Liquid Gold: The Ink Rush

from the everyone-wants-in dept

Mon, Jul 26th 2004 10:25am — Mike Masnick

It's no secret that printer ink goes for very high prices these days. We've noted in the past a comparison between the price of ink and vintage champagne (with the ink being more expensive). The SF Chronicle is taking a look at the same issue and noting that an Olympic sized swimming pool filled with printer ink would cost $5.9 billion (yes, with a "b"). Thus, it's no wonder that lots of companies are looking for ways to crack into the ink business, from selling cheaper ink cartridges to refilling old ones. It seems there are even Kinkos' style stores opening up that will refill your ink cartridges for you in a bright neon coated environment. It appears that, for many, printer ink appears to be liquid gold and lots of people are trying to get their share.

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VonSkippy, 27 Jul 2004 @ 12:57pm

It's all a matter of scale
Buy a cheap color ink jet, and pay thru the nose for ink cartridges. Buy a Color Laser Printer for more up front money, and pay way less in consumables. The saying "ya get what ya pay for" is a lesson few people seem to learn.
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Doug Coulter, 27 Jul 2004 @ 7:35pm

Re: It's all a matter of scale -- not
I bought a Minolta Magicolor 2200 color laser printer a while back, for several grand. We'll ignore for now that less than a year later they were selling remanufs of this for under 1k$ -- or about the price of the 4 toner cartridges -- think they are cheap? It has all the same problems as the expensive ink for inkjets, only more so -- many other parts seem to be flagged as bad long before they actually are, and the printer won't work till they are replaced. Parts of it that have no electronics in them have a little fuse encased entirely in plastic that are used as one bit ROMs. These fuses are blown by the printer to make you buy a new piece of plastic (the old of which is still perfect) for hundreds of bucks. Being an EE, this hasn't fazed me much so far, but now I can't see the message LCD as it constantly complains the drum life is low, despite otherwise perfect printing. I swore I'd never buy another HP printer again, due to similar issues. Does ANYONE make a printer FOR ANY PRICE that doesn't have this baggage attached?
I know the manufacturers pretend to justify this as protecting their reputation for good print quality, but that's bogus. Who knows what brand of printer I used for something unless I tell them. I'll certainly not brag on this or any other brand of printer that locks me into replacing non-failed parts at prices that make cocaine look cheap by comparison. We're not talking CA $40 for an ink cartridge here, but hundreds for plastic parts that cost nada to make.
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Nithya, 23 May 2008 @ 4:48am

Hp Printer
It's getting difficult buying cartridges considering the price they are at than getting a printer these days. Any one knows where we can get inkjet catridges on a cheaper rate obviously not oompromising on quality.
-----------------------
Nithya

Great printer toner and ink cartridge deals, discounts and coupons. Also, check out the latest printer reviews and technology news. http://blog.concordsupplies.com
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CIS User, 22 Apr 2009 @ 8:43am

Price of ink per Barrel (bbl)
Using the approximate $5,900,000,000 cost to fill an Olympic pool, we can put the price of ink into modern terms -- the cost of ink per barrel (bbl). Everyone is now acutely aware of what a barrel of oil costs. One barrel of oil is 55 gallons. An Olympic-sized pool is around 600,000 gallons, or 10,909 bbl. So a barrel of ink costs approximately $541,000! Yes, that's $541,000/barrel!!!

This is why I am a happy continuous ink system (CIS) user. Ink is still expensive, but buying it bulk by the gallon costs $5,500/barrel. That's a savings of around $535,000 per barrel!
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adam, 23 Sep 2009 @ 6:30pm

Just following up on an old post...
Xerox now charges a per-page cost for color prints on our color printers. You can get a color printer for less then $1K and get a cost per page of $.13 per page. The per page cost includes all onsite service and ALL supplies except for paper.

The ideal solution is 2 Xerox machines, using one for very little color and one for medium to heavy coverage. Don't get the per-page plan on one and use it for your light color coverage.

I hope this helps. Email me directly if you have any questions.
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