Printer cartridge costs more than the printer.
- Thread starter Raul_SJ
- Start date
PMChambers
Hall of Fame
The cartridges that come with a printer usually only half fills. I buy my printer on ability to use copied cartigates, some are much easier to copy and hack the authority chip.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
Fry's sells refill cartridges for $10-15. That is a reasonable price. But they told me some models do not support refilling. I have to buy a new cartridge for my model.
The business model is to sell the printer at a loss and earn it back on the cartridges.
The new ones come with starter cartridges . Might be good enough for me. Ink lasted me 9 months as I don't print much.
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Pandora Mikado
Semi-Pro
I bought the Cannon MG 3620 inkjet printer for $39. it comes with black and color cartridge.
Now I have run out of ink. The black cartridge alone costs $50.
Better to just buy a new printer with black and color cartridges for $39.
Light of Star
Rookie
I bought the Cannon MG 3620 inkjet printer for $39. it comes with black and color cartridge.
Now I have run out of ink. The black cartridge alone costs $50.
Better to just buy a new printer with black and color cartridges for $39.
haha, that is the life of modern day
Tennease
Legend
I bought the Cannon MG 3620 inkjet printer for $39. it comes with black and color cartridge.
Now I have run out of ink. The black cartridge alone costs $50.
Better to just buy a new printer with black and color cartridges for $39.
For home purpose printing, I just buy generic cartridges in bulk on ebây. My home printer always tells me that the cartridge I install is not genuine but I can just click proceed / ignore. All is good. The printer never breaks down. It's so much cheaper. I can buy 10 cartridges for only 10 US dollar with free postage.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
For home purpose printing, I just buy generic cartridges in bulk on ebây. My home printer always tells me that the cartridge I install is not genuine but I can just click proceed / ignore. All is good. The printer never breaks down. It's so much cheaper. I can buy 10 cartridges for only 10 US dollar with free postage.
10 cartridges for 10 bucks sounds good to be true... But if the generics works just as well as manufacturers,
Maybe I should get an Epson printer and use the cheap cartridges.
Maybe there is a generic equivalent for Canon MG3620. But I think Canon will reject it when installing. Wonder why Epson allows it.
Epson WorkForce WF-2540 All-in-One Printer | Inkjet | Printers | For ...
https://epson.com/For-Work/Printers/Inkjet/Epson...WF-2540-All.../C11CC36201
Ideal for the space-constrained home office, the WorkForce WF-2540 is a fast, high-performance all-in-one that offers affordable, individual ink cartridges and a space saving, compact design — the smallest in its class1. Featuring a 2.5" LCD for easy navigation, the WF-2540 ...
Tennease
Legend
It's good and it's true!! I've been buying the same cartridges for years now. My printer is Epson XP400. It has wifi printing as well as cloud/remote printing feature. I can print and scan with Epson iPrint app from smartphones too.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
What does "10x" mean? There are a total of 10 cartridges and you insert a 5 cartridge set to print color?
What model is your printer?
How much would the Epson cartridges cost compared to generic?
Tennease
Legend
The printer takes 4 cartridges (1 Cyan, 1 Magenta, 1 Yellow, 1 Black).
10x cartridges are 2 Cyans, 2 Magentas, 2 Yellows, 4 Blacks.
So, you will get 2 sets of cartridges with 2 extra black cartridges. I guess they think people use black inks more.
Genuine Epson xp400 cartridges cost 56.99 AUD (41.28 USD) for 1 set (1C 1M 1Y 1K).
Or, if you want to buy separate cartridges, 1 Cyan = 14.99 AUD, 1 Magenta = 14.99 AUD, 1 Yellow = 14.99 AUD, 1 Black = 17 AUD.
14.99 AUD = 10.86 USD.
17 AUD = 12.3 USD.
Just think about it. Would you prefer 10 bucks for 1 cartridge, or 10 bucks for 10 cartridges?
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Tennease
Legend
Sadly, yes. Students need to print their papers. I print my flight tickets, ATP tournament tickets, ebäy mailing labels, end of year financial stuff, tennis court booking sheets, etc. I know I can use smartphone mobile tickets for flights and tennis tournament, but it is still handy to have a hard copy as a backup.
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
I usually carry a backup phone on trips. I expect to be able to use my watch for more things in the future.
Tennease
Legend
Tell me about it! Once my phone slipped out of my trousers pocket while sitting on a taxi on the way to the airport. Luckily I have a backup phone in my suitcase, so I use the Skype on this phone with airport wifi to call the taxi driver. Luckily he was still at the airport waiting for new customer to arrive. I was already in the boarding lounge, but the super helpful airline staff called the taxi driver and told him to hand my lost phone to the airport staff at the desk and the other staff then went to the boarding lounge to hand my lost phone. Pheww!!! What a relief!
On my next and future trips I always wear a light vest with multiple zipped pockets and put my phone in there. No more phone slipping out of my trousers' pocket! The vest is very handy as I can put my passport, flight tickets, and other documents in the big pockets. I put a pen on the little top pocket as I need it to fill out forms and stuff.
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
I used to wear Scott E Vests but I found a good Columbia knockoff and they are lighter. Vests are great for traveling.
Tennease
Legend
Mine is a light quick dry polyester vest with mesh, sent from China via ebäy. Cost me less than 20 bucks.
MarcusInKensington
Hall of Fame
It’s comical. I bought an HP Color Laserjet Pro thing. Cost about £425 if memory serves. I’m currently shopping around for ink, and the best price I can find for 4 toners is £655! How can 4 plastic things filled with ink cost more than a machine that can wirelessly print, fax, scan and copy??
Rafa.the.Magnificent
G.O.A.T.
Let's face it, it's a scandal, it's a something or other, it's a OUTRAGE!
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
What Printer Companies Say
Printer companies have put forth their own arguments in the past, attempting to justify the high cost of official ink cartridges and microchips that block any competition.
In a Computer World story from 2010, HP argued that they spend a billion dollars each year on “ink research and development.” They point out that printer ink “must be formulated to withstand heating to 300 degrees, vaporization, and being squirted at 30 miles per hour, at a rate of 36,000 drops per second, through a nozzle one third the size of a human hair. After all that it must dry almost instantly on the paper.” They also argue that printers have become more efficient and use less ink to print, while third-party cartridges are less reliable.
Companies that use microchips in their ink cartridges argue that only the microchip has the ability to enforce an expiration date, preventing consumers from using old ink cartridges.
There’s something to all these arguments, sure — but they don’t seem to justify the sky-high cost of printer ink or the restriction on using third-party or refilled cartridges.
Bartelby
Bionic Poster
The aim is to hook you onto a particular hardware system, and to make all the money out of consumables.
Gillette is the master of this technique, so when you buy a razor you check the cost of consumables because only their ones are compatible.
So there is no way that printer R&D explains ink cost, but there are printers that use bottled ink these days and if you are a high user these are vey economical.
Gillette is the master of this technique, so when you buy a razor you check the cost of consumables because only their ones are compatible.
So there is no way that printer R&D explains ink cost, but there are printers that use bottled ink these days and if you are a high user these are vey economical.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
Laser printers cost far less per page than inkjet printers. You just need a certain amount of volume to justify one - which means that a shared resources is a good solution.
I looked up the cost of color ink-jet printing online at FedEx (I think that they bought out Kinkos) and found a source that said 59 cents to 69 cents a sheet. I'd guess that a sheet of black/white laser printing would be about 10-20 cents a sheet.
ChaelAZ
G.O.A.T.
I went laser over 3 years ago and have been so much happier.
Ended up with a Brother Unit ( https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/534494/Brother-Wireless-Color-Laser-LED-All/)
Have only bought one printer cartridge so far. Still going strong, fast, and excellent quality prints. Paid for itself in inkjet cartidge savings already.
Ended up with a Brother Unit ( https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/534494/Brother-Wireless-Color-Laser-LED-All/)
Have only bought one printer cartridge so far. Still going strong, fast, and excellent quality prints. Paid for itself in inkjet cartidge savings already.
millicurie999
Semi-Pro
My parents are still using an HP LaserJet 1000 from 2001. They have it hooked up through a Windows XP virtual machine because there aren't any drivers newer than that, and they bought out some local shop's entire supply of toner cartridges a while back.
Personally I'm using a Brother multifunction laser I picked up for ~100 a year ago, and a 10 year old Brother monochrome laser printer that a friend left behind when he moved out of state.
Had a ton of Epson inkjets that clogged from infrequent use ... never doing that again.
Personally I'm using a Brother multifunction laser I picked up for ~100 a year ago, and a 10 year old Brother monochrome laser printer that a friend left behind when he moved out of state.
Had a ton of Epson inkjets that clogged from infrequent use ... never doing that again.
Topspin Shot
Legend
Same reason a graphing calculator can cost more than a smartphone. The company chooses prices to maximize its profit, not based on what seems fair.
Graphing calculators have to be approved by schools, colleges, and the College Board, so it is like a monopoly.
hollywood9826
Hall of Fame
Its been hit or miss for me if the generics work.
At work all we have are HPs jaserjets. When we have to purchase toners I try my hardest to get them to buy genuine HP toners for the color ones. I have had to clean these printers out too many times because one of the generic toners just leak uncontrollably. Never the toners in the black and whites though. But to get new toners for a colorlasrjet it costs up about 1500 USD. Although I do find we don't replace the newer M775's as much as we did the HP4750 and CP 4525 we had in the past.
At work all we have are HPs jaserjets. When we have to purchase toners I try my hardest to get them to buy genuine HP toners for the color ones. I have had to clean these printers out too many times because one of the generic toners just leak uncontrollably. Never the toners in the black and whites though. But to get new toners for a colorlasrjet it costs up about 1500 USD. Although I do find we don't replace the newer M775's as much as we did the HP4750 and CP 4525 we had in the past.
hollywood9826
Hall of Fame
Kinda surpised the universal print driver from HP wont run it. I've gotten laserjet 4's from the 90s to work with that. Those LJ4's BTW never break. Steel rollers take a while to heat up and they print slow compared to new ones but seeing these work after 20 years with no maintanece is commendable.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
Is there any way to make this printer work on Windows 10? Never used it. Got it around 2000 and then discovered it only supports business version of windows (Win NT? or whatever it was) and I was running home version of Windows. (Lots of complaints from users about company's lack of OS support).
It only has parallel port support.
Konica Minolta PagePro 1100L
hollywood9826
Hall of Fame
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
In general, if you want to keep using an old device, you leave a computer running the OS attached to it and then set up a networked print queue server so that other systems can print. We've done this in the past - I don't know if we did it ourselves or found a solution. I've written printer queue servers in the past and it's a bit of work.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
It was just very strange that the printer company Minolta, from Japan, did not support drivers for the most popular Windows OS; only the Windows NT variant.
That would never have happened with an HP printer. One reason to be careful when purchasing printers from non big name companies.
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
They might have had a big contract for a customer for that configuration.
This is a problem here and there where a hardware company no long makes drivers for an operating system or they don't make them for many others. They got their revenue when they sold the hardware so there's no money to pay for someone to update drivers.
N
Nashvegas
Guest
You may want to check out HP’s instant ink program. You chose a package based on how much you print, and they send you replacement cartridges as needed.
Gary Duane
G.O.A.T.
Usually not, because the new printers that come with cartridges have cartridges with less ink.I bought the Cannon MG 3620 inkjet printer for $39. it comes with black and color cartridge.
Now I have run out of ink. The black cartridge alone costs $50.
Better to just buy a new printer with black and color cartridges for $39.
If you still have a copy of Windows NT around, you could try setting it up in a virtual machine (i used Virtualbox). Might be possible but probably not easy.
movdqa
Talk Tennis Guru
I saw several YouTube videos on installing NT on VirtualBox so it looks like it's possible. What might be tricky, though, is getting it to work through a parallel port as these aren't on modern machines - some hardware might need to be purchased and there's no guarantee that it would work. It would be easier to use the original NT system as you wouldn't have to worry about OS support for newer hardware in general.
I actually have a working system in my basement that can run NT 3.1. It's an old Inspiron 4000 laptop (I have a 4100 as well but didn't check the specs). I would guess that you could find these for maybe $30 if you need a driver for your printer.
TimeToPlaySets
Legend
Your first mistake was buying a 1990's inkjet printer.
Buy a laser printer.
Buy a laser printer.
Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
Years ago, mainly as an exercise and learning experience, I had tried:
Using a USB to Parallel Port converter with Windows XP laptop and trying various printer drivers, including generic printer drivers and HP simulation drivers. It did not work... See other user comments below.
- One drawback is that it doesn't have a USB port, so you have to connect with a parallel cable. (Make sure to order one with it because it does not include one.)
The definite negative to this printer -- and it could be a big one -- is the limitation of its software. This printer DOES NOT work with WindowsXP. Minolta will tell you otherwise (they claim the Win2000 drivers work) but they are mistaken. I tried all the various fixes they suggested, but no dice. This printer relies on part of the old Win95 software to work, and just isn't compatible with WinXP.
- This printer WON'T work with Windows XP either! It just gives a COVER OPEN error. Fortunately Minolta allowed me to exchange it for a 1250W model which works fine with XP. Nice of them, considering that I bought it from a 3rd party vendor.
- There is no working driver for XP. The website says to download and use the windows 2000 driver, but this did not work. I am left with a printer that is only a large paperweight. Customer service says they don't know when they will have a driver for XP.
To update, I spoke with Minolta, they quickly, ie overnight mailed a new model 1100 (similar, upgrade) to me.
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Raul_SJ
G.O.A.T.
The Epson XP400 is not available. There is a newer model XP440. But maybe the newer models block the generic cartridges from being used.
mxmx
Hall of Fame
Or install a virtual os like virtual pc or xp and then just have your old driver on that os...
https://www.google.com/url?q=https:...IwAnoECAoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1gv5pKwbM_sYdtAC-KUHjV
Gary Duane
G.O.A.T.
I have a little Brother printer, basic thing, just black and white. I use the hell out of it every day, probably something like 20-50 pages a day. I had sticker shock the first time I bought a toner. I decided to buy the heavy duty, which costed something like $70. But it lasted something like 6 months and so was WAY cheaper than the old printer with cartridges, that died. So I really like the laser printers.
