There's this local dude with a few Apple Laserwriter printers for sale. I need a printer for my Macs but the prices of new modern printers is incredibly low. These are the printers that the dude has for sale:
Apple LaserWriter
Apple LaserWriter Plus
Apple Personal LaserWriter
Are any of these printers any good or worth buying today? Would I be better off just buying a new modern printer for a ridiculously low price?
I don't know how much this dude wants for these printers, but he does mention that he will sell them cheap. How he defines the word "cheap", I do not know. So, what do ya think?
what printer type were you talking about that is insanely low these days. I would only get a printer these days if it was laser. The toner lasts longer than the ink carts. in an ink jet. and with the laserwriter, not only is the printer cheaper than a modern laser printer, the carts are the same as most modern toner cartridges. So you get a printer that is less costly than a modern laser, and less costly to run than an inkjet. I would say go for it. But that is only if the printers are cheap, as you define it.
And if you really are thinking of the prices of modern inkjets, don't forget to check the pages-per-cart counts! Sure, a cheap $45 Lexmark sounds great, but at $30 for a set of carts and only a few hundred pages from them? That's crud compared to the 3000-7000 pages from most lasers. Sure that laser cart might cost 3-4 times as much, but you rae getting almost 10x the pages, and the toner doesn't bleed like inkjet.
Hello!
If I were you I would get the Apple LaserWriter, and the Apple LaserWriter Plus... Those are both fine early Mac printers (Not as much so for newer Macs though)... I actuly had been look for the LW and LW Plus for quite some time, most people just trash 'em and not sell 'em so for my older Macs it is quite had to find... Just what I think.
So of the three that are available, which would you get? The Laserwriter, Laserwriter Plus, or Personal Laserwriter? I don't really want to buy two; my experience in dealing with this guy is that "cheap" is not necessarily "cheap".
Also, how can I be sure that I'm not buying a lemon?
I've done some Google searches, and the Laserwriter Plus appears to be the better one, from what I can see. I haven't found too much on the Laserwriter Plus as there appears to be several models of this printer available. I don't know which model this local guy has.
Thanks for the input.
By the way, I kind of like the way these printers look. They don't look "cheap" like a lot of the modern printers do.
Well, I think cheap would be $5-$20 (or so)... If you can get one for around that, please let me know.. If it does not work, I can always you my old LW AppleService parts to repair it.... This are printers from the 80's so I think anyone sell any computer related item should be happy any one wants such an old item :)... Please let me know.
AFAIK they're all fairly robust printers, but slow compared to modern lasers. I used a the Personal NT when I was freelancing for an import car parts biz (neat old parts for MGs and such), and with a PM 7100 it was slow as sin compared to the 16/600 I had at home. Lack of ethernet on all three is a problem.
Heh...I remember I paid $2,000 for my first 16/600 in '95/'96. Did a couple books on it and sold it again for purchase price. Second - and current - 16/600 I found in a dumpster. How times change...
Apple Laserwriters were Da Bomb back in 1990, but "slow" isn't the word for how slow they are by modern standards. Complex pages can literally take hours to render. I'm serious. *Hours* (If you look up the specs you'll see "8 pages per minute" listed as their speed, but that's the physical speed of the print engine. In theory the printer could print about 8 pages per minute if all they had was "hi there!" written in tiny type in the upper left-hand corner.) They also don't have enough RAM to render the Postscript produced by most modern drivers and applications.
The Laserwriter and the LW Plus are the same printer, incedentally, except the Plus has 35 fonts built in, vs. 13 in the LW.
--Peace
I did some research on these printers and the LW and LW Plus each have 1.5 MBs of RAM. The Personal LW I believe has 4MB and is expandable to 6MB.
Okay, now I'm getting confused. Initially, everybody was saying, "Go for the Laserwriter." Now, I'm hearing all the tales of woe. I see that the logic boards in these printers use 12MHz 68000 processors and RAM that can be anywhere from 1.5MB all the way up to 4 or 6MB depending on model and/or upgrade. They print at 300dpi at a rate of 8PPM.
My main purpose for a printer would be simple letter writing. I wouldn't be doing too much else with the printer. Perhaps, I'd print up the odd readme file or documentation file, but mainly just letter writing.
I had been using an HP inkjet printer until it crapped out and I systematically dismantled it. At the present time, I am in dire need of a printer. I don't need anything spectacular but I do want something that will "get the job done."
I might just grab one of these LW's just for the hell of it. Depending on price of course.
Well this all depends on what computer you will be using it for... The LW and LW Plus are great for Mac or PC and work with the EARLY Macs (IE: 128k, 512k, Mac Plus, A2's)... And like I said those are more rare then the other, thus worth more from a selling stand point... The Personal LW is really NOT Worth your time, I bought about 25 LaserWriters from a school auction, LW Select 360's, Personal LW 300's, Personal LW, LW II, LW LS, etc, and the personal ones seem to have the most problems and were in-fact quite slow, and okay quality... Just what I think.
I'm gonna grab the Laserwriter Plus.
Good Choice that will also work with newer Macs (NON USB that is)... BTW Would you like to pick me up the LW (Original)?
Are you serious? Do you know how much it would cost to ship that thing?
If you're really interested, private message me and I'll put you in touch with the guy that's selling them.