| Costs of inkjet cartridges go up as printer costs go down |
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The price of computer hardware keeps going down. The supplies for the hardware haven’t always decreased in price. Take the price of ink cartridges for inkjet printers. It can easily cost $65 to replace them.
The cheaper prices of the hardware are directly responsible for higher prices for cartridges. You can buy a new ink jet printer for $150. And that translates to smaller profit margins. So companies recoup by jacking up the price of supplies.
Ink jet printers are a cheap way to get high quality printing. They’ve become so cheap that they often come bundled with entire computer systems. They seem like a great deal – until the factory-installed ink cartridges leave you dry.
The typical ink jet printer comes with a color ink cartridge and a black ink cartridge. Replacing them can easily cost $35 apiece. There are three ways to cut down on the high cost of ink jet cartridges.
First, do not replace both cartridges at once, even though printer manuals say that you should. Try replacing just the dry cartridge. Then do a test page. If it looks okay, you’ve just saved money.
Second, try ink jet refills. A lot of people don’t know about these. You can buy cartridges that are designed to be refilled. Then you fill them up with refill kits. The cost is about $14 a refill. Here’s a warning on this idea, however. Doing it could void your printer warranty. So don’t do it until the warranty expires.
Third, if you have an old dot matrix printer, use that one most of the time. Use the ink jet printer for projects that demand higher quality.
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Thanks to the following people for contributing their thoughts for this report: Anthony Martin, Service World Computer Center, Springfield; David Liss, Coordinator of User Support at Southwest Missouri State University; Alan Simpson, Information Systems Manager at Edco, Springfield.
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KY3 viewer Sarah Burger shared her thoughts on this subject via e-mail:
“I saw your segment about expensive inkjet cartridges and tips to save money on usage. I had that same problem so I searched on the Internet for a better rate. And I found great rates on inkjet printer ink at  www.inosphere.com. For example, I have a Cannon BJC-600e. At Wal-Mart the cartridges are about $10 and come in 10ml containers. I found a company that sells the ink for $5.50 and come in a 14ml container. Also, if you purchase $50 or more, shipping is free! I thought this may be of interest to you.”
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This week’s Web pick is the site of the Biographical Dictionary. It’s a searchable database of more than 25,000 notable people. You can search by name, birth and death years and profession.
The Biographical Dictionary is not a fancy Web site but it has something that I really like that a lot of Web sites just don’t have – useful information and lots of it.
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