Why Is Printer Ink and Accessories So Expensive?
I went shopping for a new printer for my mom the other day and found a really cool deal. It was a Hewlett Packard ink jet printer for just $30 bucks (USD). Wow. With such a good buy, I was feeling kinda generous and also looked around for extra ink-jet cartridges to refill when she (inevitably) runs out of ink. I saw a two-pack (color and b&w) that ran for $25.
Wait a minute.
If the printer costs $30 and ink costs $25... then I actually invested in a... $5 printer? Why is the hardware so cheap? Now time for the next shocker. The printer does not come with a usb cable so now I have to find one in the store to make it work. I steer clear from the "deluxe" cables with gold plated plugs and fancy insulation. But even then, the cheapest USB cable sold for $40.
Now I'm a generally logical person, and I can understand deductive reasoning. What I just encountered was downright counter-intuitive. Why is the pricing for an ink-jet printer and its accessories so downright wacky? How do I know I've got the best deal?
Well, int he first place, the usb cable is actually a bona-fide ripoff. There are online stores or shops that build OEM computers charge less (more like the neighborhood of $5 to $10 for a 6 foot cable)... In my early career days, I worked as a salesperson for a retail computer store. According to the general manager, computers and hardware were sold at razor thin margins. That means that their profits on these items were very tiny. Where they recouped their profits were on things like "buyers protection insurance" and "extended warranties" as well as "accessories". Accessories would be sold at 300% to 400% markup because, well, they know that the buyer has no choice but to buy one (such as a cable) to make their new hardware work with their computer. Not everyone has the know-how or the patience to shop around, so they (reluctantly) pay the price to get that printer cable.
How about the ink cartridge? Is that also a rip-off? Well, not exactly. There's a reason for the high price. For some of you old-timers who remember the dot-matrix printers, you know that a prnter consists of several major components: the box, the print-head and the ink ribbon. The print-head is actually what does all the work. It contained a dozen tiny pins that would make an impression against the ribbon to make the print that you see on your page.
Back in those days, when you ran out of ink, you changed the ribbon. The print-head stays put. Enter the realm of the ink-jet printer. The complicated inkjet spray mechanism and the microchip that controls it is actually integrated into the inkjet cartridge. Yes, now the part that is supposed to be disposable contains the most expensive part of the printer.
To save money in the future, check out inkjet refilling services or buy a kit to refill it yourself. The ink kits are cheap. That's because what makes the inkjet cartridge expensive is NOT the ink... no matter how they advertise it (special photo-quality, high-gloss, etc.) it's the print-head that makes it expensive.
Now how about the paper? Do you really need the ultra-fancy "ink-jet" branded paper? I've read the packagng. Supposedly the paper is more "porous" or absorbent to allow the ink to look sharper and smear less. That's possible, but the printer companies have also given this some thought. After all, if their ink print jobs smeared or were sloppy in quality the customer would blame the printer.
The properties of ink disperson and absorption into paper is actually an issue with the liquid properties of the INK. Without going into a dialogue in chem engineering 101, just accept that better ink quality will also affect the way that your precious print will stick neatly and clearly to the paper. Printer manufacturers may not have much say in the way that paper is made, but they can draw up demanding specifications on the qualities of the ink that they manufacture. My bet is that better print comes as a result of good ink and not the quality of the paper that you use. The cheap recycled copy paper will work fine for most print jobs.
So there you have it. Some food for thought the next time you walk down the printer aisle at your local office supply or computer store. It's a little counter-intuitive, but if you give it some thought the whole pricing model does make some sense.