Like a lot of people, I feel really shafted when I see I can buy a printer for $50 which includes a set of ink cartridges but when replacement cartridge time rolls around they are $40 a set. I know why it's done that way but it dosn't make me like it.
Anybody found a reasonable refill or non-OE cartridge source?
I've thought about doing this: Buy printer, when its time for a new cartridge, buy a new printer and sell the old one on craigslist. Or the new one. But I assume that the cartridge that comes with it doesn't have much in there.
My mom sends them off somewhere to get refilled, but I feel like they fail more often since she's been doing that.
Continuous ink systems
How much do you actually need color? I hardly ever need it so I bought a black and white laser printer 6+ years ago and got rid of my inkjet's. I am willing to pay kinko's for the few times that I actually need color. Color laser prices have come down enough that when my laser dies I am going to upgrade to one maybe you should look into laser printers depending on how much ink you are using.
The toner cartridges are expensive for laser printers but I have only replaced the toner once in the 6 years I have been using the printer.
There was a place in the local mall that would refill my cartridges for about 1/3 the cost of new, but I bought a Canon printer the last time, and new refills are only $6 for black. I never use color, but I think they're about double.
Google is your friend.
buy your ink off amazon.com. seriously
like most printers, my ink was ridiculously priced at stores like staples and office depot.
i got 2 sets of color ink and 4 black cartridges for around $20 off amazon. it was a package deal. off brand ink of course, works fine though. i still have a bunch of extra cartridges for when I run out.
(brother mfc-440 printer)
FYI, the included cartridges are "intro" cartridges. They have a much shorter life than the replacements
Refilling / Refilled have a much higher rate of failure and/or leaking
J, the wife is getting our cartridges from Simplyink.com. She is getting cartridges for our ink-jet for about $8.00. That's for a Brother printer that used individual color cartridges.
mtn wrote: I've thought about doing this: Buy printer, when its time for a new cartridge, buy a new printer and sell the old one on craigslist. Or the new one. But I assume that the cartridge that comes with it doesn't have much in there. My mom sends them off somewhere to get refilled, but I feel like they fail more often since she's been doing that.
Yeah, the problem is used consumer-grade printers have a resale value of ZERO. Seriously, you can't give those things away. I tried a few times when moving and ended up throwing a bunch of them away. The Goodwill wouldn't even take them.
I've bought refilled cartridges at Cartridge World before, the black worked/works fine but it barfed on the color cartridge (which already was a replacement for a color cartridge the printer didn't like either). After a little while it actually refused to work at all with the color cartridge in it.
This is for a HP Deskjet 4100 and HP seems to be pretty hot on putting in all sorts of 'fun' checks to ensure you're not saving money by buying non-OEM cartridges.
I've actually gone back to buying it an OEM color cartridge because I can't be bothered with the hassle and having to drive back to stores to get cartridges exchanged etc.
I buy refill kits off eBay, the kit contains a hypodermic style needle and a large bottle of ink.
You simply peel the cover on the old cartridge and slowly refill the ink using the needle. So far I have used half of my first bottle over several years, I refill them until the print starts to go blurry, usually about 10 times, the kit costs around half the cost of one cartridge.
NB I only use black but other colors are available
http://cgi.ebay.com/16oz-Black-Ink-Refill-Kits-Set-HP-Printer-Cartridge-/270624844909?pt=BI_Toner&hash=item3f027f6c6d
Jay wrote:mtn wrote: I've thought about doing this: Buy printer, when its time for a new cartridge, buy a new printer and sell the old one on craigslist. Or the new one. But I assume that the cartridge that comes with it doesn't have much in there. My mom sends them off somewhere to get refilled, but I feel like they fail more often since she's been doing that.Yeah, the problem is used consumer-grade printers have a resale value of ZERO. Seriously, you can't give those things away. I tried a few times when moving and ended up throwing a bunch of them away. The Goodwill wouldn't even take them.
Probably true, but I wonder what the chances are on a college campus....
I used to buy Staples generic cartridges, but a couple of years ago, they stopped selling them for HP's. HP must have threatened to pull their stuff from Staples.
Berkeley HP.
I have been buying cartridges from ABC Ink for years now and love it. I usually try and catch a sale and stock up, works out to around $3 per cartridge usually.
The kiddo saved her money and bought a laptop recently, it included an HP F4480 'all in one' printer and a set of '61' cartridges. My old HP PSC750 is showing signs of a coming nervous breakdown, so I was looking into replacing it with the same type printer she has.
Printer = $49.95 just about anywhere. Black '61' cartridge, $16. Color '61' cartridge, $24, both at Wal Mart. Or the 'high output' versions are available for about $20 more for the pair. Meaning I will have paid more for ink than I paid for the printer. That's just aggravating. BTW, Lexmark advertises those $5 black ink cartridges on TV; that's bullE36 M3. Their X2670 printer is roughly analogous to the HP and the ink costs about the same. 
I'm going to keep sniffing around, there's got to be a better way. BTW, that ABC Ink place SupraWes mentioned has had the best prices so far.
Woody wrote: Berkeley HP.
+1
I will NEVER buy another HP printer after discovering that perfectly good HP brand cartridges digitally 'expired' sitting on the shelf (via embedded, datecoded chip) and the printer refused to use them.
I just try not to print anything.
OK, you all are talking about my profession here, so here's my take on it all, based on 13-years experience.
1.) Regardless of whether you're talking about laser or inkjet printers, remanufactured/refilled cartridges are spotty at best. Yes, sometimes they work fine. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they break your printer.
2.) Brother printers suck ass. We were an authorized service & warranty center until last month, and I refuse to deal with that crap again. Imagine if Harbor Freight offered a printer.... Oh, and all the consumer-grade HP stuff is just as bad.
3.) You might as well consider any printer bought at a department store, and almost any from an office store, as a disposable item. Buy one, use it, when the ink runs dry toss it and replace the printer.
4.) Laser printers are far superior to inkjet, except for photographs(excluding professional-grade wide-format units)... But expect to pay $75-$150 or more for each toner cartridge. Of course, if you do the math on cost vs. page yield you'll see that laser printers usually cost around $0.015/per-page on black & $0.07 color vs. an inkjet which will be closer to $0.07/per-page black & $0.13 color.
In summary, if you're just looking for a cheap printer, buy the cheapest POS you find that has the basic features you need - but don't expect it to last. Try refilled ink cartridges if you want(or refill your own), but I wouldn't waste money on new ink, because 1/2-the time the printer is dead by that point anyway.
If you want a good printer that will last, buy laser. I bought a Konica Minolta Magicolor 1390MF new off the internet for ~$265 shipped...that's cheaper than I can buy them at cost. Yes, the cartridges will cost me about $120 each x 4, but I'll only need to replace them one-at-a-time, and the printer should last me 10-years or more, no more than I use it.
YMMV 
Costco offers a refill service. I have no experience with it.
Another ding on inkjets for those who live in the less sweaty states... they dry out and clog the print heads. If you have a printer that does not have the heads in the cartridge you are a bit screwed.
I also went laser (color even), got a good buy off of newegg. A black cartridge costs about $70, will last a very long time and will NEVER dry out.
I got a scanner printer for free from a friend because he didn't want to buy ink for it anymore. So basically I got a free scanner.
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