Stapler-Stacker

Stacker

Staples and Spares

HP CE405A Stapler Stacker for HP LaserJet M601 Printer.

HP CE405A is the Stapler Stacker for the HP LaserJet Enterprise 600 series printers, M601, M602 and M603. It is backwards compatible (ie should work with) the LaserJet P4014, P4015 and P4515 printers.

Whether a stapler-stacker is of use depends on what the printer is typically for. If it's used primarily to print reports, legal and financial documents then the stapler stacker will save that minute or so stacking and stapling the sheets every time the printer is used.

The stapler/stacker fits on top of the printer and with its forward facing jogger and tray gives it a rather bullish look. It isn't quite that powerful and can only staple up to 15 sheets - although with a duplex report that is 30 sides and probably enough for most people.   Typical uses are probably in law, finance and insurance where proposals and other documentation are mass-produced according to data-base formulae.

Although it is "only" an accessory the stapler stacker is actually more complicated than many small printers

The stapler-stacker has quite a long heritage dating back to the Q2443A/B used on the LJ-4200 series in 2002. Although these are rather specialist devices HP has clearly found them worthwhile; the M604 series printers launched in spring 2015 have a remodelled stapler/stacker device the F2G72A.

Pages that are redirected into the stapler-stacker are taken over by its own drive motor and emerge first into the jogger. They are held until the job is complete, when it closes on them to form a neat pile. Ordinarily jobs emerge from the printer into the face-down tray and are top of page first. The stapler is in the rear, so when jobs are diverted to it the printer turns the text of a page round so that text emerges foot first and the stapler can engage the top corner.

The staples are a consumable and so in the long term is the stapler itself as its innards wear out. The stapler is RM2-6202-000CN. (Disappointingly, only one UK distributor has any trace of it (we can probably get it).

As with most accessories web research yields lots of vendors and little by way of technical information. The best cover of how the stapler stacker works seems to be in the LaserJet 4200/4350 joint manual Part number Q5400-90932 Edition 1, 11/2004. That has diagrams that remain relevant.

Printers equipped with the stapler/stacker generally have a few extra feeder trays as well. Part of the attraction of the device is that the printer can run longer unattended if it has extra paper feeders.

Print paths for the stapler stacker and stacker.

HP Information

In 2013 HP Partsurfer did not show any information for CE405A or CE405. CE405-67901 gets a response with terse information and a "used in list as follows".

Icecat says for this stapler stacker there is one short product code CE405A and several GTINs (EAN/UPC) code:0778889348222, 0886111320103, 4054842265048, 8861113201034, 4053162284685, 0725184753466

Although Partsurfer implies the CE405-67901 is only for the LJ-M601 series other information confirms it will work with the P4014, P4015 and P4515.

Web Research

A google Query on CE404A (in quotes") in August 2013 gave About 95,500 results (0.26 seconds) . the exercise repeated with the first in organic search being as follows:

hp.com £223, hp.com $149.00, provantage.com $148.50, amazon.com ADVENTURER'S BAG $185.00+$16.30, printware.co.uk £200.14, officecrave.com $165.99, printstore.xma.co.uk login for price, pricegrabber.com Compubiz USA $153.00, pricegrabber.com Compubiz USA $153.00, colorhexa.com irrelevant page, amazon.co.uk One-Stop PC-Shop £244.63, laserjet.co.uk £179.17, printershowcase.com $169.00, shopmania.com Concord Supplies $241.08, printers-uk.com £ 205.52, idealo.co.uk £214.37, adorama.com $190.39, fastprinters.com $193.05, printersq.blogspot.co.uk £158.99, feedroller.com $187.01, printerworks.com refurb $91.88, ebay.com hypermicrosystems $51.29, costcentral.com $158.17, hpshop.ie €230.18, imldirect.com £219.58, directdial.com $189, microage.ca $228.00, shopmania.co.za R3.650, shop.digitec.ch CHF 274, lasystems.be no price

Our own reaction to that looking at it again in July 2015 was that it was rubbish, prices all over the place with no rhyme or reason. However another look at the Google top 20 in July 2105 gives something similar. This time there are about 7,350 results (0.27 seconds):

hp.com $249.00, hp.com/UKStore £573 incVAT, Amazon Image_spareparts $239.99, cdw.com $299.99, Amazon blue_e £409.00, Amazon IvoryEgg £495.46, provantage.com $261.38, printerworks.com refurb $153.55, printershowcase.com $269, printware.co.uk £360.22 exVAT(£432.26 inc), hardware.com page not found, centralpoint.nl €494 exVAT, walmart.com $282.99+$20 shipping, XMA.co.uk -login, lmc.com.au $279.00 officecrave.com $0.99 but out of stock, ebay.com antonline $290.91, production.eu login for price, compubizusa.com $341.58, http://refillinkcartridge.co.uk £649.89 exVAT

Prices noted are for a new item, one off, without tax. The list is as encountered. We haven't bothered with currency conversion - half of our readers are outside the UK and are more interested in dollar prices.

Cultural differences are notable. US prices contain loads of trickery for instance $261 with MFR List $318.17 stuck out and "Save 56.79" - but the vendor is more expensive than HP themselves.

US and Australian prices seem markedly lower than those in Europe. The same item can be had from HP in the US for $249 or for £573 in the UK (see below).   Differences in the costs of doing business, market size, warranty expectations and so forth - but why would HP want to stifle sales of accessories with an unnecessarily high price in the UK?   We should set up an import operation!

None of the websites seen gave any further information on the product - a couple of listings gave irrelevant pages. In 2013 there was one possibly helpful blog on this part, but we couldn't find it again in 2015. All the rest were merely vendors giving no more information than found in the HP brochure or website.

Supply Situation

Stapler stackers are one of those devices that is often wanted on a printer. If the average print job is a report, legal agreement or finance document then it will be stapled in the corner and that can be done by the printer or by having a normal office stapler alongside. If these accessories were a good price they would sell well. Priced at much over £300 we don't think they will - confirmed by the UK distributors holding little or no stock and ordering from HP if and when the need ever arises. Perhaps they are made to order, customized and gold plated - it would explain the price.

The part is listed by one UK distributor but they don't hold stock and their trade price is above Printware's retail noted above at £360.22. We wondered how they achieved that because its better than the distribution price. We found that under code CE405-67901 the device is much cheaper, less than half price. That might help explain the odd pricing and the division between Europe and the US.

We can provide the stapler stacker, either as code CE405A or CE405-67901 - which will be cheaper but does not carry the same warranty In 2013 the price for CE405A coded items was about £399 and that rose slightly to £411, better than HP UK's price of £573 inc VAT (477.50 Ex). The price for the CE405-67901 could be a bit over £200. However if you want the bargain price you get an engineering warranty of 90 days.

Prices cited are guidelines, our prices change automatically with distribution lists - see the catalog. Stock numbers seen in distribution indicate little call for this part in the UK or Europe.

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Low demand for a useful gadget in the UK and Europe could well be due to pricing. Quite simply, a couple of hundred dollars to the (rich) US market looks like a productivity tool. Over £400 looks to the UK market like a silly luxury - higher than the cost of the printers!

That is part of the problem of course. Competition between the brands to sell cartridges has driven the price of printers right down to less than a fifth their historic price. The stapler stacker is complicated; they were once fitted onto machines that cost over a thousand pounds, so £400 or so didn't seem outrageous. But if printers cost less than the accessories people dig their heels in. And if the price in the US is half that in the UK that isn't surprising. But that wrecks the logistics and means the accessory is a special order and the effect on pricing is as though it WERE being custom made.

The stapler stacker could be a valuable productivity tool.   Actually, the price is not entirely out of line with that of electric staplers.

Our office supplies catalogue has the Rexel Staple Wizard electric stapler for £27.39 but it is intended more for fun that productivity. The RAPESCO Heavy duty stapler EH70F is £569.99 with a pack of 5,000 staples for £31.88 and the Rexel Stella 70 for £407.39 with staples at £35.89 - they can do 70 sheets however - a small book. The RAPESCO 826EL is more comparable to the CE405A, 20 sheets stapled and it costs £147.46 and about £6 for packs of 5,000 staples.

Considered in the light of electric staplers sometimes costing over £400 the CE405A is actually a bit of a bargain. It catches the print jobs as they come out of the machine, jogs them into a neat heap then whacks a staple in the corner - far more sophisticated than its office-stationery rivals!

But if your considering buying it also look at the price of staples.   HP staples come in a neat little cartridge but in July 2015 they sell it online in the UK for £27 for three packs of a thousand.   So if you are used to a pack of staples costing £3 you might get all cross! (we can improve on that price!)

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site useage patterns.