermal printers don’t require toner, ribbons, or ink; they almost never need replacement of supplies and run on little maintenance.

However, thermal printers have drawbacks. They print in black and white only, may fade over time, not suitable for high-contact use, and are quite limited in application.

Zebra ZT410 Direct Thermal/Thermal Transfer Printer – 203 DPI, Epson TM-T20II Direct Thermal Printer, and DYMO LabelWriter 4XL Thermal Label Printer are examples of thermal printers. Thermal printers serve best for printing receipt labels, name-tag labels, receipts, and shipping labels.

Thermal printing, also known as direct thermal printing, is done using coated thermochromic paper (or thermal paper). A thermal printer produces images on the specially coated paper (i.e., thermal paper) through a digital process that selectively heats the paper up when it passes over a thermal print head.

If thermal printers and inkjet printers wouldn’t get your job done, toner cartridge printers will. You may want to stick to toner printers for the winter.

Conclusion

If you exposed your printer ink to freezing or below freezing temperatures, then you want to let it thaw and then let the temperature reach, at least, 50 degrees Fahrenheit (.e. 10 degree Celsius) before printing. For your printer to work well, its belts and electrical components must be pliable.

If you suspect that your printer is damaged, get a technician to help you examine it. If you don’t know any repairs shop near you, use Google to find them. To use Google enter “printer repairs in [YOUR CITY]” without the quotation marks (as seen in the image below), you should see one (or more) viable repairs place close to you.

Finally, if you’ve stocked up on new cartridges and wouldn’t be needing them anymore, we buy unused new cartridges at the best rates. Reach out and let’s talk