Where to buy a replacement part for a printer?

How do I check Dell spare parts? I checked eBay and couldn't find much, not for what I need anyways. =/ I will check Lexmark, thank you.

Seriously though, having to throw away a printer for this is ridiculous. What a waste of everything - money, materials, time, and other resources. I wish we were more avid recyclers/reusers in this country. Worst comes to worse I will buy a different kind of super glue and see if that works, because we're not going to throw out a perfectly good printer for something so insignificant! I just thought that maybe there was an easier way to do this rather than seeing if we can put humpty dumpty back together again.

If Dell spare parts does not have what you need, one option is to buy a used one off of e-bay and use the used one for parts.  Unfortunately, unless the unit is under warranty there isn't very much hope for repairs, they become "throwaway" items like most computer components.  

One other thought, since the Dell's are made by Lexmark, a Lexmark repair center MAY have a part that will work.  Check the Lexmark web site for any repair centers close to you.

It has been that way for many years in the computer industry, they can manufacture new for less cost than repairing.  In the 80's we had IBM 3270 computer terminals in our offices (this was a large nationwide Federal Government Agency) and if there was a keyboard malfunction (bad key on the keyboard) it was less expensive for IBM to replace the keyboard and throw the defective one away then it was to repair (replace the defective key switch) the unit.  A new keyboard, at the time, cost IBM $26, just the logistics of packing it up and shipping it to a repair center was more than the $26.  It is the same way with equipment today and there is no incentive for manufacturers to stock spare parts, especially given where the devices are made.  Just to stock a (for example) $10 spare plastic part, if it were even ever needed would cost more than the actual part cost.  

I had a good example with a Canon printer.  The plastic "printhead" assembly went bad (Canon has separate ink cartridges for each cartridge and a separate print head that the ink cartridges feed into) and Canon wanted $89.95 for the printhead plus $12 for shipping.  The printer, new, was only $119 and a equivalent new Canon printer was only $129 so there was no reason to spend $100 for a replacement part and then have an "old" printer when a new one could be purchased for $30 more.  As it turned out in this case, I bought a new Epson printer for $89.95 that did everything the Canon did (and the photo printing was better) plus it printed directly on CD/DVD's, a function I needed for my recording studio 

One final comment, If I were using a device in an office environment, I would be buying "commerical office" type equipment, not something that was primarily designed for "consumer/home" use.  "Commerical" lines of equipment generally are higher priced but more reliable and if parts are needed there is a better chance to get them.  This comes from years managing Network and Help Desk and seeing what types of equipment are reliable in commercial office environments and which are not.

Are you talking about the dark grey tray that supports the paper or the paper guide that you can adjust side to side to keep the paper straight?

Shogun33