How much do you pay for your Ink Cartridges?
I don’t print a lot of things too often, mainly just directions from Google maps or a recipe or 2. I got married a few months back and one of the things me and my wife decided to do was print our wedding invitations ourselves. The printer I have is a HP all in one, bought it about 5 years ago. The ink cartridges has only been replaced once. I knew the ink was getting low, so I decided to go buy a new cartridge before I started printing the invitations. I went to office max to pick up a new ink cartridge and was really surprised about the prices.
It was crazy, my printer uses a combo of cartridges, a black cart and a color cart. The combo of ink cartridges I bought cost me over $60 bucks. I only paid about $160 for the printer 5 years ago, I’m pretty sure I could get the same printer today for less than $100 bucks. Sometimes it seems almost cheaper to just buy a new printer, that would include a new cartridge than it would be to replace the cartridge, that’s if your needs just call for a basic printer
Why do Ink cartridges cost so much?
One thing Ive always known is that companies subsidize the cost of the printer with the cost of the ink cartridges. Meaning they will sell a printer for a little less then make up the price by selling the Ink cartridge at top dollar. That’s why every brand of printer has their own brand of ink carts. And most of them only fit certain printers. There are ways to get cheaper ink for your printer. My father use to buy those refillable ink kits that you can refill the cartridge yourself but they are a bit messy. If you search around the web, you can find 3rd party ink cartridges that work just as well as the branded ones you can buy in office max.
For example: My printer is the HP PSC 750. At Office Max today, a kit that includes the black cart and the color cart will cost $57.99, but if you go over to a website like Inkshop.co.uk, you can buy both of those carts for about $28 bucks. Mind you that site is a UK based site and you would have to pay shipping etc, but you get the general idea.
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July 8th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
The cost of ink is one reason to be as paperless as possible. Printer ink is ridiculously expensive! I’ve tried just about every option, including generic cartridges from sites like PrintPal. Nothing prints quite like a genuine HP cartridge.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I don’t know I still use my dot matrix printer
More seriously, you’re right they get you on the ink cartridges. If you are going to print regularly and don’t need colors then laser is the way to go.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:29 am
I hate paying for less than $100 for a color inkjet printer, only to feel duped a year later when I’ve spent $200 for ink cartridges.
July 14th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
I am not sure if you know it or not but those cartridges can be refilled. They cost too way low than purchasing new ones. As a whole I don’t link ink cartridge printers because they are really really very costly.
July 14th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Yeah! Frederick is right and I totally agree on what he said. My husband had a same problem about cost of ink.
July 14th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
so thats why they cost so much… now i understand… sorta
-Mariah
July 15th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Cartridge prices are rediculous! I remember going to my local store, and for the prices of a new set of cartridges for my 3 year old printer, I could buy a new better printer, will cartriges for a little bit more money.
Refills are the way forward I think.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
You have to admire the printer companies’ business model…selling you a cheap printer at a loss while then selling expensive ink cartridges at a large profit. This model is very similar to what the razor blade companies do.
July 17th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
Actually there are many companies following this model and it will continue as long as we , the public but the story, which we will
July 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Hewlett-Packard is notorious for this gambit. They used to brag to their client-companies in medical imaging that they made more profit on printer refills than the gross revenue of (some quite large!) international medical products companies.
Tacky b******s!
July 21st, 2008 at 4:36 am
There are different price to buy category. Thanks for sharing this information.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I was just pondering this yesterday. I am getting my grad degree online, which means LOTS of printing. My fellow students and I have devised a few tricks to cut down on ink and paper as much as possible, but it’s still costly. For what, a little plastic box with a few oz. of ink in it? Crazy.
July 21st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
HEH! On my country I don’t need to buy a new one :). I can simply refill it :).
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Also, is it just me or do the new photo quality printers suck down a lot more ink when you are just printing documents?!? I don’t even want photo quality, it is cheaper for a drugstore to print my pics for me. It just seems to use more ink.
July 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
It would be better if someone can purchase a new printer then. I think new age cartridge printers should be used as disposable stuff.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:06 am
There is a store her in our place that buys empty cartridge. You can sell it if you want.
July 25th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I always thought that they cost so much because they had to use very tiny fingers to get the ink in there, and child labor laws were getting stricter!
August 1st, 2008 at 10:10 am
Kicks, is it possible that empty cartridges can be sold? I think there is no solution other than throwing them put of my home.
August 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 am
Monopoly games…more and more….
August 4th, 2008 at 1:32 am
Yeah why dont you try the suggestion of
fredrick. he has given a wonderful suggestion to fill ink rather than buying a new cartridges to save money. even though the post is simple one i really enjoyed the post and comments.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
I’ve basically stopped printing all but the most necessary of documents. Printer cartridge prices are ridiculous. With my freelance article submissions I tend to favor those who allow electronic submissions over paper copies. By the time you take into account the printing and mailing costs you are already way behind, and that is assuming your article gets accepted.
August 5th, 2008 at 10:31 am
You Know you can modified your printer by putting your ink out of your cartride (the ink is store out of the printer ), so you don’t need o buy new cartride but just buy the ink, so you only refil the ink not buy the cartride, so it’s more cheaper.. , anyway it’s depend on your local store,they sell the ink or not….
August 5th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
The problem with that is you have to deal with the ink, which is a pain and can be messy.
The other problem is the cartridges start degrade after a few refills and can potentially mess up your printer
August 10th, 2008 at 1:05 am
I use one of the refill places in the mall. So far so good, it seems to be doing trick
August 11th, 2008 at 1:27 am
They are really expensive here. When I go to buy 2 for my printer…Wow their price was more than the half new printer. My decision was to buy new cheap printer every time when my ink is end and after that to sell the printer.
August 29th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Yep… I know exactly how it feels to be hit by a big ink bill (I’m a freelance writer who needs to frequently print out revisions for editing).
I’ve taken to using third-party compatible ink cartridges for my HP 930C, and I’ve noticed little to no quality drop.
One day I’ll try refilling, it looks like it could be messy though.
-Fred
September 24th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Very messy job to refil, but keep buying them is expensive.
Ink Cartridges
November 1st, 2008 at 11:51 am
its really getting expensive here, i don’t like opting for cheaper ink, they take away the quality,
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm
is it just me or do the new photo quality printers suck down a lot more ink when you are just printing documents?!? I don’t even want photo quality, it is cheaper for a drugstore to print my pics for me. It just seems to use more ink.
December 5th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I agree to all of you guys that ink cartridges are really expensive. As you noticed most printer companies do sell their printers on a lower price and sell a cartridge a bit more expensive that really cost you to buy a new printer, maybe this is their tactic and techniques in order to sell both the printer and the cartridges itself. But for me nothing beets the original cartridge, it gives you a quality prints than those refilled ones. But if your really on a tight budget you can refill it yourself but be careful, refilling it might cause damage on your cartridges that will cause you to buy a new one or maybe a printer.
December 11th, 2008 at 7:19 am
One thing Ive always known is that companies subsidize the cost of the printer with the cost of the ink cartridges. Meaning they will sell a printer for a little less then make up the price by selling the Ink cartridge at top dollar. That’s why every brand of printer has their own brand of ink carts. And most of them only fit certain printers. There are ways to get cheaper ink for your printer. My father use to buy those refillable ink kits that you can refill the cartridge yourself but they are a bit messy. If you search around the web, you can find 3rd party ink cartridges that work just as well as the branded ones you can buy in office max.
February 6th, 2009 at 5:09 am
I hate paying for less than $70 for a color inkjet printer.
February 9th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
There are uninterruptable ink supply devices on the market.
I saw one installed on Epson ink printer. Sweet device.
February 18th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
You can always get these guys to supply recycled ink cartidges, saves you a fortune and I’ve found they work just as well in my two machines. Bonus is, it helps save on trash.
April 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
If you’re not printing photos I would go for recycled or compatible cartridges. The genuine ones can be expensive but if you need the quality they are the best choice.
April 19th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
ink cartridge is very important part for printer. I knew the ink was getting low, so I decided to go buy a new cartridge before I started printing the invitations. I went to office max to pick up a new ink cartridge and was really surprised about the prices.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Ink cost way to much.
Even half price is still expensive.
I try not to print to much.
May 31st, 2009 at 3:44 am
One time on a pc store, there’s ink cartridges for sale, and there is a freebie. You can get a printer in every purchase of Lexmark Color Ink cartridges. Now don’t ask how much that cartridge cost.. hehe
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:33 am
Ya you are right.. i agree your points. It’s more expensive that really cost you to buy a new printer. Printer cartridge prices are very ridiculous. We are in tight budget we itself to refill them. It was a great and useful article.
June 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 am
Ya you are right.. i agree your points. It’s more expensive that really cost you to buy a new printer. cartridge prices are very ridiculous. We are in tight budget we itself to refill them. It was a great and useful article.
June 28th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I think we can refill them and you should find someone in your reach. I often get them refilled and they always work very well.
July 18th, 2009 at 6:38 am
If you don’t see your printer manufacturer there, don’t worry! Just click on one of those links and follow the instructions, adapting them where necessary. If you’ve been looking for cheap ink cartridges.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I came across this interesting blog post about this exact subject (details here: http://www.castleink.com/_a-game.html). Apparently companies like Epson and HP make all of their money on the ink cartridges, and actually take a loss in many cases on the printers.
October 18th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
I was tired of ink and toner being expensive also. The HP 78 and Hp 15 Cartridge For The Hewlett Packard Psc 750 Was Found At http://officeinks.com for under $27. That includes both cartridges made in america and shipping. OfficeInks.com has a 1 year quality and satisfaction guarantee, plus free return shipping if you are not 100% satisfied. Just call the Toll Free Number of contact customer service. The bad thing is that they only ship inkjet ink and toner to the USA.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
HP would always be the number brand of ink cartridges. It’s quality is just remarkable. Hewlett Packard is irreplaceable in my own opinion.
November 26th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
I just buy worth of $7 of refill and that’s it. EVerything is solved and works just fine.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Cartridge prices are rediculous! I remember going to my local store, and for the prices of a new set of cartridges for my 3 year old printer, I could buy a new better printer, will cartriges for a little bit more money.
Refills are the way forward I think.