What is the deal with printer ink pricing? - Hardware & Software

Seriously. We need to buy ink for two of our printers. A HP PSC 750, and a HP Photosmart C3180. Can someone tell me why a combo pack for the PSC 750 is $65 at Staples, yet the combo pack for the Photosmart is only $35? Granted, $35 is still a nice sum of money, but still, why is the ink from a much older printer $30 more? Its not like its any better from what I can tell.

I just buy a new printer whenever mine runs out of ink. Sadly, it's cheaper.

[QUOTE=I_Forgot;26914834]I just buy a new printer whenever mine runs out of ink. Sadly, it's cheaper.[/QUOTE] Ironically it's true. I bought a printer for 100$ and it came with 2 ink cartridges. 1 cartridge normally costs 60$ so 2 of them is 120$, costs more than the printer+2 free cartridges.

The electronics recycling centre gives me $10 for a printer. I can get cheap printers on sale for $30. I spend $20 on a new printer. Ink costs $40. This is ridiculous.

Am I the only one who read the title in Jerry Seinfeld's voice?

[QUOTE=I_Forgot;26914834]I just buy a new printer whenever mine runs out of ink. Sadly, it's cheaper.[/QUOTE] You do realize that they don't give you full cartridges with new printers right? [editline]23rd December 2010[/editline] Also, if you buy third party ink cartridges from eBay, you'll pay much MUCH less, and get much more ink than a OEM cartridge. I got a set of 3xBlack and one of CYM for only $20 in total on eBay for my old color AIO Each cartridge is capable of holding 3 times more ink than the OEM cartridges.

[QUOTE=B1N4RY!;26916682]You do realize that they don't give you full cartridges with new printers right? [editline]23rd December 2010[/editline] Also, if you buy third party ink cartridges from eBay, you'll pay much MUCH less, and get much more ink than a OEM cartridge. I got 3xBlack, and one set of CYM for only $20 in total on eBay for my old color AIO Each cartridge is capable of holding 3 times more ink than the OEM cartridges.[/QUOTE] I've never noticed that, probably because I only use my printer to print off the occasional paper for college. They seem to last quite a while, so I don't really mind. Hell the printer I have now has a scanner built into it, and it was the same price as some other printers, and it was the same price as ink.

[QUOTE=B1N4RY!;26916682]You do realize that they don't give you full cartridges with new printers right? [/QUOTE] True, the ones that come with printer are not, but the ones that shop gives as a gift are.

[QUOTE=johan_sm;26916987]True, the ones that come with printer are not, but the ones that shop gives as a gift are.[/QUOTE] Never got those. But seriously, look how cheap the OEM ink cartridges are on ebay: [url]http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Ink-Brother-MFC-240C-235C-440CN-5460CN-LC51-LC-51-/260545983694?pt=BI_Toner&hash=item3ca9c034ce[/url] $3.49 + $2.99 shipping for a full set of ink for my old Brother MFC-240C

Cool people don't print anything.

Printer ink is more expensive per liter than liquid gold :eng101: Also just do as everyone else and buy the cheap non-branded ink. Gives same result, only worry is it doesn't tell you when it's about to run out.

I just use a 15-year old laser printer. 600DPI is a lot better than most ink printers and the toner cartridges almost never go empty. For $60 I can get a cartridge the prints 5000 pages. Need to find a color laser printer though. It costs a lot more for toner (three cartridges plus black cost at least $150) but again, it lasts almost forever. Keeping on topic though, Ink is surprisingly expensive to manufacture. It's like gas: the price can keep rising and they know we have no choice but to pay up because most people are too lazy to find an alternative.

Well, it's made from the blood of orphans and shipped from India, so that's some production and shipping costs plus profit.

Anyone use a continuous flow system?

[QUOTE=dirtydirtypanda;26918712]Anyone use a continuous flow system?[/QUOTE] Not quite but I have big bottles of ink and I refill them with a syringe. The only problem is mine is a brother printer that has an overflow tank that has, in software, an expiration thing on it so I have to reset it using the annoying unlabelled internal service menu. I could probably rig up a continuous flow thing because this particular model has the cartridges static with little tubes to the print head.

[QUOTE=PvtCupcakes;26917293]Cool people don't print anything.[/QUOTE] Coolest men print everything. Fuck WWF

I use laser as well, the toner lasts for ever. It's more expensive, but the machines are generally more reliable. Plus, printouts are sexy as fuck. No more ink bleeding out through the other side.