Purchased this machine a year ago on sale (at MyBinding.com) for less than $20. For the price paid, it works great - for light duty only. It only punches 5 sheets maximum of regular (20#) bond paper. If using heavy card stock (110#) and acetate covers, do ONE at a time. That being said, it can take a LONG time when making big booklets. Once you practice several times with it, you can get the hang of punching and opening/closing the combs. A few times, I have put too much in to punch and wondered if I was going to break it since it is made of plastic (from China), but didn't. You also need to remember to keep punching ALL of your stock the same direction for the best fit. It can adjust to 3 different paper sizes. There is a very narrow, long plastic cover on the underside that collects and holds the punched paper 'holes' which is easy to open and dump over a trash can.
COMB INFO:
Plastic combs are sold depending on how many sheets you want to put in them. I would recommend getting one additional size larger combs than the sheet recommendation for easier constructing and use. Smaller 'combs' are harder to use and fill than the medium to larger sized ones. The teeth of the opener have to be watched on the smaller combs to make sure all are open - in order to accept the punched paper before releasing to hook together. You cannot punch & put a comb on at the same time on this machine - it is two steps.
This machine assisted me in constructing 40 - 70 page journals. Fortunately, I had a month to do this project and all were pleased at the outcome but would prefer a better, faster comb binding machine. This can help you make nice looking booklets or reports (vertical or horizontal) that open flat and you have a wide variety of colors for the plastic combs and covers; so you can be a little creative.