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Stuffed toys and tanks
Some business models never cease to amaze me. In Japan, it's possible to book vacation trips for your stuffed animals, vacation photos included. And "Hangover Helpers" in the US will help you get back into shape and clean up your place after a night of partying. And you can rent a tank as taxi in St. Petersburg for maximum side-impact protection. Here's an even crazier idea, why not make cars incredibly cheap and charge premium prices for gasoline? Agreed, that's preposterous, or is it?
Appearances may be deceiving
If you've purchased a printer in the last few years you may have been surprised to find decent devices with WLAN support, integrated scanners and software for roughly 80 $. What may sound like a real bargain can quickly turn into a rude awakening once your device runs out of ink. Just like roller coaster owners, electronics stores may want to take photos of their customers especially while they're reading the price tags on ink cartridges. You don't have to be a math wiz to figure it out: 1 liter of ink as provided by the original manufacturer will easily surpass 1000 $! I'd only pay that much for an award-winning whiskey from 1900 delivered by a mounted English nobleman right to my doorstep!
There's a method to their madness
Just so we're on the same page, we're talking about an industrially manufactured fluid and a microchip all housed in tiny bit of plastic! For comparison, you can get a liter of decent Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label champagne for about 60 $. Explanations given by manufacturers for these absurd prices can get quite bizarre. It's all because of intricate technological complexities and vastly improved print quality that prices had to rise sky high. Certainly. I suspect a more mundane business model: Keep printer prices extremely low (profit margins may be minuscule) and charge an arm and a leg for ink! That's why, in some situations, you can get a new printer (cartridges included) for the same price you'd have to pay for a set of cartridges alone. Sheer madness!
It gets even better
You rarely print you say? I'm afraid that won't save you since modern printers tend to clean their nozzles quite frequently (using up vast amounts of ink in the process). And the chips in many printers (or cartridges) simply count pages not ink consumption and will report empty cartridges long before they're really empty. Manual refills via syringes won't work since, once they're declared empty, these chips will remember that state and prevent any further use. If you take all that into account plus a little bit of math, you'll soon find that each printed page may cost you up to 20 cents. You might as well rely on a copy shop for your printing needs instead.
There's a silver lining
Thankfully, you're not at the mercy of printer manufacturers. If you're smart, you'll use third-party ink cartridges that will work just as well as the original cartridges even if manufacturers may claim otherwise. Whenever I need to purchase a new printer, I not only compare prices and test results but also look for third-party cartridges and their ratings (because you may run into issues with some cheap products), e.g. on Amazon. Unfortunately, not all printers support cheaper third-party cartridges.
Conclusion
Printer manufacturers have unnecessarily damaged their reputation considerably. Simply making cartridges more expensive while hoping that nobody will take offense just doesn't cut it. Consumers are smart enough to see through this dubious strategy and look for alternatives! And no matter how sophisticated your explanation is, when you can get 17 liters of champagne for the price of 1 liter of ink, something's rotten. I for one have decided not to waste a single cent on original cartridges (and their manufacturers) and look for cheap alternatives instead although I'd love to obtain originals for a fair price! Dear manufacturers, printing is not a luxury so don't try to make it into one.
I have an HP 3110 which is about eight and a half years old. I had always used the HP replacement cartridges until about three years ago, when I took the plunge and chanced some generic ones off eBay. Great decision. The ones I bought recently came as three sets of double-capacity cartridges for a fifth of the price of one standard set of the official HP versions.
I've not been an immensely heavy user over the years, but since starting college a year ago I've been giving the old machine some hammer and it still keeps churning out good quality pages. And that while seemingly wasting hardly any ink at all during maintenance schedules, cartridges don't need replacing too often.
Every three sets of the HP replacement inks I bought cost me a little more than I paid for the printer itself. That's a high running cost, but it also illustrates what a well-spent hundred quid it was that went on the machine.
One would think that supply and demand might keep the prices down. Ridiculous as it may sound, buying a new printer every time the ink runs out could be a lucrative deal. I'd say could be if only the Printer OEM would supply a new printer with FULL INK CARTRIDGES. It only seems fair.
Yes the printers are much more reasonable than they were. The ink supply is what gets you, especially if you have a Photo printer with multiple cartridges and only one runs out and makes the whole printer unusable.
Or maybe you have a printer that is serving you well and suddenly they no longer manufacture the ink cartridge you are using.
When I first started using a computer, (early 1980's) and for many years since I kept hearing "The computer will eliminate the paper office."
This would have been the best time to invest in paper, AND INK, as computers generate way more paper and waste as time goes on.
Manufacturers found a way to make really big profits from it and seems that it will only get more expensive using printers.
I can still get a ball point pen for under a dollar. Hmmmm...
Ken.
Edmonton, Canada
An addition to my previous comment:
I have a laser printer as well as the inkjet. A strange anomaly occurs when one of the colour cartridges runs out, it won't even allow me to print in B&W from a completely full black toner cartridge until the depleted colour cartridge has been replaced.
I have used generic ink cartridges for many years without any problems. An Epson printer uses 676XL cartridges (4 of them) for about AU$60 each. I get generic for AU$10 each. The printer manufacturers make their money from consumables and also by selling printers with "starter" cartridges.
As if all that was not bad enough !
I mainly use my printer for grayscale printing. So how come my coloured inks seem to magically drain away superfast (cleaning aside) ?
AND, the worst part is that my printer refuses to even print grayscale (when the Black tank is full) unless I replace the coloured cartriges first !
Talk about being held to ransom unnecessarily.
Same here! The yellow cartridge disappears in mysterious ways...
I use refillable cartridges that have a chip that automatically recognizes it has been refilled, saves many $$$
Cartridge runs out, refill with a syringe and replace no problems.
Had a continuous ink supply, but new printer had different cartridge, so purchased refillable ones,once the printer stops and says out of ink, just remove and replace cartridge and good to go.
I figured that out a long time ago.
I use a laser for large printing jobs and Ink Jet for my grandkids
color projects along with some color printing for my own projects.
Paying "Steak" prices for hamburger meals is ridiculous.
even weirder, epson has started printers, all-in-ones with the ink of 20 cartridges inside. But they cost like one cheap one plus 19 refills. So, what is the use? Sad, but so far logical. Buy a new printer at $60, and throw it out when empty. Repeat. For smarter ones buy with protection. For 10% of the original price, you will be refunded when your machine is empty. The insurance costs less than 10% of you printer. Morality, if you print at home, 100 to 500 pages a year, you get it as cheap as possible though that twist. The machines are sent to be refurbished, nothing to do but fill the ink again. You buy the same one, You just have to search which one gives you more pages for less money.
Dear manufacturers, printing is not a luxury so don't try to make it into one.
There was never a truer word printed.
$ 1000 per litre ? My calculation 9ml for $28 , which works out at some $ 3000 per litre. Not surprising they sell printers for less then $ 100.
I am fairly demanding on light-resistance for photo-prints.
Testing several third-party types of inks, so-called identical to the original ones, I found both available here of them lacking.
The original ones were exposed to sunlight, behind glass, together with two third-party ones side by side, same photo-paper, identically printed strips.
The original inks were virtually un-affected after about 1 month, one of the third-party inks started to discolour after 1 week, the other lasted two weeks.
I have been for over 30 years involved with ink-manufacturing, and testing. And can only say that $ 28 for 9 ml of ink, at the most worth perhaps $ 2 or $ 2.50, plus a plastic case of 50 cts
say total $ 3.- is a bit stiff. but that is the manufactured cost. Add manufacturers distributions costs and retailer mark-up,
perhaps $ 9 or $ 10 would be more reasonable.
( Sounds like some patented medicinal drugs prices.)
1000 $ was one of the cheaper companies :)
Great article. I'm sick of getting ripped off by these crooks!
Not just that but almost all printers have an internal tank to catch ink from cleaning and when tank gets full your printer is of no use.
The plus side is a person can buy external supplied printer ink and you can get ink in bulk. Special cartridges have tubes connected to them that go to external tanks filled with ink and these are far cheaper then original ink.
Some companies have programs that if you pay for a subscription with printer purchase you get OEM cartridges that hold more ink than store purchased XL cartridges.
". . .in some situations, you can get a new printer (cartridges included) for the same price you'd have to pay for a set of cartridges alone"
Nah, they've woken up to that and now new printers come with "starter cartridges" with hardly any ink in them.
There's also the little matter of Geoblocking where even legitimate cartridges from another area (say Asia) won't work in your locally bought printer, supposedly HP used to do that. BTW ordinary blue window cleaner spray and a lint free wipe can often unblock clogged nozzles.
The best idea is to just buy a laser printer and get your photos printed commercially.
How true it is Sven, however, in Australia we have a way around the printer manufacturers who dictate that we MUST use the printer manufacturers ink.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has ruled that manufacturers can NOT dictate the ink to be used.
I use an excellent, affordable generic ink in my printer, even though the manufacturers warning shows annoyance and refuses to operate, but to show who is the boss, I switch off the unit, then unplug and replug the main power cord and restart the printer which operates without a hitch.
But how do you tell which third party cartridges are satisfactory. I have had some where all the reds tend towards brown
One company has moved away from the 'cheap printer -high ink cost business model. Epson recently launched their series of 'Eco Tank' printers. These cost £299 but have large bottles of ink which they claim will last most people a year. The initial investment is high but it probably works out cheaper in the long term.
I have just installed Windows 10 & my Canon Maxify printer prints very well I love the large ink cartridges - 2000 pages before replacement. The drama is scanning. I need to instal an app & need to jump a heap of hurdles to get the app. Ashampoo are my favourite people in the world. I wonder if they will make an app or software that gets around the Microsoft "interference" to printers ability to scan?
As promytius points out, it's not just the printer manufacturers, though they're certainly as culpable as any other industry with similar business models or strategies. Cell phones are another good example. I've been in IT for well over 30 years and printers - most certainly inkjet printers - have been the bain of my existence. Between driver issues, shoddy hardware and the topic of this discussion - unjustifiably outrageously priced ink, I've foregone owning an inkjet.
Excellent article,
I buy generic ink cartridges for my two lasers and my inkjet and have no problems with them.
Hi Sven,
First & foremost: great columns & great initiative to write them :)
As for the current one: the cheap-printer / expensive-cartridge equation is just one more implementation in a long series of cheap-machine / expensive-consumables ones.
Do you remember the old Kodak Instamatic cameras? You could at times get them even for free, but the film in its proprietary cartridge used to cost an arm and a leg ...
Someone in the family is using the Gillette or Schick (these are the ones I know - no offense meant to other manufacturers or trade marks) shaving units? The handle+3/5 blades costs quite often no more than the set of 5 replacement blades (and that is assuming you can find the spares ...) ...
Do you have one of those auto-sprays for refreshing the air in the loo? Just compare the price of the gadget (first pack of consumable included) with that of the replacement bottles.
And all of the above is before I even start thinking of original manufacturer accessories or -- G_d forbid -- replacements for broken parts.
Well, I guess you get the idea.
But, of course, this is just another business model that we probably have to live with.
On a more optimistic note, I seem to have seen a move towards lowering ink prices (or providing longer life for the same price) at some companies, such as HP & Epson (possibly others too, but these are the ones I've seen their advertisements ...).
Have a great printing (or any other) experience, and keep feeding us with good & interesting writing,
Eric
Very good article. I fully agree. I prefer to consume 20 or 30 bottles of good wine instead of buying ink for this price.
I have actually been rather pleased with Brother printers. The ink and toner is actually more fairly priced, and they generally do not use security chips, making it easy to use 3rd party tanks and cartridges.
But the last time that I actually purchased an ink jet printer, I shopped for the cheapest cartridges per page, and grabbed the printer that went with it.
Absolutely correct. I whole heartedly agree with you. I suspect that some printers (whose makers shall be nameless in this comment) would seem, I say seem, to have an internal chip that tells them when its time to stop working. I have two different printers, by the same maker, that came with a package deal; one desktop computer, a photographic printer, a three in one printer and a couple of cameras. Both printers stopped working, after only two changes of cartridges, the 3 in 1 much earlier because I guess it was used more and the other stopped just recently, since, again I guess, it was not used as frequently as the other.
Strangely enough a very much older machine, a 4 in 1 with fax and phone dialling facility by the same maker, has out lasted both of my others y perhaps 15 years! Touch wood, it's still going. Can't afford the huge price of makers carts so I use cheaper third-party ones.
To me the whole thing regarding the price of printers and the astronomical cost of cartridges is just one big scam.
Your closing statement says it all.
But please Mr manufacturer see to it if you will!
The economics of SQUEEZE.
Marginal marketing concepts, like driving prices up based on imaginary benefits, or creating niche markets with 'perceived' needs and overcharging for them, or product design that defeats honesty (non-empty cartridges registering as empty) is short-sighted and selfish and ultimately self-damaging to the businesses.
But lets not pick on printers, they are late to the game. Try starting with doctors and lawyers - the real crooks in the world, after politicians. Lawsuits cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for nothing but vague words (on-purpose), pills - one pill costing more than I've earned in my LIFE - these are the real heinous economic crimes. Leave the printers to themselves and go after the greater evils in societies; doctors, lawyers and indian chiefs, as the song says - they don't mean "indians" they mean "politicians" it was just a better rhyme at the time - politicians are one luxury we could do without entirely.
In case you’re hosting your own blog, it’s certainly worth a look!
Sven I enjoy your blog. Keep up the good work.
P.S. Maybe hydrogen fuel cells can be the ink cartridge for the auto industry.