Dealing With Ink Woes

When was the last time that you tried to print something out but ran out of ink? Almost everyone has had a situation happen when they were trying to print out something that they needed, like directions, a new recipe, or even invitations to a party, only to find that they had much less ink than they thought they did. With a figurative screeching of gears, life comes to a halt. Your first instinct to address your ink deficit may be to sprint to an office supply store to buy more ink. But what about the prices at your local office supply? The exorbitant cost of ink can cause many people to question whether or not they really need to print something out in the first place.

Look Online

Have you ever stopped to wonder why it costs so much to purchase ink in a store? The chain of middlemen to get the ink to you is long and each person who touches the process of getting the ink to you adds cost. The process starts with the cartridge manufacturer. Printers are at their least expensive point in history, and this can be attributed to a few reasons. Partially, the parts that the companies need to have in order to make the parts have gotten less costly to produce, thanks to economies of scale, but it's mostly because the company realized that you need the ink cartridges, not the printer. This is a marketing concept referred to as captive-product pricing.


Then you also have to pay the distributor. Any store that you go into needs to make money, so they tack a few dollars onto the price of the cartridge. This means that you are paying for far more than the overpriced cartridges that turn the printer maker's profits, but the middlemen's profits as well.

Finally, don't forget to consider the costs of shippers and handlers, any other intermediaries, state and possibly federal taxes that have accrued on the products...extra costs seem to add on endlessly. It's no wonder that ink costs so very much!

Instead of paying a fortune for ink at a store, you can, instead, buy ink online. Buying ink online can save you a great deal of money, especially if you buy a few cartridges packaged together in bulk. That way you can save on shipping and you never have to worry about totally running out of ink again. And you can save even more money if you buy recycled ink cartridges, which have been remanufactured and are much less expensive to produce than brand new ones. Remember, when I say website online, I don't mean like some office supply store's website. You need to find an actual 3rd party cartridge vendor to get true savings.