# Had A Heart Attack Today.......



## 480sparky (Apr 17, 2015)

.......... after needing some ink for my printer.

Holy crapoly! It was $52 last summer. Now it's freakin' *$89*!!!!!!!



Is it just cheaper to buy a new printer instead?


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## snerd (Apr 17, 2015)

I printed off 9 pages today, first in 6 months. It said I had 2 colors very low. I don't even want to know how much they will cost me!


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## Gary A. (Apr 17, 2015)

Paying for that stuff will kill you.


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## bribrius (Apr 17, 2015)

it might be cheaper to send the printing out. really. i still print some low qual stuff but i ditched the higher quality expensive a few years ago. Just adding it all up it didnt seem worth the headache. You can buy large bottles and bascially inject it into refillable cartridges. There are ways to save money. also i used to buy at a website called inkforless or something to that effect. I hardly ever buy ink now though and when i do just standard epson for a standard epson printer.


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## 480sparky (Apr 17, 2015)

Not printing photos... printing biz stuff like invoices, statements, contracts, envelopes etc.


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## bribrius (Apr 17, 2015)

480sparky said:


> Not printing photos... printing biz stuff like invoices, statements, contracts, envelopes etc.


try the online inkfor less place.   Also we used to use the refillable cartridges and buy ink at the dollar store. if they aren't refillable sometimes you can MAKE them refillable.


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## bribrius (Apr 17, 2015)

laser too for business stuff. we have a canon laser printer. Through canon the cartridges are near a hundred bucks but i can find them online for like 30-40 refurbished or rebranded. The laser cartridges print more like 2k sheets or something. Buy one or two a year basically.

i agree with you.  The price of ink is totally b.s.


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## Derrel (Apr 17, 2015)

I read somewhere that name-brand inkjet ink comes out to something like $5,000 to $8,000 per gallon...the amounts in the danged cartridges are pretty miniscule...


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## curly (Apr 17, 2015)

Derrel said:


> I read somewhere that name-brand inkjet ink comes out to something like $5,000 to $8,000 per gallon...the amounts in the danged cartridges are pretty miniscule...


Wow, I won't complain about the price of gas or milk.... Haha


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## KmH (Apr 17, 2015)

I've seen articles that claim inkjet printer ink is $5500 *per liter,* or about $22,000 per gallon.
You Thought Gasoline is Expensive Printer Ink is Over 5 500 Per Liter Apartment Therapy


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## Gary A. (Apr 17, 2015)

I am in the wrong business.


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## Rick50 (Apr 17, 2015)

But those printers are so cheap......


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## Overread (Apr 18, 2015)

They overproduce on printers to the extreme. Which is why half the time you can get a new printer cheaper or near the cost of new ink. It's honestly quite nuts but they've got these factories churning out printers and they've got to keep selling the latest model.


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## bratkinson (Apr 18, 2015)

Unfortunately, I've discovered the hard way that the newer the printer, the more 'fussy' it gets with generic, or even refilled cartridges.  In most cases, my Epson R380 printers will reject 75% or more of the generic or refilled cartridges I've tried.

So, I've learned to shop for cartridges on ebay.  Genuine Epson cartridges.  I've recently found a seller in China that sells what I need at ridiculously low prices that barely covers the shipping charges from China!  They work and I'm happy.  I think I've used maybe 30 or so from that seller without a problem.  I first 'tried him out' with an order for 2 cartridges and tested them.  I received them in 2 weeks (New England, USA) and they worked fine.

The big trick to shopping on ebay is to narrow down the search so I don't get 50,000 results.  I've tweaked the search parameters and am pretty happy with: epson r380 -(remanfacture, remanufactured, remanu, reman, refill, bulk, non-oem ,ciss ,bottles ,continuous ,compatible)    That's as much as I could squeeze in the search box.  It still gets more results than I want, but at least it's manageable.


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## CCericola (Apr 20, 2015)

I have a laser printer for business. The toner on the last one I had lasted 3 years. When it finally got too low it was cheaper just to buy a new laser printer.  no shipping via Amazon prime and voila!


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## petrochemist (Apr 20, 2015)

My dad once brought me a 'nearly new' Epson printer (unused but with no ink). When I checked the replacement costs for a set of six Epson inks was considerably more than the new cost of the printer. However I discovered their Inkjet printers are supplied with special low capacity cartridges, which means you don't get as much as you would with a full set of replacement inks. I couldn't justify the price of OEM inks so got some third party ones on line (something like £6 for a set rather than £87!). They worked reasonably so now the only time I use OEM inks is when a fault forces me to buy a new printer. My budget inks have often run out without warning half way through a page, but quality paper is not so expensive that I can't live with that disadvantage.


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## GerryDavid (Apr 22, 2015)

480sparky said:


> .......... after needing some ink for my printer.
> 
> Holy crapoly! It was $52 last summer. Now it's freakin' *$89*!!!!!!!
> 
> ...



I have a brother all in one inkjet printer for my model releases and contact forms, I pay like $1 a cartridge on amazon for their non name stuff.  Works great for me.  It does clog faster than the brand name stuff though, I dont use the colors that often and those clogged on me in no time.  When I didnt use the printer for a couple of weeks during my move, I had to clean it out till it worked again.

I use to use a laser printer that you could refill yourself and that worked great until the drum got to dirty and the price to replace it was more than the printer itself, so I just went with inkjet.  

All my photos get sent out to a pro lab, im not even touching that with a home printer for the price we pay the pro labs.


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## chuasam (Jun 28, 2015)

480sparky said:


> Not printing photos... printing biz stuff like invoices, statements, contracts, envelopes etc.


oh just write it off as an expense. It doesn't work out to very much once you amortise it over a eyar.


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## 480sparky (Jun 28, 2015)

chuasam said:


> oh just write it off as an expense. It doesn't work out to very much once you amortise it over a eyar.



Write-offs are fine.  But one needs the cold, hard cash up front to spend in the first place.

So yestiddy, I punched up for a new printer.


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## unpopular (Jun 28, 2015)

480sparky said:


> Not printing photos... printing biz stuff like invoices, statements, contracts, envelopes etc.



two words: laser jet.


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## 480sparky (Jun 28, 2015)

unpopular said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > Not printing photos... printing biz stuff like invoices, statements, contracts, envelopes etc.
> ...



Two more words : expensive and slow.


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## unpopular (Jun 29, 2015)

480sparky said:


> unpopular said:
> 
> 
> > 480sparky said:
> ...



While the printer itself is more expensive, the ongoing cost is far, far less. One $90 05a cartridge will print around 2000 pages. Third-party cartridges are also available for a fraction the price, if non-OEM is your thing.

I have a printer similar to this one:

HP LaserJet P2035 Printer HP Official Store

There is a version intended more for consumers that actually will print a bit faster (closer to mine):

HP LaserJet Pro 400 Printer M401dne HP Official Store

"Slow" though isn't something I've heard to describe laserjet. Certainly you can get inkjet printers that can print as fast as a lower-cost laserjet. But I don't think you'll get one that prints faster, and I don't think it'd cost any less.


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## benp2k6 (Jun 29, 2015)

@480sparky - Yeah everyone is right laser is the way to go if you print at least 500 pages (one ream) a year.  You mentioned "expensive and slow" but that is inkjet, not laser..

Generally speaking the more you spend on the printer the less you will spend on ink.  A good $300-$400 laser jet is very fast and extremely efficient with ink.  One I had, I swear I put 3,000 pages through it before it needed a new black.  I choose not to print color very often for the sake of ink costs.


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