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Why is printer ink more expensive than buying a new printer??


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DH and I priced out ink cartridges before we bought our new printer.   :lol:   

 

He's in shock over how fast we replace it (we went from a laser to an inkjet), so we are definitely replacing it more often.  We have a Brother that takes LC 101/103 cartridges.  I can buy them at Walmart, but I usually order from Amazon Prime.  

 

I try to convince DH that we should have frozen pizzas at every meal but he doesn't agree.  ;)

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DH and I priced out ink cartridges before we bought our new printer.   :lol:   

 

Smart!! 

 

We got a printer from my MIL - so yes it was free, but, the ink is about double what we could buy a new printer for.  We were going to give it to our dd for her dorm room, but I think we'll price around (printer AND ink) & end up buying new.  

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That is how the companies make money. It's called bait-and-switch. They price the printers cheap (barely at cost) and then make money on the consumables. The initial cost of the Keurig machine cheaper than the cost of buying K-cups over 3 years. Candy Crush Saga is free, but then there are in-app purchases that will add up over time. It is the same strategy. :)

 

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That is how the companies make money. It's called bait-and-switch. They price the printers cheap (barely at cost) and then make money on the consumables. The initial cost of the Keurig machine cheaper than the cost of buying K-cups over 3 years. Candy Crush Saga is free, but then there are in-app purchases that will add up over time. It is the same strategy. :)

Exactly. And when that doesn't work, you find another way force people to buy your single use kcups and call it choice in your most patronizing tone of voice.

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I used to rant about this until I realized how CRAPPY those cheap printers are that I was buying.  Once my brother convinced me to get a HP Office Jet 8600 (series).. it was $150 on sale...  I haven't looked back.  I replace the black cartridge about once every year  ($41) and the color cartridges ($50) about once every 1.5 yrs.  I don't have ANY of the problems with this printer that I wrestled with when using the cheap printers.  It is all more expensive in the long run, but there is NO aggravation, it's an 'everything' printer, and wireless.  A real workhorse too.  No more rants!  

 

Oh, except the Keurig thing.......  got a super fancy high end one for an anniversary gift from my mom and suddenly my modest little habit got super pricey.  I got the 'my cup' thingy where I can use my own grounds and things got better....but still........

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That's why I bought a Brother laser printer.  An ink cartridge runs from around fifty to seventy dollars, depending on if I buy the high yield or not, but I can then print several thousand pages.  I usually only need to buy around one a year.  Inkjet printers are an amazing rip off.

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I have a Brother inkjet, I buy generic ink (lc-71 cartridges) in bulk on Amazon, about $12 for 20 cartridges. That will last me about a case and a half to 2 full cases worth of paper (5000 sheets in each case) printed duplex in full color. The machine was about $100 and well worth it. Brothers last forever, my last one was used for 8 years of homeschooling and was still going strong when I decided it was time for an upgrade (duplex was an exspesive/newish option when I bought it).

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I make heavy use of the Office Depot coupons I get and just chalk it up to the cost of homeschooling. But yeah, when I think if buying a curric that I have to print (eg, Lively Latin in a year or so), I definitely consider the ouch factor of printing it myself.

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I use the cheap 3rd party ink for my brother printer. If the cheap ink kills the printer after ~2,000 pages, it is cheaper to buy a new printer than the equivalent brand name ink. I am taking the risk and I am at 1,500 pages with this printer thus far. I don't print photos so I don't notice quality differences.

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I have a big, twelve-year-old network laser printer than is our workhorse.  The cartridges are $100, but I only buy one every other year or so.  The college I work for has the exact same printer in the computer labs and the adjunct office.

 

Then my HP color printer/scanner/fax is fourteen years old.  Everybody knows that it is ONLY used for color printing.  And thankfully it is so old that the cartridges hold more ink than the newer ones.  I have to replace them once a year or so.

 

Some printers like my color one will reject expired cartridges, so I don't buy them too far ahead, and only from reputable places. Staples usually has ink sales during the back-to-school sales, so I get a set then and then hope that will do it.

 

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We have three printers-a big, old clunky business laser that DH salvaged from work and prints thousands of black/white pages per $30 (refurbished) cartridge from Amazon. An old inkjet that doesn't work on my Windows 8 PC, but does work on DD's equally ancient computer. And a $200 or so HP Inkjet with separate cartridges for each color that also scans/faxes, copies, reduces, enlarges, and so on.

 

DD is allowed to print anything she wants to the laser, and we buy one set of cartridges a year for her color printer. When they're done, she has to buy her own-or wait until Back to school in September.

 

The $200 Inkjet is only used for color printing, and is still on it's starter cartridges, after more than a year.

 

Mostly, I print on the cheap laser, and make heavy use of colored paper. We have a surplus store where often reams of colored copy paper are cheaper than the regular price of a ream of white paper at Staples, so I buy white paper when it goes on sale for the things that need to be on white, but almost everything for school is on pink, purple, lavender, orange, green....my high school math tutoring student commented that she wished her teachers did that-everything just seems so much friendlier on colored paper :)

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Seriously!!  No, I haven't checked out refillable ones online - I just wanted a quick fix from Costco.  

 

Just a rant.......

 

Sometimes I feel like ordering pizza is cheaper than making a meal home made too.  

 

Anyone else need to vent??   :bigear:

 

Oooooh speaking of Costco - did you know that they now refill printer cartridges????? It seems super cheap to me in comparison to buying new - I think it was around 25% of the new cartridge price. I haven't tried it out yet (I think it is a new service, or at least I only just recently noticed it) but I do plan to when my current cartridges run out!

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