Why is it cheaper....

[strickj]

Why is it cheaper to buy a new printer with ink cartridges then it is to buy the ink separately?

All-in-1 printer w/ink and USB at WalMart - $29.00

1 color and 1 black ink cartridge at WalMart - $34.00

Never have been able to figure this one out

[bubbadavis]

That's their business model - make the $ off the ink... In all fairness, the ink cartridges that come with printers usually have less ink than the ones you purchase separately. They only want enough ink in the box to get you going (and make the selling company not seem cheap).

[hipower]

That's their business model - make the $ off the ink... In all fairness, the ink cartridges that come with printers usually have less ink than the ones you purchase separately. They only want enough ink in the box to get you going (and make the selling company not seem cheap).

DING! DING! DING! We have a winning awnser. Just like the gun manufacturer and shipping with one mag. Get'em coming back.

[Oh Shoot]

...In all fairness, the ink cartridges that come with printers usually have less ink than the ones you purchase separately. They only want enough ink in the box to get you going (and make the selling company not seem cheap).

Yep, check the capacity. Used to be that HP always had different carts, "small and big", even though same physical size.Suspect this is the case.

- OS

Edited March 5, 2012 by OhShoot

[Guest bkelm18]

Recently went through the same thing with a Canon photo printer. I needed a couple different color cartridges but ended up buy a whole new printer because it was cheaper.

[tnhawk]

Every 1-1/2 - 2 years I buy a new printer with better features for that reason. I replace them before a print head or other part wears out.

[bubbadavis]

Several years ago, I had BestBuy try to sell me a 3yr warranty on a printer. The printer was on sale for $39.97 and the warranty was $39.99. They were shocked when I turned down their generous offer.

[strickj]

That's their business model - make the $ off the ink... In all fairness, the ink cartridges that come with printers usually have less ink than the ones you purchase separately. They only want enough ink in the box to get you going (and make the selling company not seem cheap).

Is that kinda like the myth that WM ammo is made in China or is there some actual facts behind it?

Every 1-1/2 - 2 years I buy a new printer with better features for that reason.

Heh. I find it humorous that the $29. printer I just picked up has more features then the $150. one I picked up about 3 years ago.

Prints better and quicker, too

Edited March 5, 2012 by strickj

[bubbadavis]

Is that kinda like the myth that WM ammo is made in China or is there some actual facts behind it?

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia..../Inkjet_printer. While WikiPedia is usually a very suspect source, they have references for the business model discussion. A very common business model is to make your profit on consumables. When I worked in laboratory automation, that was one business model my company discussed: break even on the hardware and software and make your money on the laboratory consumables.

Edited March 5, 2012 by bubbadavis

[TripleDigitRide]

After some research, I purchased a decent Kodak All-In-One not too long ago. It was one of their wi-fi models, and I think it was about $100. It's been the great, and the ink is so much cheaper. The only complaint is that it's a little loud. Can't say it's the best printer in the world, but it's been the best I've had.

[gregintenn]

It works kind of like the free cell phone you get with a two year contract. They get the money; just not up front.

[strickj]

Take a look at http://en.wikipedia..../Inkjet_printer. While WikiPedia is usually a very suspect source, they have references for the business model discussion. A very common business model is to make your profit on consumables. When I worked in laboratory automation, that was one business model my company discussed: break even on the hardware and software and make your money on the laboratory consumables.

I'm aware of that. I was referring to the less ink comment.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Seems much the same deal with at least some small office color laser printers.

Used inkjets from 1987 to about 2002 and would usually refill carts though that was messy and annoying. Had been too cheap for laser printers but finally couldn't stand the annoyance any more. There were the usual nagging issues of intermittent ink smear or dropout during printing, intermittent nozzle clogging, and bad image bleed if the paper got wet. Slow printing in high-quality mode. Expensive paper for high-quality mode.

My usage pattern was the final straw. Had got into a usage pattern where the printer might be idle for months, then suddenly need to run a hundred-page job. Followed by another long period of dis-use. With this usage pattern, every time I desperately needed to print a bunch of paper, the inkjets would either be horribly clogged or the carts would be dried out. Every time would require refilled-or-new carts and a bunch of baby-sitting and nozzle cleaning. Every dern time I needed to print. Got tired of wasting hours on the stupid printer just to save a few bucks.

The first HP color laser worked great and I only had to change carts every couple of years though it was kinda spensive when a change was necessary. However it printed every time with no fiddling. It didn't mind sitting idle for months. First page out after months of dis-use was always perfect. Photo print quality wasn't as good as the finest photo inkjet with the finest paper, but was fast and plenty good enough. The image does not melt if a raindrop falls on a page. Image quality is quite good even on relatively cheap laser paper. And it will print on a wide range of papers without jams. And they are usually network printers that will work from any puter on the network.

Am pretty sure the carts that shipped with both my HP color lasers were "full capacity" carts, though maybe HP ships some models with short-toner loads.

Finally ran up the page count on the fuser roller (IIRC 10,000 pages but maybe some other number). Over the years prices had fallen on HP color lasers, with better features. A new HP color laser costed about the same as a new fuser for the old printer. I hate discarding perfectly good hardware but it didn't make money sense to replace the fuser on the old printer.

So the second color laser was an HP 2025dn, duplex printing (both sides without flipping pages) for about $400. It prints as good or better than the old one. Carts are smaller lower capacity, about 1500 pages. That would still have lasted at least a couple of years except daughter went back to school and ran a bunch of school work thru it. Me and daughter combined ran it dry in about a year.

So went cart shopping and shockingly I could have bought a new 2025dn (they were still selling that same model) for the price of a set of new toner carts! That doesn't even make sense! I dig it that HP wants to "practically give away" the printers and make money on carts, but if a new printer costs the same as new carts then they are sawing off the limb they are sitting on. If selling "full load" toner carts along with a printer is nearly the same price as a new printer, then how could they possibly sell new carts for that fabulous profit? The carts shouldn't be priced any higher than half-price of the printer or sane customers would never buy carts! There's no way they could profit on toner regardless how cheap they can make printers. Though laser printers have a lot more guts in them than most modern inkjets and they must be somewhat expensive to build.

Finally mail-ordered a new set of carts rather than go to the trouble of going to Staples, buy and install a new printer, though the money was a wash either way. It was too offensive an idea to discard a perfectly good one year old piece of hardware just to spite HP.

Should have done a little more research. In previous years, some models of HP laser had good third-party support for new or refilled cheap toner carts, but I hadn't seen third-party support for the small-office color lasers. Had given up looking. After spending $400 on new HP carts, found out that the situation has changed and you can now get third-party cheaper toner carts for those smaller HP's-- Assuming that the third-party toner carts are worth a damn.

Daughter isn't mooching the printer any more. A couple of years from now when the latest carts go dry, will probably try some reloaded toner carts next time.

Even if it costs more, beats hell out of constantly baby-sitting inkjets. Per-page, might be cheaper than inkjets, even ignoring the aggravation of inkjets.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Lester Weevils

[bubbadavis]

I'm aware of that. I was referring to the less ink comment.

Not all manufactures do. HP comes to mind as one that puts 'full size' cartridges in with their printers. I have bought other printers (Canon or Lexmark - can't remember which) that shipped smaller volume cartridges than they sold. They didn't advertise this but the cartridges had the volume listed on them.

[Mike]

Is that kinda like the myth that WM ammo is made in China or is there some actual facts behind it?

No, these printers are definitely made in china...

[Caster]

I usually end up buying a printer before ink anyway. They never survive after they give me trouble a few times. I don't deal with paper jams very well. I usually clear them with a hammer.

[Oh Shoot]

Not all manufactures do. HP comes to mind as one that puts 'full size' cartridges in with their printers....

I'm still using an antique, maybe 10 year old HP 895 inkjet. Both the B/W and Color carts that came with it were a different number and lesser capacity than the full capacity ones.

- OS

[bubbadavis]

I'm still using an antique, maybe 10 year old HP 895 inkjet. Both the B/W and Color carts that came with it were a different number and lesser capacity than the full capacity ones.

- OS

My most recent HP came with normal cartridges. They do sell XL size ones that are larger but they do market the same ones that came in my printer.

[gjohnsoniv]

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/printers

I do believe that this is appropriate, and very true.

[redfsr]

If you like your printer, get your cartridges refilled at Walgreens. It's cheap.

[Guest nicemac]

Get a laser and just don't deal with inkjet cartridge ripoffs any longer. You only print black, but you can't print color at home as cheap as you can print it at (insert business here) anyway.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Yeah if somebody can do without the "luxury" of home color printing, b&w laser is the no brainer way to go.

In fact, hadn't much thought about it, but it would probably save me money even with "intermittent" printing needs to add a b&w network laser sitting beside my color laser, and never route ordinary b&w prints to the color laser.

I suppose an alternate for somebody who likes to print color photos would be a photo-quality color inkjet + b&w laser. Assuming that there are any inkjets that don't dry out and turn into a maintenance time-sink just sitting idle for long periods of time. I only used HP and Epson inkjets for more than a decade. Several of each. All of those guys would dry out and get clogged unless used regularly. Maybe some recent injet models have solved that problem, dunno.

It is easy to be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Ferinstance if somebody actually "needs" to do double-sided printing on a routine basis, their wasted time flipping pages is easily amortized by spending a little more for a double-sided capable printer.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Lester Weevils