Printer Cartridge Price Fixing

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Printer Cartridge Price Fixing

By Stephen Bucaro

Printers are one of the biggest rip-offs in computing
today. Companies like Hewlett Packard (HP) and Cannon
throw together a bucket of cheap plastic parts and charge
you $150.00 for it. Then, they price gouge you for the ink
cartridges.

CNET.com analyzed the cost for inkjet printing and
reported that the costs ranged from 14 cents to $1.32 per
page. If it costs 21 cents per page and you print only an
average of two pages per day, the annual cost of ink would
be more than the cost of the printer.

The ink cartridge for a low end HP printer, containing
only one tiny ounce of ink, costs a mind boggling $30.00!
That’s price gouging, and all printer manufacturers are
doing it. That’s called PRICE FIXING and it’s illegal. To
add to the rip-off, some of them put all the colors into
one cartridge. Then you have to buy a new cartridge when
only one color runs out, wasting the remaining ink.

This price gouging makes it impossible for businesses like
direct marketing or mail order to survive. The only way
you can protect yourself is to refill your own cartridges.
Most people feel that it is too difficult or too messy to
refill cartridges. But for the cost of a new cartridge,
you can refill your old one 12 times (per color).

If your business on average prints 200 pages per day,
refilling cartridges could bring your costs down from
$15,330.00 to $1,277.50 per year. This is based on 21 cents
per page, your actual cost per page could me much higher.
With this kind of savings, you can afford to screw up a
few cartridges while learning. If you spill some ink,
you can afford to re-carpet the entire house.

A good place to get inkjet refill kits is MIS Associates
http://www.inksupply.com. They provide detailed online
well-illustrated step-by-step instructions. The same idea
applies to laser printer toner cartridges. Can you afford
to pay $400.00 every time your HP 1200se toner cartridge
runs dry? A good place to get toner refill kits is
http://www.tonerrefillkits.com. They also provide detailed
online well-illustrated step-by-step instructions. You can
refill the 1200se cartridge for only $12.95! (after one
time $12.95 purchase of tool kit.)

Printers are one of the biggest rip-offs in computing
today. I don’t know why the FTC is not investigating
illegal ink cartridge price fixing by printer
manufacturers. For now, the way to protect yourself is to
learn how to refill your own cartridges.
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