tinybot2k

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.

Marketing Watchdog: How Private is YOUR Info?

Not every person or business you give your email address to has a privacy policy. Privacy policies are legal jargon that usually discloses what an entity will do with your personal information (like email address) once the receive it. Many companies respect privacy while others rampantly violate it in the name of profit and a quick buck.

One example of an offender I was appaled to discover was my bank. I had a good business relation with them: I had a bank issued credit card, checking and savings accounts, a loan and direct deposit from my payroll system at work. What i DIDN'T know was that this same bank was selling my information to third party spammers and marketers who incessantly bombarded me at my home on the phone, in my mailbox and in my email inbox. Apparently the bank sent a disclosure out annually with very very fine print stating that they provide customer information to third parties, affiliates and business partners for various reasons without prior customer approval. The end of the long disclosure ends with a passive clause that states: Continuing to do business with them states an agreement with these terms of privacy policy. No room for debate there. It was either THEIR way or the highway.

It appalls me to realize that my bank gives away my name in lists of information to other companies about my bank balances, outstanding loans and debts. The latest annoyance has been a flurry of emails and phone calls I have received over the past three months from financial agencies all over the country. Their pitch was that my loan terms were about to expire and that I should consider refinancing. Now how did they know my loan terms? Some mailings even had fancy custom printed information about my current outstanding loan balance. Now how did they know THAT?

If you suspect that someone or some business that you have established a relationship with abuses your information, you can conduct a simple test. Create a throwaway email address and substitute it in your contact information profile for the business that you suspect. Then wait. When the spam starts rolling in to that address, you know that your information has been compromised. It isn't that any law was violated... becuase the institutions usually disclose that they indeed give (or SELL) personal customer data... it's just that it's so annoying that you as the consumer can't do much other than pack up and stop doing business with them.

It pays to read the fine print. Next time you submit your info to an online shop or business, take a few moments to read the privacy disclosures. I think they're required to have them. Then decide if it's worth trusting them with your info.

Annoying Introductions

How many times have you been approached by phone, email or in person with sayings like:

Hi, you MAY have ALREADY won a bright, shiny new...

Hi, you MIGHT be the winner of a...

Just enter for a CHANCE to...

The caller should just be honest and say:

Hi, we want to collect some information about your for our marketing scheme. We are curious if you are stupid enough to think that you have a decent chance at our prize and are willing to bank our efforts on it...

Pardon my cynicism but these marketing schemes seem to word things such that you (as the target prospect) will think that you already have the prize in your hands and all it takes is a little effort to obtain it; when in fact this is furthest from the truth. I think of this as deceiving behavior and suspect to immediate distrust. What makes marketing firms and departments think that they can get away with such behavior? Wouldn't everyone eventually become suspicious after awhile?

The answer is... yes. I shut out introductions promising fancy vacations, fabulous prizes and such simply because I know it's a numbers game. First, there are odds against actually winning the prize. The marketer does not have to disclose these odds, but in order to make things worth his/her while, they will probably have these odds be very difficult. For example, website banner ads promising a free Apple iPhone probably tap thousands of entrants before they finally draw a winner... that's steep odds.

How exactly do these marketers make money from this effort? The answer is it's a numbers game. First, even if only 1 in 10 people respond to their marketing efforts if they have a contact list of a hundred thousand people divided between an army of telemarketers that yields a collection of 10,000 farmed contact numbers, names and information. These marketing moguls then use this list for future campaigns or they turn around and sell this information to other marketing houses who want to reach an audience. I have seen ads selling "CD's" containing lists of people's names and contact info culled for spamming and telemarketing endeavors.

With emails it is even more profitable. Aside from paying for a server or webhosting service to house your mail server functions, sending thousands of emails... even millions of emails costs next to nothing. Even with a 0.01 percent response rate (that's really small) a million email campaign can yield a response rate of 100 interested people. That list is valuable stuff. Other marketing firms will pay top dollar for the contact info of those interested people. Or, if you just got these people interested in buying your product, that's tidy profit for not even having to leave the comfort of your desk. Even your traditional brick and mortar storefront probably could not match the power of reaching a million prospects. Not bad for just pushing a few electrons.

So the next time you are approached, think twice about the personal information you provide - the person who approaches you isn't in the business of giving away prizes. They're there to collect your contact info (and any other info they can get) for later resale.

Community Wireless Internet

For those of you who live in crowded metros or high density neighborhoods (apartments/condo complexes) there's a neat wireless ethernet product out on the market that helps you take advantage of your close proximity. The principle of the product is simple: community wireless mesh networking for delivering internet access.

The basis of the network is a router/repeater unit that picks up existing wireless ethernet signals and amplifies it. One of these repeaters is established as the Internet source and is connected to an ISP broadband pipe (whether that's a cable or DSL internet signal, it doesen't matter) The other repeaters simply pick up the signal and relay it so that other users can piggyback and pick up wireless internet access.

For more info, check out meraki.net to find out what it's all about...

For more advanced and enterprising users, one can also be a local ISP host and charge other users for access to the Internet. Anyone who tries to connect to the main signal gets a screen prompting them for billing information for either one-time access or a subscription that is billed periodically. Meraki handles all the billing screens and processing and simply sends a cut of the profits back to the person hosting the Internet service. THAT is what I find cool. I can be my own mini ISP for my neighborhood... or I can simply afford more bandwidth if I am sharing the cost between several of my neighbors.

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