Technology: Printers

This might seem like a weird topic but it something that I have noticed even more now that I am out of college. The price of ink is way overpriced!

I am sure HP, Lexmark, Epson, etc don't make very much money on their base printers but they make at least 150% profit on the ink cartridges. I think it is great that I can get a color printer, copier, and scanner all for around $90. But when it costs about $70 to replace the color and black cartridges my wallet runs and hides every time I need to buy ink. I have heard of people refilling their own ink cartridges but it sounds messy and I rather not have the ink leaking inside my printer.

Couple things to think about when buying new printer:

1. How much do replacement ink cartridges cost? This goes for any color or black that it may take. Would it be worth spending more money on a higher price printer to get cheaper ink replacements? Remember the ink cartridges that comes with the new printer are not as full as others you buy separately.
2. If you are printing lots of color pictures it would be well worth your time looking into a printer that splits up the color into cyan, magenta, and yellow.
3. When companies like HP come out with a new printer there is always a new cartridge number to go along with it. Which means every time you get a new printer, which shouldn't happen to often depending how much you print, you have to get a different cartridge number for that printer. I think Kodak has it right where all their printers either take 10 or 30 black and color. I have never had a Kodak printer but that idea makes more sense to me. They also have a ink saving calculator found at the bottom of this page. http://www.kodak.com/global/mul/consumer/printer/en-US/affordable-ink.html

 I'm not endorsing one brand over another but just watch those ink cartridge prices!