Kodak's New Battle Plan: Cheap Printer Ink
from the ah,-finally! dept
For many years we've had stories about the ridiculously high price of inkjet printer ink. It is, according to some, one of the most expensive liquids around, costing more than vintage champagne. Someone once worked out that if you filled an Olympic-sized swimming pool with printer ink bought at retail, it would cost you $5.9 billion dollars (yes, with a b). Obviously, that's not the cost of manufacturing the ink, but includes hefty margins for the printer makers, who give away their printers cheap and make it up on the ink margins. The printer makers then go to extraordinary lengths, including using all sorts of intellectual property law to stop anyone else from selling ink for their printers. Some printer companies have also been accused of making ink cartridges expire while they still have plenty of ink. In fact, just a few months ago in a report about how Epson was blocking others from selling compatible ink, we wondered why no printer company saw this as an opportunity to come in and undercut these raw deals, and advertise heavily on the fact that they wouldn't rip you off on ink. Apparently, it was just a matter of time.Kodak is supposedly announcing new photo printers today, with the explicit focus on the fact that their ink is a hell of a lot cheaper than anyone else's. In fact, they're also promoting that the ink cartridges hold a lot more ink, so you won't have to refill as often either. In other words, they're doing what any competitor in the space should do: beating the competition by offering what customers want, rather than trying to squeeze extra money out of them at the expense of reputation. The reports suggest that Kodak will still make plenty of margin on the ink sales, but that it might finally force some of the other printer companies to lower their prices a bit. Sometimes it takes a while, but it looks like the market is finally doing what it's supposed to.
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Finally!
Now if the other companies would just get the clupon...
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Im in
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Next question
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Re: Next question
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Re: Next question
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Re: Government's Fault???
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Re: Re: Government's Fault???
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Re: Re: Re: Government's Fault???
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Re: Re: Government's Fault???
-Guillermo
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Re: Laudanum Milkshake - gov'ts fault- yea right!!
Don't get me wrong, I am really looking forward to the "cheap ink."
The market driven economy that demands the ink creates a market for printer companies to chase, with the attractivness of big margins on ink, the printer companies a) get rich (welcome to america) and b) invest in new and exciting products.
Our ink will be less expensive now, that is great for the consumer. I myself am looking forward to this. the mfr's will still be looking for the same margins on their product. the result is one of the follwoing two (or both):
- The price of printers will go up.
- The innovation of new printers with new features will not happen at the same pace.
very similar to the drug companies, the only real profit they make is in the US, the rest of the world is free to buy generics and their are caps on the costs for drugs. The money is all made in the patent protected US where the money for research and phat paychecks for execs comes from. It is Very fair. If you don't like it, make your own printer.
Milkshake, pass the pipe and enjoy life in your bubble...
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INK
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Cost of Ownership
They paid more for the printer, but the ease of operation of reloading cartridges and the better price on consumables have made up for the difference.
BTW: Click on the adsense links for Mike
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The margin is in the cables ...
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Re: Ease of Use = dumb- who's the idiot?- hint - y
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Re: narcissistic arrogance
Ease of use = profitability and prosperity.
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If you go to YouTube and search for 'Kodak - Winds of Change' you will see a funny internally produced video that talks about their new way.
Good luck to them
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Good idea...
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It is quite the merry go round
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/endrant
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Just Buy a New One
It was cheaper.
Yeah, I threw away a perfectly good printer, but hey... I'll be throwing away another perfectly good printer in a couple months when it runs out of ink too. Saves me about $20 that way.
How long until our landfills are nothing but piles of working printers?
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Re: Just Buy a New One
These printer boys can get their economics right...
Cheers,
Peter.
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This is false.. not all printer manufacturers do t
HP from what I understand does so for the most part but varies by model. Not sure on Epson.
Lexmark is the one you are thinking of.
- Raist
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Re: Just Buy a New One
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Re: Re: Just Buy a New One
I had a cartridge refilled at "Cartridge World" locally - and it ran out of red ink first. I always run out of blue ink first, I have certain things for which I use a great deal of blue ink (graphics for a logo on what I print most frequently).
The capacity of a cartridge is one thing - how much ink is in there is quite another!!
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Re: Just Buy a New One
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Three printers will be available in March
According to the site, prices will be $149, $199, and $299 (not bargain basement prices, but remember that they are not offsetting the price with outrageous prices for ink). Ink cartridges are $9.99 (black) and $14.99 (5-color). The low end machine doesn't have memory card slots or LCD preview display. All models offer Bluetooth as an optional accessory.
All three printers are all-in-ones, offering copying and scanning as well as printing. The $299 model also offers Fax. Availability, as reported on the site, is March, 2007 from the web site or Best Buy.
What isn't mentioned is if they are Windows-only or will also work with Macs.
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Re: Three printers will be available in March
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Epson ink might be great, but the printers die if
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No, it is tougher than rocket science
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Re: Epson ink might be great, but the printers die
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Re: Epson ink might be great, but the printers die if
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oh brother...
my mom useses it to make copies and color printouts of her spreadsheats, used in her business. one day she came yelling at me to "fix" her printer. it wouldn't print.
after some digging, i found that the yellow ink was low (it's a 4 cartdridge printer) so i figured, hey, ok. just hit clear and we're good to go.
not so fast. still didn't work.
in my infinite wisdom, i called brother. what i was told AMZAED me. they said if one cardride was out of ink, the printer was disabled. i.e if you had no yellow ink, you couldn't print in b/w. WTF i asked why this was, they said it is a design feature. FEATURE. that's not a feature. now, to get the printer to work, i need to buy a yellow cardride. oops. they only sell 3 pack for like 50 bucks. i did find a yellow cardridge for 47 bucks. go figure.
about a week later, her black ink runs out....same process. i install a new black cardrigde, thing lasts for 2 days, max. she can get at least 2-3 months out of it. called brother again, compalined. this time they sent us a new 4 pack ink. how nice.
i'm just waiitng for the printer to go, it's the biggest piece of junk ever. don't buy brother.
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This baloney has gone on long enough. Wake up printer people. I'm sure USB cables only cost you like one or two dollars. You can afford it. I for one would much rather pay an extra $5 for the convenience of a cable in the box than $25-30 for an aftermarket cable.
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Re:
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Re: Re: no they don't
Salesman didn't tell me I'd need to buy the cable separately, so need to go back to the shop again
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OKI is OK!
It was even network ready! Goodbye print server that used to serve me for the 2 printers I needed. One B/W inkjet and one photo quality inkjet. Why two? The B/W one was cheaper for general use. The cartriges were only $12 each and lasted about a month under general use. As stated above, when the color one ran out of a color that was it. UGH!
I am very happy with OKI so far. If Kodak makes a touch more expensive printer but makes the consumables cheaper then I may be looking at going to Kodak if my OKI ever goes down hard.
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I might buy one if it was reasonable...
We bought a 25$ Ink Jet Printer - took one look at the price of Ink for it - and went to Staples and bought a Laser Jet the day it ran out of ink.
lol
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use a print shop
When I need paper copies I just pop them on my server, walk down to the local print shop and give them the URL and how many copies I want.
I've saved hundreds, maybe thousands this way over the last few years.
Plus you get very high quality copies from a pro printer, and a bit of exercise too.
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printers
not that it mattered, since I already have several.
biggest mistake i ever made was binning my lc-200c, only way to get printing cheaper than that 9 pin was a potato and some paint (and maybe even then the printer wins)
excellent for basic text. photo quality too (if your partial sighted or blind) and quiet (if your deaf).
the rx640 hasn't needed new carts as yet, when it does a refil kit will be obtained.
I've found buying a new cart with the refil kit.. refil it till the kit runs out then repeat works ok, the quality with refil inks is worse, but for general printing its 'good enough'
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Competition!
In a monopoly there is no incentive for things to change.
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Count me in.
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Re: Count me in.
Black Ink: $10
Color Ink: $15
None come with USB cables
Max paper size 8.5x14"
and yes it comes with the power cord
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i got an old HP laser MP5 (or whatever) for 10 bucks. (had ink already) had to buy a 'printer' cable for another 10 bucks. best investment i've ever made.
but i know there were laptops, ram, desktops, printers, projectors, server, NAS, switches, etc. available for purchase.
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INK
Has Wilhelm Research done tests?
There is plent of cheap third party inks already out there, some good some bad.
Tell me more Kodak.....
d
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Printers and stuff
It is "catch up" time here.
A consumer printer with print costs even as low as Kodak's (new ones) should give a long lasting print, but professional level longevity tests by WR should be fundamental: Epson.
Inkjet printer pro/comsumer sales (V high volume for me 1999-2005, in a major center) have always been a quasi hard sell.
But being your own darkrom: PRICELESS.
Your friend, AAT.
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Re: INK
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Their photo printer paper is already the most expensive printer paper available.
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NOT TRUE at all
And Canon was until they jacked up the price for Chroma Life's, the lower cost (still more expensive than Kodak by quite a margin)
- Raist
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Re: printer paper
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Kodak Paper
Furthermore, pigment inks won't even bind properly to many photo papers designed for dyebase inks, resulting in really washed out blacks (I found this out the hard way).
That's probably what all this is about; I would be very surprised if I couldn't load a quality pigment compatible paper like the Ilford Smooth Pearl and acheive good results.
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Re: Kodak Paper
Buying 'any' other paper will not help - it won't fit and/or print in the printer - period.
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People still use printers?
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Re: People still use printers?
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Re: Re: People still use printers?
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Re: Re: People still use printers?
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Low price USB cables
USB2.0 cables under $2 each, no shipping and handling ripoffs, and never had a problem.
Good outfit.
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These printers...
As far as people wondering this and that about the printers...follow a freakin' link or two and get the answers to what you are wondering about!
Also, these are not just photo printers, if some of you followed some links you'd know that and that you don't have to use their papers like the photo only printers.
GEEEZ!!
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You can do better!
This brings to mind a general truth these days: there are very few kinds of items which can't be bought cheaper online. Prescription eyeglasses, ink, silverware, non-perishable foods, etc. Before you pull that hundred-dollar bill out of your wallet for ANYTHING, think about whether you could maybe, with a few searches, save twenty or forty percent on that purchase by buying online.
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Replacement cartridges
This is bad, because your printer knows pretty exactly what colors it's "supposed" to spray with the company's inks. Change the color or the properties of the inks, and you start printing differently because the printer's doing the wrong thing for that type of ink. Cheap inks tend toward bronzing and some don't combine very well -- I lost a lot of good prints to a cheap black cartridge that created "bubbles" on any dark texture.
There are some good third party inks -- I've had good success with MIS (www.inksupply.com) -- but on the whole, the cheapest inks are unreliable and isn't worth the savings to me.
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Inexpensive inkjet printing
That is way to print for about 1/3 of the price with some of HP's printers .
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Buying or replacing
Koda has started to break the barrier, but we are not there for a long shot.
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Cheap ink is for real
http://www.inkisit.com
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Mis understood
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Printer Problems
The fascination of seeing my own words and pictures in print has been overcome by my love for the environment. I now store all on CD's or DVD's and store them in folded, stick-glued one side printed folded paper from my old printers. I try to send mail by email, and have been known to send fully authored CD's with print and photos that will play on computers, video CD players and various DVD players.
I don't need or want to go backwards to the 20th century age of printers, by Kodak or anyone else. I can carry more info on a single memory stick than is found in a whole printed dictionary. Welcome to the 21st century, an electronic age.
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Continuous ink Systems or refillable cartridges
Here is one hooked up to my R200 printer:
http://www.geocities.com/rudedude121/Continuous_ink_system.html
Folks- it is worth tossing your current printer in favour of one that works with a CIS. 10 ink cartridges worth of ink for less then the price of one.
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Kodak new Printers
Bad news.. Best buy was sold out here in MI.
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The Real Truth
The only way to measure the cost of what ink cartridge you have is to:
Know how muck liquid mLs are in your cartridge and dividie it by the total price your paying for the cartridge.
Most hp and lexmarks are about a dollor per mi. or more
Epson is about .92 cents per ml.
Compatible cartridges that work in canon, epson, brothers machines can be as low as .30 per ml.
You can meaure the liquid not how many pages a cartridge gets.
Want to know more about your cartridges and printers?
Let me know
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They have traditionally followed a simple model - they make a loss on the hardware and a profit on the ink. If Kodak wants to split this the other way, and is succesful, then all the manufacturers will follow - and you'll just have to start paying a lot more for your printers, but pay less for your ink.
I think it's also worth noting that if a ink cart costs $10, the Govt takes $2.50, the manufacturer €3.50 and the retailer the reamining €4.00. Tell me again who's ripping you off???
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Continuous ink systems
don't waste your money on a printer that uses disposable cartridges. Not good for the environment. (or pocket book)
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Kodak easy use printer with 4x6 photos for under 1
Hope I can find a rebate or discount to pick a 5300 or 5500. And scrap my all in one HP. That runs about $56.00 for 90 4x6 photos cheaper for me to pay walmart 13 cent ea
Glad you are back in the printing arena kodak.
I know it will pay for itself in ink Savings. I dont have to pull my hair out every time the Kids get Creative.
What made the USA Great
Thanks!
If anyone knows of discounts for a Kodak 5300 or 5500 please e-mail gtmike4@excite.com
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Kodak 5300 All in One Printer
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Re: Kodak 5300 All in One Printer (post 67)
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supplies
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Kodak the BEST VALUE for HOME PRINTER
Goodbye to Canon, Epson, Lexmark, Dell,HP and your price gouging collusion...
Goodbye BW only, I have been using COLOR on my COLOR printer!
HELLO KODAK!!!
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Ink price is good but printer features not so hot
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Cheap Printer Ink has Potential
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Continuous Ink System
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printer ink
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Kodak printer and cheaper ink
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Printers
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Kodak printer and cheaper ink
These companies stay in business only through gargantuan advertising campaigns which smaller businesses can't afford. The sheeple buy their products because they saw them on the telly.
Kodak was among the first to see the writing on the wall as to the (lack of) future of photographic film. They have applied the same business models to the digital realm as they did to the chemical one.
If you go the Kodak way, you will find yourself forking out money at every turn; it's all planned that way. You are far better to get a good quality lesser known brand camera and an old (pre-chip) Canon printer and refill the cartridges yourself. Never buy a printer that has the printhead and ink tank as an integral unit. The total cost of ownership of these is much higher. That's why I only use Canon or Brother.
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Kodak cheap ink
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Plenty of evidence on this
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Office Depot pulls Kodak printers, ink
The clerk said Office Depot has pulled ALL Kodak printers and ALL ink since they don't sell them anymore.
What the?
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Hats off to Kodak
the new Kodak esp 7 on sale...reason....cheap ink
I am so tired of getting ripped off for ink..
Smart game Kodak....you will grab a large percentage of
the market before the other decide to follow suit...
Hats off to you....
meb
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Defective printers
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ink replacement
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Kodak Printer
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Kodak Printer
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Kodak Printer
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True price of a USB cable
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True cost of a USB cable
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ink prices
Someone shoud investigate this printer companies All the ink is made in Mexico so we know it does not cost that much
to make they even have a return catridge program but no money back when you send them in.
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Kodak Printer
Do yourself a favor and DON'T BUY ONE.
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"Cheap" ink not such a good deal
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Kodak Printer Cartridges
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looking for new printer based on ink prices
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False Advertising
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ink
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Kodak Printer
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Kodak Printer
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Do you just landfill the used cartridge ? ? ?
So you just throw away the cartridge ?
How about refilling and reusing.
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Kodak ESP3250
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Ink
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usb printer
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Kodak ESP7
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Kodak ESP-3
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ell first of all, when the Kodak "decides" that the ink is low, the printer simply shuts down and will not allow you to print.
The biggest problem with the kodak easyshare 5300 is that when one ink cartridge is empty (either color or black) the printer is disabled and you can not print t all until you replace the cartridge
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KODAK INEXPENSIVE INK
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Why must people just feel it's ok to fuck every one to get rich.
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Kodak Ink Cartriges SUCK, you dry...
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kodak printers and ink
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Ink Costs
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printers
Good luck on the refill kit. I refilled my Kodak ink cartridges and there's something in the printer that will not let you use the old cartridges. I got the Kodak printer because the H.P. printer cartridges would expire and yes, I had them expire and they still had ink in them.
Printers are a real money making gimick I'll tell you that.
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Kodak Printer Ink
be cheaper to buy but what they don't tell you is that there is next to no ink in the cartridge so you need to buy twice as much. How is that a saving. Darn't right false advertising if you ask me.
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Kodak Ink
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kodal printer
It is about time a mfg did this! Wow, I will even have to dump the HP and Epsons, Canon, and get a kodak printer. copyright law last to long and cost the public way to much money
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Kodak will be my next printer!!!
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ESP7 AIO
It doesn't make sense, it's ripoff and I hope many more will follow and avoid these products.
Don't buy!
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