Bought some crap off ebay and all in all it was a bad experience...printer wouldn't recognize the cartridges.

Where do you buy your ink?

1/20/2011 9:39:56 AM

meritline.com

1/20/2011 12:20:33 PM

Amazon.com

1/20/2011 12:30:21 PM

staples. good prices and we get 2-3 bucks back per cartridge. Since our photo printer takes 6 cartridges and they are 9-10 a piece we are saving a good bit over buying from a store/site that is 50 cents cheaper on the ink itself. Plus the cashback/rewards/whatever for having a business account with them.



It also doesn't hurt that they are the closest store to us that sells ink and other office supplies and if you order off the site you get free next day delivery.

[Edited on January 20, 2011 at 12:41 PM. Reason : asdf]

1/20/2011 12:40:07 PM

Just buy a new printer

1/20/2011 1:04:53 PM

Bump

10/15/2011 4:07:31 PM

Who uses home inkjet printers these days?

10/15/2011 6:50:22 PM

i buy a laser printer, I print all the boarding passes i'll ever need for the rest of my life as do any children i may have.

10/15/2011 6:58:30 PM

Quote :

"Who uses home inkjet printers these days?"

My color/photo printer is an inkjet. No reason for me to spend the money on a color laser when I use this one infrequently and, when I do, the quality is good. (My b&w printer is a massive old HP LaserJet 5M, 9000 page toner cartridge FTW)

10/16/2011 1:02:38 AM

color lasers are around the $200 or below (when on sale) price range now days. I remember seeing samsung's for like $170 on black friday last year. Personally I use a b&w laser printer. I use amazon for replacement toners for $16 shipped that have worked over the years.

For color I got a few cheap epson ink jets if I need to print something quick out in color, but I do have a professional xerox solid ink printer and an epson 3800 17" wide printer if needed. I haven't used the xerox in oh 5 years and its been about 8 months for the 3800.

10/16/2011 1:49:17 AM

Quote :

"color lasers are around the $200 or below (when on sale) price range now days. I remember seeing samsung's for like $170 on black friday last year. Personally I use a b&w laser printer. I use amazon for replacement toners for $16 shipped that have worked over the years. "

same here. picked up a samsung color laser for $170 and never looked back. but i suppose if i had some specialized needs like printing photos i'd have to find a way to stick with inkjets.

10/16/2011 10:39:59 AM

i need some cyan toner but dont want to pay the $Texas that Dell charges

10/16/2011 10:45:08 AM

No, don't get me wrong. I have an HP All-In-One inkjet that came "free" after rebate with my computer back in 2006, but I can't remember the last time I actually printed something on it. I've used it to scan some stuff, but printing pretty much never. I used an old Epson in college. Stupid NCSU Print Quota.

10/16/2011 1:45:01 PM

We do very light printing and only occasionally. From time to time I want color. If I'm going to get something new that I'm not going to print photos with, is the long term cost/page better with a cheap color laser?

10/16/2011 6:19:46 PM

I purchased some ink off of ebay a while back for an hp photosmart and had no trouble with it.

10/19/2011 9:50:51 AM

Quote :

"Just buy a new printer"

if you're using a cheapo $75 inkjet, this can actually be more cost effective than buying new OEM ink

i usually take the print cartridge model number and plug it into something like pricegrabber.com or cnet.com/shopper and find good deals that way

some 3rd party cartridges are ok, but many are ass

10/19/2011 10:06:52 AM

If you buy a new inject printer as suggested above, it will most likely come with a cartrige that holds much less ink than the ones you buy separately and you will be in the same position again in a month. The whole point of manufacturers subsidizing printers is to make the money back on the ink later. You can refill your catridges if you do not care about precise color accuracy. If you are printing photos or anything else that requires precise color reproduction, I recommend that you stick with brand-name ink cartriges.

i own a laser B&W printer (old HP 5L), a three-in-one HP inject workcenter that came with a computer, and an HP Pro9000 photo printer, and the first two get the generic brands while the last one gets Canon ink

10/19/2011 4:27:26 PM

1) Inkjet vs Laser as a good buy for yourself is directly related to the volume of printing you do and the page coverage of the ink/toner.
1a) When cartridges advertise X number of pages, it is typically done at 5% page coverage (about the amount it would take to print a one page business letter)
2) Generic refills are not a bad deal if you get them from a reputed manufacturer (Ricoh, Canon, etc)

Quote :

"If you buy a new inject printer as suggested above, it will most likely come with a cartrige that holds much less ink than the ones you buy separately and you will be in the same position again in a month. The whole point of manufacturers subsidizing printers is to make the money back on the ink later."

This. Starter cartridges usually only have about 1k pages worth of ink/toner

Quote :

"is the long term cost/page better with a cheap color laser?"

cpc is tied to page coverage.

[Edited on October 20, 2011 at 9:02 AM. Reason : .]

10/20/2011 8:59:26 AM