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With prices of basic printers being around $40 - $50 and a ink cartridge being around $20 - $30 each for black AND color. It costs me more to replace the printer's ink than to just buy a brand new printer. This just seems like a total waste of materials though (I have 4 printers sitting in my basement with no ink).
I know the ink cartridges are smaller (not as full) in a new printer but I go through it in about 1 to 1.5 years only and by then my $40 gets me a better printer to boot. Also with certain printers the heads are not part of the ink (Epson use to do this and still might) so I get new heads as well.
Is this a bad practice? Are retailers making this a reality when they are selling working hardware cheaper than replacement parts? Is there something more I should be considering?
Edit: Some background, long ago I bought an Epson printer which I used to print docs etc vary rarely. The ink started running low so I bought to new carts for around $60 if I recall. The printer then stopped working so I replaced the carts with the new ones but the head was dead on the black which was not worth repairing. I bought a new HP printer for $49. This lasted around 1.5yrs and then the ink ran out, I went to buy new carts and the guy at the store got me to buy a new printer (that was smaller, faster, higher dpi, etc) and it was cheaper than replacing the ink. When the ink ran out on that one I bought a new printer again, etc. The printer gets used maybe once a week at most and I never print photos or anything. It normally is jsut stored away unplugged accumulating dust.
People say to buy a laser printer but they are much larger, do not print color, (in the price range I am looking at) and might have the exact same issues.
The problem I see is the manufacturer is making my behaviour possible by selling new printers at a loss hoping that they will cash in on the ink later. How can they produce a printer for so cheap which HAS ink in it, and the refills cost more than the unit? It can't.
2Canon Pixma iP3300 has cheap replacement ink cartridges (with chips). I'm using it for 2+ years now without problems. Before that it was iP1500. To me, when buying a printer cartrdige price is the key. The price of the printer almost doesn't matter (within reasonable limits). – Rook – 2009-08-11T19:37:31.793
1I use to have a Canon that was just kept going and going (with third party cartridges), however I scraped that since the Linux support was no good. So now I have a HP that will cost me a little bit more in ink price but the Linux support are perfect... – Johan – 2009-08-12T04:38:47.077
More than a decade ago I learned that because ink prices were so high, instead of buying new ink at all, people were just waiting until there was a sale on printers and getting a new one for less than a new ink cartridge and throwing the old one out. Imagine the bloody waste! In response, printer manufacturers began shipping new printers with cartridges that were half-empty. The ink cartel really is a horrible scam and environmental disaster. – Bobson – 2011-09-26T01:58:28.453
Reviving an old question here - you could sell the old printer on eBay! – George – 2014-03-19T22:07:28.067