Save on Inkjet Cartridges
Here in the Western World inkjet cartridges have gained a fair degree of notoriety due to how expensive they have become thanks to the razor and blades marketing model employed by most major printer manufacturers. As you are sure to read at a variety of other sources around the internet, these days it is not uncommon for ink to cost many times more than a comparable amount of luxury wines or champagnes, even upwards of thousands of dollars per gallon. This is less of an issue in several Eastern nations where United States and United Kingdom copyright laws are less strong, allowing for generic companies to manufacture copyrighted cartridge designs for sale at a drastically reduced mark-up. This is the origin of the “compatible” cartridge industry that can be found all over the place online, although recently many companies like HP have brought legal action to block further manufacturing of these products.
For those of us left to deal buying inkjet cartridges in the Western hemisphere there are still a variety of ways to reduce the exorbitant prices rather than simply coughing up a good chunk of a paycheck to keep the printer running. The first, and perhaps most obvious, cost saving strategy that all consumers should investigate is searching for better deals on brand name original equipment manufacturer (OEM) cartridges online. You can often find significantly reduced prices on even the most expensive brands just by broadening the number of places you look at–some companies offer wholesale rates, others give free shipping, and so on.
Another cost cutting option available is to consider purchasing non-OEM cartridges instead. Compatible cartridges are significantly cheaper, for obvious reasons, and there are also remanufactured (recycled) cartridges sold by a variety of companies. These cartridges have simply been refilled by another company, cutting out the cost of manufacturing a whole new cartridge and passing that savings onto you, the consumer. Always a good option to consider, especially for the environmentally conscious.