Deal Alert at Staples: Reams of paper for only 50 cents

Not quite as good as 25 cents which that deal was a couple of weeks ago.  You can get 2 reams of Staples brand paper for 50 cents each after rebates.

Related websites:

• Previous blog post about the 25 cents for each ream
• Staples.com and Current circular

Deal Alert at Staples: Reams of paper for only 25 cents

The local Staples flyer has some deals, of which the following caught my eye.

A ream of Staples brand multipurpose paper with a brightness of 96 and a weight of 20 pounds of regularly priced for $5.99 each.  There is an "easy rebate" of $5.74 for each ream and a limit of 2 reams per household.  This ends up costing you $0.25 for each ream plus any sales tax on the original $5.99 price.

Click here to view the current week's circular.  The above deal is on the first page.

If you buy from Staples.com, remember to support me by first clicking on my Upromise link, then selecting Staples.com or other e-tailers.

Update on Color Laser Printer deal from Staples

If you've been keeping up, you read about my purchase of a new Brother Color Laser Printer 4040CN from Staples on this previous post. To summarize, the final price was aroud $175 (plus taxes on the original price).

It arrived last Friday and I installed it today. Here's the predicament:

• The printer came with regular toner cartridges which should be good for 1,500 pages for color and 2,500 for black/white (typical yield). Based on prices on my original post, it would cost me about $293 to replace all 4 cartridges.

So what to do in 1 or 2 years (depending on actual usage), keeping in mind that I use my black and white all-in-one for greater than 98 percent of printing "jobs." Find another deal for a color laser similar to this at $175 for the printer with new cartridges or pay $293 to replace them over time?

If the "new" one is faster and better resolution and it is cheaper overall, the answer will likely be an easy one.

Here is my initial output review after printing three pages. I can tell it is 2400x600 dpi when looked at closely. I took it off of draft print (prints at 600x600 dpi) and put it on "Vivid" output. The baseline, normal settings are a little dull.

I haven't needed to gift or use the free digital camera. If anything comes up, I'll keep you posted.

Another potential Staples deal - Here they go again...

Just yesterday, I wrote here about me ordering a Brother Color Laser Printer from Staples.

Here is this week's Staples "Sneak Peek" at this coming week's circular. I'm not sure if it's just back-to-school, the industry is hurting, or if Staples if trying to get a head start (or all of the above and more).

Here's the potential deal: Buy any Backpack and get 100% back in Staples Rewards. It applies to both in-store and on-line purchases. There are only 23 backpacks listed when searched on their website. I'm not sure how this compares with in-store inventory and selection options.

Example for discussion:

The best overall deal may be one of the Wenger backpacks (such as this one) but the sale price may expire by this Sunday when the next circular kicks in. Even though, buying the highest-priced backpack may get you the best deal from a monetary perspective, don't buy it just because it's a deal. Buy it because you need the item. You will still need to pay taxes on the purchase price.

You could look at ebay to see what the real "market" price for this item. It is actually around $65 (with free shipping).

Here's the theoretical breakdown:

• Buy a backpack for about $90. Pay about $9 in taxes.
• Receive the $90 in Staples Rewards in October.
• Staples Rewards is not a check that can be cashed, but needs to be spent at a Staples store or on-line (sort of like a gift card). You need to still spend $90 on something at Staples. I'm not sure what the markup is for an Office Supply store, but if we use 40 percent as an estimate, Staples would make a gross profit of about $36.

Bottom line, you would spend about $99 to get at least $189 in products, or you could pay $65 on ebay and just get that one item.

If you have kids and "need" a backpack, you may just end up getting one of the $24.99 models.

Oh, and they also have some offers for mechanical pencils, retractable gel pens, and highlighters, all free after rebates (still need to pay taxes).

Ordered my Color Laser Printer for $174.00 plus free camera - Here's how it went

Okay. Here's what I did. On this previous post, the Staples circular listed a color laser printer for $199.

I ordered it online and here the breakdown:

• Instant coupon so it was original price of $349 now down to $199. No rebate needed.
• Used Coupon 7671-3339-3847-2840 (without hyphens) to get an additional $25 off (purchases of $100 or more excluding computers)
• Used Coupon 71236 to get a free 3.1 MP camera
• Got free shipping or pickup at local Staples store
• Had to pay sales taxes on the $89.99 MSRP on the camera and $349 original price of the printer
• Also got 1% of purchase towards kids 529 accounts

Again, you have to "need" or really rationalize the cost:benefit of any purchase. Around $174 is a really good price for the features. I didn't think another $120 was worth Wi-Fi (the next model up).

Staples deal this weekend: $199 Color laser printer

Staples starts their school supply sale this weekend.

In the Staple's "Sneak Peek" at this weekend's circular there's the following deal that I am considering:

This Brother 4040CN laser printer will be only $199 down from regular price of $349. Prints up to 21 ppm in both Color and B&W (read draft mode, the better resolution is slower) and wait time is 17 second to first page printing. The cartridges are still what you really pay for and are listed at $65 to $76 depending on B&W (2,500 pages yield) or Color (1,500 pages yield).

If you prefer HP there's a reasonably priced "All-in-one" color laser with much slower technical specifications for only about $349. It prints only up to 12 ppm B&W and 8 ppm in Color. The cartridges are listed at around $72 for color to $77 for B&W.