Tried to print something recently and discovered you were out of ink? Almost everyone has had a situation happen when they were trying to print out something that they needed, like directions, a new recipe, or even invitations to a party, only to find that they had much less ink than they thought they did. The world seems to end and everything hangs in the balance while you search for a friend with a printer who can help you, or frantically rush to the library. When that happens the first priority you’ll have will likely be to rush to the store in order to buy more ink. But have you seen the prices of ink at your local store lately? The exorbitant cost of ink can cause many people to question whether or not they really need to print something out in the first place.

Look Online

Have you ever stopped to wonder why it costs so much to purchase ink in a store? The chain of middlemen to get the ink to you is long and each person who touches the process of getting the ink to you adds cost. The process starts with the cartridge manufacturer. Printers are at their least expensive point in history, and this can be attributed to a few reasons. The costs of production have decreased, certainly, as technology gets cheaper and mass production causes lowered production costs, but the biggest reason is because the company knows that you need ink to print things, so instead of charging tons for the printer, they charge a lot for the ink cartridges. This is a marketing concept referred to as captive-product pricing.

Then you also have to pay the distributor. Any store that you go into needs to make money, so they tack a few dollars onto the price of the cartridge. This means that you are paying for far more than the overpriced cartridges that turn the printer maker’s profits, but the middleman’s profits as well.

Finally, don’t forget to consider the costs of shippers and handlers, any other intermediaries, state and possibly federal taxes that have accrued on the products…extra costs seem to add on endlessly. It’s no wonder that ink costs so very much!

There’s an alternative to spending tons of money at the store, and that’s buying ink online. Purchasing your ink cartridges online can be a huge expense-saver, particularly if you buy a package of multiple cartridges and pay a lot price. That way you can save on shipping and you never have to worry about totally running out of ink again. And you can save even more money if you buy recycled ink cartridges, which have been re-manufactured and are much less expensive to produce than brand new ones. Remember, when I say website online, I don’t mean like some office supply store’s website. You need to find an actual 3rd party cartridge vendor to get true savings on cheap ink cartridges.