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What's with the "cash cow" ink cartridges? I can buy a brand new printer for less than black and color inks!

I opted to buy the new printer!! What to do with the old one? No one even wants it for free because of the price of ink cartridges. Even reconditioned ones with shipping are expensive. There's maybe a bucks worth of ink in them. Anything we can do about this monopoly?

Public Comments

1. Printers are sold by manufacturer's at or near a loss. They really only make money on the inks. Certain manufacturer's (Lexmark and co) have some outrageously priced cartridges, some (HP) you are paying for the cartridge technology and some (Epson) you are paying for the ink technology. There is little doubt that Epson produce the best home consumer inks in the world, and there is no 'cheap' versions that can come anywhere near. Also, the ink cartridges that are supplied with printers are often the part fill versions. So for instance, some HP cartridges are 13ml as standard, but the printer cartridge (same size etc) will only have 5ml of ink. As for the monopoly - you can purchase ink from any supplier to put into your printer. And despite what some shops will try to tell you this does not invalidate the warranty. However, if that 3rd party cartridge was to cause direct damage to the printer, then your warranty would be void. Also, you can use the manual refill systems (where you inject ink directly to the cartridges). For systems like HP and Lexmark (where the print head is part of the cartridge) this is a better idea than the reconditioned units as the print heads have a limited life and you never know how many times the cartridge has been reconditioned. As for what to do with the old printer, as you say it's often hard to get rid. If you are looking to give it away, you could always try taking it to a charity store.
2. Try link below
3. You do know that when you purchase the printer you are getting "trial Cartridges" they do have at most a quarter of the ink a new cartridge would have. So you still are wasting money. Refill your cartridges, buy third party. You will save a pile of money that way.