A lot of computer peripheral products are coming down in price, but none so dramatically over the past year as scanners of all descriptions. While I'm sure someone will emerge from a cave somewhere waving one they found under a pile of old EGA monitors, the hand-scanner, which used to sell in the same price range, has all but disappeared. Depending on the company, they can fit in a 5.25 in. Sheet-fed Visioneer PaperPort Strobe Storm Tech. Sheet-fed units, once less expensive than flatbed models, are now, by and large, more expensive.
Flatbeds dominate Flatbed scanners dominate the market.
For example, I used several models early last year to scan hand tools, circuit boards, memory modules and full motherboards for my book, How to Avoid Buying a New Computer . In order to bring the price down and scanning speed up, many of the low-priced models make some sacrifices. It's also not uncommon for these units' scanning lamps to stay lit whenever the power is on to reduce warm-up time. Likewise, many aren't available for the Mac. Some of the lesser-known far eastern 'brands' are hard to find, to get information.