"Hardware costs will be recovered in a few sessions" I can get a color copy of 240 chips for 49 cents total. So I copied 500 chips front and back and it cost me $1.08. A scanner does a lot more than scan chips and scans are a more versitile than color copies but if we are looking only at cost, Staples beats a scanner. And to some, that tech stuff becomes their crack - within two or three years they think they "need" to buy something more and they are buying another scanner every few years. If we are looking at cost only, Staples beats a scanner.

"carrying around a bunch of copies" and "spending $40-$50 to make color copies of your chips" I'd need over 17,000 chips before it cost that much. I'm not talking about a permanate record or something to see the edge grains. I'm talking about a simple way of seeing what chips you already have. Yeah, with 17,000 chips I need to get a scanner. Spending $40 on color copies, yes a bad idea, time to get a scanner.

If you've got 1000 chips, at Staples you can copy them all on two pages, reduced yes, but large enough to easily recognize immediatly, and it only costs you $2. You bring your lap tops. I'll bring my two pages. And we'll both have a good time.