Printer Ink

When printers first came out, they were priced quite expensively. It used to be that the cost of a printer was five times more than they cost now. As the competition grew, marketing strategy packaged the product by reducing the cost of the printer, which was a one-time acquisition, lower than the cost of production, by raising the printer ink price and including in the package a free ink cartridge. The printer manufacturer gained from the sale of the ink. The cost of the ink was almost prohibitive and manufacturers rarely came out with a sale, so independent ink manufacturers came out to fill the burgeoning demand for low cost generic, cloned ink in different forms. There were refills in kits and cloned ink cartridges. These were sold by refilling stations who gave out instructions on how to refill using their kits. These stations also bought empty ink cartridges and refilled them for a second time use. To ensure the quality of their refilled ink cartridges, these stations patronized large companies by buying their used ink cartridges refilling and selling them back at very reasonable prices, almost half the cost of the original. This strategy assured them of a steady supply of ink cartridges for refilling. By targeting high priced original ink cartridges, a market for low cost generic, cloned ink cartridges was generated.

Printer ink cost continues to be high and there remains a big market as the use of computers grows. It is not surprising. In fact, the absence of cases filed against independent ink manufacturers by OEMs buttressed the feeling that there is that big a gap in the market that even the OEMs are afraid, is not being filled by this small independent ink manufacturers. This may also have been created by ink cartridge manufacturers who have come under suspicion of programming their printers to send their warning prematurely wasting up to a third of the ink if you opt to change your ink cartridge as soon as you hear the warning. The “cut-off” system of some printer manufacturer designed to prevent customers from running out of ink or getting bad print quality is also rumored to contain a chip which stops from dispensing ink with plenty to spare.

It is recommended that you count the number of pages you have printed out and see the rated output of the printer ink that you are using. This may differ with the variation of your use of text and graphic or the mix of both.