Useless Conversation

[Merusk]

Don't mess with third party crayon blocks for xerox phasers, though. They suck and will fuck up your printers.

How long do those crayon blocks last?  I don't have any experience with phasers but they were all I saw for true 2400 x 2400 dpi printers.

[Strazos]

They print beautifully, but don't last long. Also, the "toner" or whatever is pricey.

[Merusk]

"Pricey" or not depends on how many pages you can get from it.

That laser printer Viin linked costs $70 per ~1,400 sheet toner cart, or $280 to replace all of them.  It works out to a little less than $0.20 per printed page, because the black carts say they'll do 2k pages.

The xerox 8560dx ($900 printer) costs $103 for 3 bricks of color and $90 for 6 of black.  That's $120 every time you have to replace all 4 bricks. If the bricks print 600 pages before replacement it's a wash.

[Salamok]

The problem with wax transfer is it is horrid for short runs with many periods to cool down between.  Cost per page isn't bad if you are doing 1 or 2 large continuous batches a day. 

[Sky]

I dunno, I've got all the numbers somewhere :p

I ran them last when the cheap blocks fucked up our last printers, to see whether we wanted to go back to traditional lasers. Iirc, both were competitive until you got to the non-ink parts, the fuser and transfer kits racked up more costs over time than the 'maintenance kit' for the phaser.

Plus, toner is a fucking absolute nightmare to deal with when you wear white shirts. Lastly, the local HP repairmen were highwaymen, even compared to the thieves over at Xerox.

[Chimpy]

Last time I knew what price per page was on a Dye Sublimation (the process Phasers use) printer was in 1997 when they were $3.45 a page. Of course, that was when the process was fairly new for general use. They still used the 4 panel dye rolls back then.

[Salamok]

Last time I knew what price per page was on a Dye Sublimation (the process Phasers use) printer was in 1997 when they were $3.45 a page. Of course, that was when the process was fairly new for general use. They still used the 4 panel dye rolls back then.

They advertise them down below the 10c a page range now and the entry level on the printers themselves are down in the high end inkjet range.  Once again keep in mind that this things run a little clean job every time they have to go through a cool down/warm up cycle this makes them very much more than 10c a page if you only print 5 pages a day.  I had an 8500 series xerox for awhile and I never could get decent reds out of it (always on the orange side).

[Sand]

I never ever put that much thought into choosing a printer.
I am obviously doing it wrong.

Will definitely make use of that trick with the tape to extend cartridge life though, especially since ours run $70-80 a pop.

[Paelos]

A computer on your desk in your kitchen does not count as a home office deduction. 

[NowhereMan]

If I eat food at work does that count as a business expense?

[Paelos]

If I eat food at work does that count as a business expense?

Some of the shit I see is almost on that level. 

[Merusk]

I know I saw a website detailing such deductions a long time ago.  I might hunt that down again.   It and the "shit people actually did at interviews" websites make you feel a lot better if you're ever in the dumps about your own abilities.

[ghost]

Global Katrina?

Oh well, as good of an excuse as any to buy some more ammo.   

[Paelos]

I know I saw a website detailing such deductions a long time ago.  I might hunt that down again.   It and the "shit people actually did at interviews" websites make you feel a lot better if you're ever in the dumps about your own abilities.

One of my associates had a client try to explain to an IRS agent how getting manicures for himself and his wife was a business expense because it was maintaining an image directly related to his ability to make sales. It went like this:

Agent: This is a $200 expense to a Salon, that's not business.
Client: I'm in sales. My image is everything.
Agent: Image is not a business expense.
Client: You don't understand, if I don't portray a certain look, people do not buy from me.
Agent: "A look" (agent does the air quotes) is not a business expense.

[Sand]

I got away with deducting a couple grand in camping gear. Not sure what the actually amount allowed was but it got deducted.
"Corporate retreats" 

[Salamok]

Yeah I've gotten away with home office for 3 years now unfortunately this year it probably won't fly since my side business income has gone from 4-10k a year to like $300 last year.  Thinking I'll try and drop the home office and write off the last year's laptop purchase.

[Paelos]

Yeah I've gotten away with home office for 3 years now unfortunately this year it probably won't fly since my side business income has gone from 4-10k a year to like $300 last year.  Thinking I'll try and drop the home office and write off the last year's laptop purchase.

Just as a point of reference, that's not the way it works.

[Chimpy]

So, the crown I had put on top of a root canal I had done in early 2004 has become loose and I fear that the stud it is attached to may have cracked as it is actually kind of tilting sideways any time I chew with the other side of my mouth.

Lucky for me the kids are all out of school today so I can't get into the dentist until tomorrow morning. Guess I am going to be eating a lot of mushy things I don't have to chew today!

[Merusk]

One word:  Blender!

[Selby]

I got away with deducting a couple grand in camping gear. Not sure what the actually amount allowed was but it got deducted.
"Corporate retreats" 

As my dad the CPA always tells me: "You can deduct anything within reason, but whether it will stand up to an IRS audit or not is how you know if you should or not."

[Chimpy]

And the crown (with one of the screws that went into the root as part of the post) came loose when I sneezed. Looks like the post and whatever little bit of the sides of the tooth when I had the root canal done just disintegrated. God damn this is going to be expensive. And no insurance to boot!

[ghost]

Sorry Chimpy.  Those kinds of crowns are prone to failure, even when done by someone very competent.  Implants are the way to go, if you can afford them, and often over a root canaled tooth.  The 7 year success rate for a root canal tooth is about 70% (depending on who is doing the procedure) and the 10 year success rate is about 95-99% for an implant depending on the placement site.

[Sand]

And the crown (with one of the screws that went into the root as part of the post) came loose when I sneezed. Looks like the post and whatever little bit of the sides of the tooth when I had the root canal done just disintegrated. God damn this is going to be expensive. And no insurance to boot!

Do you have a teaching hospital in your area? If so find out if they have a dentistry/orthodontics/periodontics school as well. They are infinitely cheaper than going to a private practice! My whole family uses the local university for our dental care.

@ Selby- I honestly dont know. I turn it all over to the accountant and he tells me yay or nay in the end and then sends me a bill for the damages. Between the corporate stuff and my wife paying taxes in seven or more states every year I let a professional handle it.

[Paelos]

Simple rules about business expenses:

Did you buy it out of a personal account?
Is it in your personal possession?
Did you use it for any personal usage?

If you answered yes to all those, you can't expense all of it.

[ghost]

Do you have a teaching hospital in your area? If so find out if they have a dentistry/orthodontics/periodontics school as well. They are infinitely cheaper than going to a private practice! My whole family uses the local university for our dental care.

This is also reasonable advice, however remember that you're buying your money savings with your time.  You may find that the time involved is too much.  Also, some teaching schools will not see patients unless they reach a certain level of difficulty.  I suspect that you might be far away from any of the schools as the only options that I know of are UIC, SIU and some new looking school in Downer's grove (wherever that is).  Newer private schools tend to be more expensive. 

[Chimpy]

My current dentist is very very good. He is not cheap, but seeing as I used a "cheap" dentist when I had said root canal and crown done (the outer porcelain on the crown had started chipping off about a year ago) I will just continue to use the good dentist.

[Nerf]

Holy shit.  Just picked up my online order, what a clusterfuck.

Same asst. manager in video is there, girl handing me my printer says she doesn't know how to do the recycle claim ticket, and has to ask the manager.

5 minutes pass, she comes back and has my sign to pick up my online order and then says "Ok, so what we have to do is return your staples.com order, and then sell it to you again in store so we can apply the recycle to the sale."

It took me a solid 20-30 minutes to get them to do the incredibly difficult task of calling the corporate recycle folks, giving them my order number, and printing me a receipt.

I called corporate to complain, and they were either shocked or incredibly pissed that they tried to pull that, when I mentioned the whole return/rebuy thing, the chick on the phone almost yelled "What?! That's NOT how you do that!"

So yeah, finally got my Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 printer, for $81+tax, it only took about 2 hours, 3 trips to the store, being called a crook, and threatened with arrest.

Staples rocks!

Also gave corporate the keywords to find the youtube video "staples customer service" (heh), while I'm sure corporate doesn't really give a shit about their management calling customers crooks, couplling that with a blatant attempt to pad their own store numbers by returning and reselling online pickups might mean he'll be looking for a new job.

I'm sure Fry's will hire him, where he'll get to see me at least once every 2 weeks.

[Nebu]

So yeah, finally got my Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 printer, for $81+tax, it only took about 2 hours, 3 trips to the store, being called a crook, and threatened with arrest.

I don't know what you get paid per hour, but when you add in the cost of your time, patience, and frustration, that's not a very good deal.  

Unless, of course, you enjoy these confrontations.  

[Paelos]

Unless, of course, you enjoy these confrontations.  

Did you really even need to guess? He masturbates in front of his cheap printer and his landlord's lawsuit documents with a moldy piece of drywall while screaming I AM A GOLDEN GOD!

[Nebu]

I was trying to be nice.

[Paelos]

I was trying to be nice.

I understand, I'm afraid he'll sue us for libel too.

[Johny Cee]

Simple rules about business expenses:

Did you buy it out of a personal account?
Is it in your personal possession?
Did you use it for any personal usage?

If you answered yes to all those, you can't expense all of it.

I had a 20 minute "conversation" with a client in January about his miniature horse ranching "business."  For which he has never had any revenues.  Sigh.

[Lantyssa]

Did you really even need to guess? He masturbates in front of his cheap printer and his landlord's lawsuit documents with a moldy piece of drywall while screaming I AM A GOLDEN GOD!

I laughed hard.

[Nerf]

So yeah, finally got my Lexmark Pinnacle Pro901 printer, for $81+tax, it only took about 2 hours, 3 trips to the store, being called a crook, and threatened with arrest.

I don't know what you get paid per hour, but when you add in the cost of your time, patience, and frustration, that's not a very good deal.  

Unless, of course, you enjoy these confrontations.  

Full time college student, but excluding the initial 'you can't talk to my manager, leave or I'll call the cops', it would have been dumb of me to just go along with their bullshit at the store today.
Staples.com pricematched Amazon's $156 AND let me stack a $25 off coupon, but they refund the pricematch for online orders after they're placed via order #, not before checkout.  If I had let this idiot do his little store-sales-padding bullshit on my order, the pricematch refund would cancel as the order was showed returned.  They also consider trading-in a printer as a 'coupon' in this store, so the $25 off wouldn't work either.
Had he actually done it the way he tried, I would've ended up paying $150+tax for the printer instead of $81.  It took ~30 minutes of putting up with their bullshit to get it done.  I won't be making $140/hr for at least the next years of undergrad, 4 years of medschool, and however long I'll be doing the whole residency thing for.

[Paelos]

Please tell me you're not seriously considering becoming a doctor.