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So. In my preps for the 7th annual Zine Symposium. I’ve somehow manifested a used copier. Now, this thing is old but, in theory, it could open up a whole lot of doors for hundred dollar ideas. As soon as I get this thing fixed, the MoHDI zine factory will be open for business.
The copier is an old Canon np6030 and it does copy although, the copies are messed up. The machine weighs in at 170 pound and is quite difficult to move around. I got it for $150 off of craigslist plus $10 to my roommate for helping me get it. I debated spending much needed money on the copier as I know that getting the thing up and running nicely is not going to be cheap either. Copiers, like old cars, are great items to have if you want to steadily be throwing money at it.
Solutions to Problems
So, after I got the thing, I sat down and did some notes on what the copier is worth and how much it could save me in money.
Here are my notes.
click for larger view
Basically the cost of this copier is estimated at about $0.0172/double sided copy. This number includes, toner, drum wear and the cost of paper.
Kinkos charges $0.16/double sided copy
IPRC (with membership) charges $0.10/ double sided copy.
A decent sized zine uses about 10 pages of double sided paper.
So to produce 100 40 page (1 double sided copy is 4 pages) zines and you own your own copier, it would cost about $17.20.
100 zines at Kinkos : $160
100 zines at IPRC : $100
to produce just one 40 page zine
from home : $0.172
Kinkos : $1.60
IPRC : $1.00
I figure a zine of that size with decent content would sell for about $2 each. So for me to make my $160 back on the thing, I would have to make and sell 80 zines. Since the copier is going to need some repair work, I did a little chart in the notes of how high I might be willing to spend to get the thing fixed. For each $100 on repairs, I would have to sell 50 more zines on top of the initial 80 to make my money back.
I’m should be getting repair estimates this week sometime.
I do know a new drum costs about $100-$250 depending on where it’s bought. A drum gets about 60,000 impressions out of it.
Toner costs about $25, you get about 10,000 copies out of each cartridge.
You can get a good working copier for about $2000 or lease one for about $100/month or so, then you get service for free too.
Copier repair people probably get paid about $100/hour.
So.. I hope to get this thing fixed for as little money as possible. I’ll put the update of cost in the comments section of this post. At some point, I’ll look into costs of an injet and laser printer for producing zines.
What zines will MoHDI be producing?
Well for the zine symposium, I hope to finish “How to Make Hundreds in as little as 1-3 Years” zine. I also have a sketchbook zine I would like to produce and the “Solutions to Problems” zine.
Here is a little taste of “Solutions to Problems”…
(you may share these comics with a credit and a link to www.MoHDI.com)
I’ve written over 80 solutions to problems, I’m still working on some of the illustration work for it. If you would like to buy a copy of the zine, come out to the PDX zine symposium, or write me about it, it will be available in the shop pretty soon too. The retail cost on this I’m guessing will be $2 or $3 shipped. For those paying attention that’s a 1162% mark up from cost… whooo hooo.