Boy howdy, thermal photo printing is cheap! How cheap? Well, here’s a breakdown of some deals on thermal paper rolls that will work in either my “Cyclops” toy camera or the Phomemo M02:
A Black Friday deal on 10 rolls of 58mm self-adhesive thermal paper specifically for these cameras/printers, 10 feet of paper per roll is $9.59 – Assuming an average per-print length of 3.5″ (generous), that works out to 343 prints at 2.8 cents per print. Crazy cheap, eh? The self-adhesive part is nice, too, if you intend to stick your prints in a note book.
Assuming you don’t need the stickiness or prefer using gluesticks, it gets even cheaper. A similar Black Friday deal on 6 rolls of plain high-end photo thermal paper for these cameras, 27 feet of paper per roll, is $12.87 – That works out to 555 prints at 2.32 cents per print.
It gets *way* cheaper if you have something like the Phomemo M02 which can feed paper from *outside* the printer. Note that the Phomemo M02 comes with a sticker roll in a plastic carrier and that paper roll is 53mm wide, which I guess is a common receipt size in Europe, because that’s the only places I see 53mm (2.09″) wide thermal paper on sale. In the US, the common size is 2 1/4″ (58mm), and that is also the size that the other thermal cameras take. No problem, though, because if you remove the plastic roll carrier from the printer, a 58mm roll will drop right in and feed fine. That means a 2 1/4″ wide roll will feed fine from outside the printer, no matter how many feet of paper are on the roll. That opens up the possibility of using common 2 1/4″ thermal rolls meant for cash registers, and that’s when the economies of scale really blow up.
So let’s look at one nice, cheap option. 10 rolls of receipt-grade thermal paper, 50 feet per roll, is $7.99 – This works out to 1,714 prints at less than half a cent per print. Jeepies, what a deal!
Not cheap enough? Same type of paper in a box of 50 rolls, 85 feet per roll, is $25.75 – hold onto your socks, because that’s 14,571 prints at less than 2/10th of a cent per print! A buck buys you *half a kilometer* of paper! Might as well be free at that point! :D
| Type | Feet Per Roll | QTY Rolls | Price | Feet Per $1 | # Prints* | Prints per Roll | Cents Per Print |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labels | 10 | 10 | $9.59 | 9.6 | 343 | 34 | 2.8 |
| Photo | 27 | 6 | $12.87 | 12.6 | 555 | 92 | 2.32 |
| Receipt | 50 | 10 | $7.99 | 62 | 1,714 | 171 | 0.466 |
| Receipt | 85 | 50 | $25.75 | 165 | 14,571 | 291 | 0.176 |
*Assuming Print @ 3.5″
I’m asking for one of these Thermal Print Cameras for Christmas; You’ve just given me a massive bargaining chip! With prints that cheap, your practically losing money not buying one!
Just remember you can only use the super-cheap rolls in the hinge-top printers, They’re too big diameter-wise to fit in the camera’s paper bay.