zlacker

>>rntn+(OP)
How come printers don't have cheap Chinese device duplicates? The fundamental laser patents are from the 80s and 90s. Surely a reimplementation of these exist somewhere. I would gladly AliExpress one of these and just USB to print.

>>renewi+qf
China can't make them cheaper than HP and Brother dump them for, I suspect.

They could probably make knockoff LaserJet IIIs, but nobody wants enough to fire up an entire line.

>>bombca+7g
I checked this too. Alibaba is too busy selling newer, but related, technologies (laser cutters, t-shirt printers, 3d printers, medical devices, etc, etc) at what look like reasonable margins.

I'm sure the same factories could make zero-margin laser or inkjet printers, but why target a shrinking, obsolete market when you could use the same employee expertise to build things for growing, high margin markets?

I'm guessing buggy whip and carriage bolt manufacturers charged crazy markups for 10-20 years after the Model T came out. I think we're witnessing something similar (especially for inkjets that target document sized printouts).

>>hedora+ek
Correct - most things on the 'baba are either

1. Parts

2. Various cheap items without brands

3. Obvious "overruns" of a branded factory smuggled out the back door

4. Additional runs of a factory that is no longer making whatever it was for the original manufacturer

5. Supplies

You find some printer stuff in 1 and 5, and I saw a few that might be 3 or 4.

Nobody in China is bringing up ancient equipment lines (and it would likely be way more expensive).

At most, you might be able to find someone somewhere (if you have the right connections) that can get you a default firmware for some known printer that is OEM'd to everyone. I know these have been found for things like smart bulbs and other firmware'd devices.