Printer (And Cartridge) Shopping
So I’m out on the hunt and it’s not as easy as I would have hoped. Having mentally ruled out the possibility of getting a laser printer (check the explanation), I’ve decided that a nice Lexmark, wireless networked, scanner/printer/photocopier should do the job nicely. The darn thing is… The stupid printer cartridges cost so flaming much. In a year and a half, I’d end up paying more for the ink than I would for the whole printer. Crazy, huh? I’m pretty darn sure that this is some hyped up conspiracy theory. The rich (the printer companies) get richer (by grossly overcharging for ink cartridges), and the poor (or not as the case may be), get poorer. Thankfully it’s not just me who’s noticed this though. PCWorld also wrote about the problem we’ve got, all be it, four years ago. It just shows how little the situation has changed though.
BusinessWeek asks again though… Cartidges alone, reportedly, made up over 50% of HP’s fiscal, annual profits in 2004, and recent research suggests things have only got worse for consumers in recent years. There are, of course, alternatives. Their reliability, the big name brands claim, are terrible, and patchy at best, however I’ve seen the results in action and I must say I’m not sure the results are any worse than the current Epson, £30 ($60) cartridges that we get at the moment. the only differences are brand name and price - to be brutally honest. Sites like InkShop.co.uk (whom agreed to sponsor this post) offer printer cartridges at 75% less than the retail price.
On the forefront though, at least I can get a darn cheap multi-function printer these days and simply hop on over to third party refillers. Google around for area based shops and ‘refill stations’ near you and (curse me for sounding like a freaking advert…) - see how much you can save. Seriously - plugs, sponsors and links aside. Just Google it. Now for someone to create an Ajaxy tool to calculate how much of our income we waste on freaking ink costs each year.
If anyone else knows of any recommended, or more specifically area-based refillers, feel free to share them in the comments. I’d like to weigh up options round abouts and see who offers best service/prices/deliverability, etc. If you’re NOT refilling cartridges, aside from damaging the environment, it’s your walet that’s getting colder by the sheet, not mine. On yet another side note, if anyone feels like recommending a decent multifunction printer whilst there at it, feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you’re using. Preferably something mid-priced. Not too shabby, not too bad. I’ve got cartridges to feed here, people. 
August 8th, 2007 at 8:58 pm
Lexmark is the worst. Their printers are so cheap (or given away free with computers, like the Z32 I have) since they make their money on ink & toner.
I have a Brother MFC 420CN and I love it. I can even scan over the network.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
You recommend Brother? Dang. Alongside Epson, there don’t seem to be half as many local retailers that will take their cartridges.
Thanks for the advice all the same.
Maybe I’ll have to do some more research, if Lexmark aren’t all that good.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I’ve been looking for a printer, but I keep on hesitating to buy one because of the price of ink. I nearly bought this HP C6180 from newegg last week though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16828104515
It’s an AIO, it has wireless networking, and a document feeder for scanning multiple pages in one go. It even has a fax (whatever that is). Oh, and all the colors are in individual cartridges so if you run out of one color you only have to replace one cartridge. All for $259 US.
August 9th, 2007 at 1:56 am
That HP C61808 looks nice. Good call on the newegg.com choice as well ^_^
August 9th, 2007 at 6:00 am
Do refils yourself. It’s very easy. You simply open it up, and inject the ink. You can even do cool stuff like melt glow in the dark stuff into the ink.
BTW, Printer ink is the world’s 6th most precious ink.
August 9th, 2007 at 6:13 am
I mean liquid. soz.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:20 am
The business model of printer manufacturers is pretty clear - sell printers at low prices, even at loss. Then squeeze the hell out of us, by selling cartridges at high prices.
Much like the business model of consoles, like PS3, which make around $500 loss per piece, but makes up from revenue from games.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Just noticed that you have redesigned header image. The “TechZi” text looks jagged. And add some web2.0 gloss, will ya?
August 9th, 2007 at 11:26 am
I’ll get onto it.
I finally decided it was time for a change, in response to seeing some other people my age start pushing their own ages quite more actively.
Gotta stay in the game… Hehe.
August 10th, 2007 at 1:03 am
Also, make sure you get a printer that uses separate ink cartridges for each color (as most do now). Avoid ones that use a 3-color cartridge (like my old Lexmark) since you’ll end up wasting ink when one color is gone before the others, which almost always happens.
With my old Epson printer, I made the mistake of buying cheap generic cartridges. The print quality was horrible, with streaking and uneven color.
August 11th, 2007 at 11:53 am
The Epson Stylus DX7400 looks quite good for £60 from amazon. Original Cartridges are also available from a amazon for £18.50 for a full set of ink cartridges
( magenta, cyan, yellow and Black) which equates to about £4.63 per cartridge. Not that bad really. If you wanted to network it then you’d have to get a Belkin Wireless Printserver for £50. Depends on how much you’re willing to spend really.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Are the cartridges separate ones? And isn’t $40 for a set a bit much? I’d prefer to pay $5 for a re-filled set.
August 11th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
They are separate cartridges. Well if we were to just use the ones that came with the printer then you probably would get it refilled for a decent price. Wouldn’t of thought $36.25 was that much for a set of 4 cartridges though?
November 8th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
[…] This is one argument that I won’t let drop… Ink Cartridges and their (to say the least) absolutely RIDICULOUS pricing. I blogged about it back in August… What’s changed since then? Well, in all honesty, not that much. Laser printers are still killing people and the printer companies are still demanding borderline unbelievable prices for their cheap-as-pie to produce toner cartridges. […]
January 24th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Thanks for the useful resource