Turning Ink Cartridge Costs into Pocket Change Not Review
Turning Ink Cartridge Costs into Pocket Change Not
content="Quality Consumer Information - Turning Ink Cartridge Costs into Pocket Change Not Caviar"name=description>
content="Turning Ink Cartridge Costs into Pocket Change Not Caviar,Consumer Information"
name=keywords>
name=copyright>
href="base.css" type=text/css rel=stylesheet>
Turning Ink Cartridge Costs into Pocket Change Not Caviar
Paying caviar prices for ink cartridges sounds
ridiculous. Of course one never wakes up and says I want to get ripped off on
my ink cartridges. But it happened to my business, threatening to erode my
bottom line. Fortunately, I turned things around, reduced my printer ink costs
and saved $400 a year on cartridges.
Being a small business owner the bottom line
affects all my business decisions. When it comes to printing it's a bigger
issue than just saving an initial buck. Hoping to keep costs down our company
purchased a Lexmark Z705 Photo Jetprinter for less than one hundred dollars.
That printer sounded great we could handle all our digital camera printing
needs, like having an in house camera lab for developing pictures.
The printing quality is fine, no complaints
there. In the first few months of ownership we spent twice the price of the
printer on cartridges. If I didn't come up with a better solution, by years'
end our costs for printing would have been five times the cost of the printer.
Our sales guy summed it, "Sounds like
Lexmark is using their printer as a loss leader and making money off their
cartridges." He's right. Last year Lexmark made more
money selling printer supplies-- $2.6 billion -- than selling printers --
$1.76 billion. But it's not just the Lexmark printer
cartridges that cost too much. The same thing happened with our HP Inkjet
5150, which we got for free last quarter when we purchased a new lab top
computer.
I have learned that inexpensive or free printers
are anything but inexpensive, they're cash guzzlers; the initial savings do
not pan out when you look at the cost of ink cartridges.
In a recent PC Magazine study they compared the
cost of the printer and the total cost of ownership.
size=1>
Printers
Black pages output
Color pages output
Cost per page
Printer Cost
Total cost of ownership for 1
year
Total cost of ownership for 3 years
Canon 1250 Color Bubble Jet
103
387
6c
$49.99
$227.04
$541.13
Canon 1350 Color Bubble Jet
111
382
6c
$59.99
$229.69
$529.08
Epson Stylus c84
671
1,410
3c
$100.00
$198.00
$354.00
HP Business Ink Jet 1100d
1326
3378
2C
$199.99
$271.99
$375.99
HP Desk Jet 5150
381
310
8c
$99.99
$336.62
$769.90
HP Desk Jet 5650
456
456
6c
$149.99
$333.86
$661.61
HP Desk Jet 6127
673
902
4c
$249.99
$380.22
$600.70
Lexmark Z605 Color Jetprinter
173
694
1c
W.W
$387.25
$1,021.74
Lexmark z705 Photo Jetprinter
288
1,127
8c
$80.00
$296.44
$689.31
Source: PC Magazine November 11, 2003 href="http://www.pcmag.com/">http://www.pcmag.com/
This PC Magazine study indicates that the
real cost of printing is in the ink. According to Lyra Research an imaging
market research firm in Newton, Massachusetts inkjet and toner cartridges
should total $27.5 billion worldwide in 2004. Plus, $8.5 billion for specialty
papers and sales total $36 billion. This pales in comparison to printer sales
projected at $16 billion. Seeing numbers like this
put things into perspective. With the print manufacturers' stating on their
manuals, "if you want the best results from your printer you should only use
the manufacturer's brand of ink", clearly they are building a monopoly and a
fortune at business people's expense.
There is a plus side to this equation. Simple
economics: if there is enough demand for consumers to pay an average retail
cost of $60 for a black ink cartridge or $120 to replace a set of both black
and color ink cartridges there is room for competition offering a better deal.
When I called around to retail outlets I found a savings of a buck or two, but
across ten cartridges that's only $20.00. That's not even half the retail cost
of one ink cartridge. I knew there had to be a greater savings if I just
looked in the right place.
So I began a conducting a printer cartridge
review and researching lower-priced alternatives. By researching on the search
engines and using the "keywords" I found resources for affordable ink
cartridges and wound up saving $400-$2000 in a 3 year period of ownership.
That's serious cash.
By purchasing remanufactured and compatible
cartridges I saved 70-80% on the cost of ink. Both remanufactured and
compatible cartridges offer the same print quality as OEM (Original Equipment
Manufactures) cartridges. Remanufactured means cartridges that are recycled.
These cartridges have been disassembled and refilled with new sponges and
inks. They go through rigorous quality assurance and testing before they are
repackaged for sale.
A compatible cartridge is similar to a
remanufactured cartridge in that it is a replacement cartridge. However, it is
manufactured by third parties not the OEM. These cartridges are fully
compatible with OEMs and also go through stringent quality control before
being prepared for sale.
Here are the resources I've found for
remanufactured and compatible cartridges.
(http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com)
By purchasing remanufactured and compatible cartridges I'm saving 70-80% on
printer ink cartridges. It's good for the bottom line. Now my cost for ink is
just pocket change.
Julie Shapiro is a marketing consultant working in
San Diego. In Julie's research she researched hundreds of articles and found
Bob Caldwell's website to present an inisightful review of printer cartridges.
At Bob's website Julie found articles on href="http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com/" target=blank> inkjet
cartridges, href="http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com/canon-printer-supplies.html"
target=blank>Canon ink cartridges, href="http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com/Lexmark-Inkjet-cartridges.html"
target=blank>Lexmark inkjet cartridges href="http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com/Samsung-laser-printer-toners.html"
target=blank> Laser toners , and href="http://www.printer-ink-cartridge-exp.com/HP-ink-cartridges.html"
target=_blank>HP ink cartridges
This article is copyrighted. To publish or reprint it
you need to obtain permission from the webmaster.