About every 18 months or so, I end up replacing all of the toner carts on my printer. This costs in the neighborhood of $400. Keep in mind the printer itself only cost around $600 at the time with its first set of carts. I also, just before I moved, got the image drum warning, and I have one of those already waiting, which cost something like $150.
Printing is expensive. I don't really print out very much stuff, except for a couple of business checks per month and CoasterBuzz Club cards. There's some peripheral junk now and then, but for the most part we're not big paper people. So I feel dirty every time I have to replace those damn things because they seem like such a rip off. It takes about 16 club memberships to cover the cost of printing.
I've looked into specialized and outsourced ways to do cards, but none have really panned out. I'd love to do plastic cards, but the screening printers are crazy expensive. I don't think I'd go that route unless the club got into the 2,000 member range.