Can someone tell me why Printer ink is so expensive? -

Is there some magical substance in it which is so precious? Seriously printer ink is more expensive than petrol, what the devil is going on.

Printer ink is squeezed from the very rare Printer Octopus, otherwise known as Octopi Inkus. There are only 23 left on the planet and so the ink is a valuable and rare commodity.

I m also miffed at the high price of ink cartriges. The manufacturers seem to lure you in with totally silly prices for the printers, then crucify you with the horrendous cost of replacing the cartridges. You are snookered, as you need the specific type to go with the printer!!! I wish that I had checked out the price of replacement cartriges before I purchased a printer. I wouldn t mind paying a wee bit extra at first for the printer, knowing that the ink would turn out to be cheaper than most, in the future...

at one point it was more expensive than gold by weight or whatever. they make all the money on carts and not the printers.. cheapest is probably still laser printer (toner) , but only black/white.. so if you wanted photos , well you d feed that paper thru a colour printer.. just the pics, no text.. although obv. you need to have 2 printers. but if you print just a lot of text it works out cheaper. Although the use of paper should go down, what with email , the internet , virtual fax etc.

Hi M I agree, I asked the shop assistant that very question, and he didn t know either, its ridiculous to say this, but it s true, it is cheaper to throw out your printer and buy a new one each time, you get the ink included, and printers are cheaper than ink. UGH!!! Be Happy, From. happytiger.

Simple economics companies like Epson, Brother, HP, know for a fact you have 2 choices, but a new printer after the starter cartridges that come with a printer are empty which is not practical or buy more ink. Since they know you need to buy ink they can set the price really high

Ink is made of varieties of dyes, colorings, etc. Maybe that s why they are so expensive, because of all these ingredients just to make a small box of ink. The REAL answer? Who knows? gt;_lt;

Supply and demand. You don t have to buy the manufacturer s ink. You can take your cartridges into alot of different stores and have them refilled or buy remanufactured cartridges. I normally use www.printpal.com or www.inkjetcartridges.com

way to go L D cheered me up laffin since i read it : ) but seriously its like everything else on the market, if you need it they will always charge over the odds for it, if we didnt need it it would be just pennies.

The Market has set a price. If you saw the place I worked in, you would understand the costs involved in producing ink. It s not that profitable.

Probably because the manufacturers of printer ink have a monopoly on the market as they are the sole manufacturers of this official product so naturally they can charge whatever they want.

Buy compatibles, the reason why they re so expensive is because the printer manufacturer makes you think only their branded inks will work.

because Gulfstream private jets and 100 foot yachts are expensive too, but the CEO s of tech companies don t care, they just pass the bill along one ink cartridge at a time.

I think is just onother excuse for the companies to increase prices on anything to do with computers.

its because only some people know how to use the devil wizard magic that is used to extract the ink

Wow! interesting i never noticed =] !

I actually know the real reason but is a closely keep secret so don t tell anyone I told or I will be in trouble! A number of ink manufactures have manages to secure the employ of a group of fairies and unicorns that they uncovered by chance. The ink is filtered through the fairy wings several times as each fairy s wing is of a different thickness. By the time the ink has gone through the fairy s wing of the delicetest nature the ink is then pure enough to be drunk by the unicorns who are then milked. The ink that comes out of them is ready to use and put into cartridges and we then buy it. As you can imagine the fairies take advantage of the ink companies who have no choice but to pay them a huge salary. I did hear that the unicorns almost went on strike over a pay rise but after negotiations they got the money but then that meant the cost had to passed on to us. The manufacture them self make very little from the ink so don t blame them as its the fairies and the unicorn that are taking advantage and fleecing us - the ink manufactures are gutted by how much we have to pay to run their printers! NOW THE REAL REASON They fleece us with ink because they can. Printer don t work without ink and then to justify what they charge they use all sorts of marketing terms to make their ink look like it realy is something that faries produced. These use terms like Durabrite, Fine ink tecnology. All rubbish and just phrases. You also see a lot of post on here that say the original ink want damage your printer as It has special tecnology - they are just repeating what the manufuctures say. I have been refilling printers for 5 years and never have had a problem. My current printer refilling ink is so good a match to the original colours - I have a 5 inks system - that the prints are identical to the original ones I did when I had the original ink which came with the printer when I first bought it. Original cartridges cost ￡13 each. I refill for 39p each. Those who have had leaks ETC just have no filling skillls, its not that refilling is bad. Everyone I have tought to refill propery has had good results as well. Ink is a rip off - end of!