Goodwill Hunting leads to Cheap toner find of the Century
Monday, September 21, 2009 at 5:53PM 
Olivetti Studio 46 $6 at the Salvation Army. Piper wanted this ages ago. 
Holiday Fair Banks 1968 Teal (my 21 year-old BFF) and I spotted these at my favorite (secret) thrift store outside of Portland. Turns out there are other people who think these are cool besides me and Teal, they are becoming quite the funky collectible. 
Stapler $1 
Orange Cot I found this camping cot for $7 (at secret thrift store.) I have since used it for a photo shoot prop, a bench and an actual cot for camping! 
Pool Ladder I needed this for my ghetto above-ground pool - only $5! 
Couch with Orange Vinyl Seat Cushions $200 at Modern Pink in Sellwood, OR. Modern Pink is my new, favorite retro furniture shop. The picks are good and the prices too. I am really into vintage cameras right now and they have a great collection. 
Vintage Lunchbox or Binocular Case Currently being used as my camera case. Found a new favorite place, Vintage Pink on Hawthorne in Portland, Oregon 
Vintage Kodak Camera for Piper $5, Oregon Coast, I swear I had the same camera! 
Canon S300 $6 at the Salvation Army
So part two of my awesome thrifting adventures ends in the procurement of this mediocre, yet compact printer. It came with all the fixins but it printed like crap. I realized the next step was to replace the toner cartridges and I shuddered at the financial gamble: the toner cartridges cost $18 for color and $14 for black so I would be $32 in the hole if it didn't work. This was the perfect time to try one of those online toner merchants where the toner prices are so low and the website is so sophomoric you figure it has to be a scam. I didn't care. I am truly sick of giving any money to Office Depot. I'd just as well cut off my left foot than shop there again.
The store I found immediately was House of Inks and (suspiciously) the same toner cartridges cost $3.95 and $3.50 respectively! I decided it was a risk worth taking. My "not-so-sexy-anymore" postman delivered the cartridges only two days later and they actually worked! I'm sure the people at Canon are going to tell me I'm ruining my printer but I really don't care. Frankly, I was more excited about finding a new resource for my printer ink than the $6 printer itself (and the entire point of this blog-entry ended up changing.)
I also noted; the six pack of inks that I need for my thirsty Canon S9000 has been costing me $53 and House of Inks had the same combo for $16. That's what it should be! I have been a total chump paying $50! I have been flushing my goddamn money down the toilet! I anticipate saving a whopping $200 a year (and you will too, so send me 10% and we'll call it even.)
I have always thought that these gigantic office supply stores are the quintessential scammers of the American retail market. Forget Pfizer, the average American uses more office supplies than overpriced Viagra. Do you ever really look at the prices? Post-it notes are almost nine bucks for a neon pack of five! A single ream of paper is $5? What these big box office supply stores rely on are birdbrain administrative assistants who are burning the bosses' money and writing magical purchase orders they will never have to pay for themselves! That's why if you are going to indulge in post-its and cool pads and folders, just go the extra mile. Buy beautiful, thoughtful or even funny stationery supplies from GREAT people-owned businesses like Bob's Your Uncle
, Knock Knock, Papaya, and Anne Taintor. So check out House of Inks or find your own cheesy discounter and take a deep breath; the price of toner has just been reduced to about 25% of what you have been paying in the past and you are no longer in Bizzaro World (which explains why Obama is president and not that nitwit drunk-driving, marble-mouth, cowboy wannabe).
Journal By PaPaYa Art $15
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