The market prices of digital copiers have reduced significantly over the past years. Despite the drop, the price variation across vendors is still significantly high. There are vendors that put the price of a digital copier at an unfair value. Other vendors have the price at reasonable rates. However, you can also (with a bit of searching) find some vendors selling digital copiers at very low cost. Be cautious, the cost of acquiring the copier may be low but associated costs of maintenance and other charges may raise the price you actually pay to a higher value. The reduced cost is just to lure customers, but the ultimate value of the copier will be higher than normal. Digital copier cost, lease, digital copier prices and features are important when acquiring one.

Cost of a Copier

Before looking at digital copier prices, it is important that one knows what they want exactly. The features of the copier needed will be instrumental in determining the price of the copier. The higher the performance of the copier and the more features it has, the higher the digital copier cost, which also varies with brand. Like with almost all other products, good, well-known brands are naturally more expensive than other, lesser-known (and possibly inferior) brands. However, this is not to say that there aren’t high quality copiers out there from less famous brands; you may simply need to be more careful and selective to be sure you get a good one.

Copiers for business should cost around $1,500 for brands that have low performance and few features. Machines that can operate at 20ppm with monthly performance of 10,000 copies cost around that much. Faster and more modern models would go for between $3000 and $10,000. These copiers are suitable for work groups or mid volume copies with performance levels of between 21 and 35 ppm. For somewhere between $10,000 and $13,000 you can get a fully loaded black and white copier. To take home a colored copier operating at levels of 30 to 35 ppm you need around $20,000. Refurbished copiers are cheaper, costing around $5000.

For those who require advanced copiers, there are some that are designed for business that would meet their needs. High volume machines that perform at rates of 56 to 56 ppm cost between $39,000 and $60,000. Then there are copiers that are superior to even these. Such copiers operate at over 100 ppm and can make between 600,000 and 800,000 copies per month. These digital copiers are sold for $80,000.

Features that affect Price

One of the central factors that affect the price of a copier is whether it has color or it is black and white only. Besides brand and performance requirements, your color needs are also one of the add-ons that severely affects the price. One should expect an increase in price for a colored copier by about 20% to 30% for a colored copier of similar speed and capacity to that of a black and white one. The cost of materials for black and white copiers ranges from 0.05 to 0.08 cents per page; on the other hand, the materials for color copiers will cost between 1.9 to 3.0 cents per page. If service contracts are included, the black and white will cost 0.09 to 2 cents for every page while colored will be valued at 4 to 9 cents for every page. There are also various other add-on features that affect price, but these are the main ones.

Leasing Costs

The cost of leasing a copier varies. It depends on the person giving out the copier and many other factors, such as the features of the copier. However, there are approximate rates that can be considered to be the standard rates of leasing a copier. A sharp MX-M450N that has 45cpm 2,500-paper capacity with networking capability will be leased for around $208 per month provided it has a 40GB hard disc. A new Ricoh Aficio3035 copier that has faxing capabilities and operates at a rate of 35ppm will be leased at roughly $224 per month. The copier also has a document feeder. Other copiers can be leased for $177 per month. There are cheaper low volume copiers operating at speeds of 20 to 30 ppm that can be leased for a minimum of $70 per month.

Leasing vs. Buying

Leasing a copier has the advantage of retaining the business cash flow at a high level. Buying a new business copier will imply that the business releases a large amount of cash, thus creating a gap in the cash flow which will not be realized when leasing. However, getting a lease is quite a bit more expensive in the long run. When one considers the amount of money that is paid for the cumulative time, it becomes obvious that leasing simply costs more. Nevertheless, getting a lease does have the advantage of allowing a business to have modern copiers with no risk of breakdown. Unfortunately, sometimes the business will be locked to the terms of the contract and may not make any adjustments. This is usually inadvisable, and it is important that the terms should always be looked over very carefully in the beginning.