What’s the deal with printer ink? Is the high cost attributed to printer ink worth the hassle of purchasing?

We get a lot of costumers into Computer A Services that have questions about printers. Our usual response goes a little something like, “Repair would be too costy” and then usually follow up with, “The ink almost costs as much as the printer.” You can almost see their face begin to look back upon the multitude of trips to the store to buy ink. They’re remembering picking up the ink with a smile and then looking at the price with a frown.

Though, sadly for some, printers are such an important aspect of everyone’s life. Technology just hasn’t completed ridden our lives of paper and that 20 page essay isn’t going to magically appear on paper without ink.

The graphic above shows an astounding example at how ink prices really are. Consumer Reports reports that ink is anywhere between $13 to $75 per ounce. That $75 per ounce ink is more expensive than Chanel No. 5.

So why does ink cost so much? Business. Printer companies will mark down their printers to incredible prices, even sometimes losing drastic amounts of money in the process. But the trick is to mark up the ink to make the money back. Think about it, you can print without ink so the printer company has what you need and they’ll make you pay what they want you to. Printer companies even add microchips to their ink so as to make unofficial ink purchases very difficult.

The best ways to save money on printer ink is to refill your ink or buy refilled ink. Many businesses will refill your cartridges or even take your old ones for refilling and selling back out to the public.