I'm so glad I found this forum because I am in desperate need of some good advice. First let me say Hello, since this is my first post to the forum. I'm not in the printing industry, but I have been printer obsessed for a few weeks now trying to make a decision on a laser printer. I need to purchase a good quality laser printer to print my product labels. I would like to keep the cost below 1K if I can, but if my requirements aren't realistic for that budget, I can increase that a bit.

So far I have bought and returned two entry level lasers (HP2600n and Brother HL-4040cn). Both printers had color registration issues, color banding, the Brother also had some odd glossy stripes when I printed on the laser labels that I use. I know my lables are a challenge to print well. They have a solid color background with either black or reverse print white text. I think part of the problem is that the two printers that I tried out were entry level printers (you get what you pay for kind of thing). But the other HP models in stock at the office supply store had a much higher duty cycle that wasn't required.

My main concern is print quality. The labels and cardstock tags that I print need to look great. Speed isn't as big of an issue to me as quality. I need a laser because I need the water resistance that I don't get with my InkJet. My monthy duty cycle is pretty low, maybe 2K...maybe.

Are there printers out there in my price range that don't have the issues that I have seen with the entry level printers or am I looking for something that doesn't exist?

TIA
Sharon