David,

Having seen all of the choices and having done full-color laser sublimation, I'm still a proponent of ink jet sublimation.

All full-color systems have their pros and cons, but ink jet has covered more of my bases.

Even with sublimation out of the mix, the HP4550 makes a great printer for OEM custom certificates, post cards and other color office printing tasks.

I will add my '2 cents worth' and totally agree with David on his choices. After buying the 'alternative system' I decided it didn't do what I wanted it to do and have kept my HP4550 and upgraded to an Epson 4800 ... which I LOVE by the way ... I don't see how anyone doing sublimation with any mid-hi level of production gets by with a 1280 (my personal experience, of coure).
I like the 4550 for, as does David for mostly black on silver/gold plates ... plus this printer serves as my office printer and switching the toner cartridge to a sublimation toner cartridge is about a 1 minute process with no residual toner particals/ mess to deal with.