[Born Conservative]

I tried 3rd party replacement cartridges once, and they did not perform nearly as well, and they did not last.

I'm equally disgusted with the "trickery" of Epson with my current printer. It gives a graphic image of the supposed level of ink remaining in each cartridge, and then warnings each time I print that I need to purchase a new cartridge. I have purposely not changed it, and still am able to print, despite the graphic showing no ink remaining in my black cartridge.

[hemogoblin]

Anybody know if those Lexmark refill-the-cartridge kits really work? I bought the printer for $32 when my Epson died, and the carts cost $31! Teach me to do my homework.

[BJungNan]

Regulators should leave this issue alone. A company will come that offers a printer with low cost ink refills or a simply filling system. If regulators get in the way, it won't happen.

If only they had let the market alone when electricity was going to take a 10 percent jump in California.

[holyscroller]

I was doing color printing on my old HP Deskjet before there were color printers. I just saved the old ink cartridges and refilled them with a hypoodermic needle and bottles of ink from the stationery store (I think it was the non-waterproof variety, but I can't remember).

I would do my documents in stages...set the type for all the red stuff and run that thru, then again for the blue, green, black, etc. I had to run the same paper thru once for wach color. It was a crude system, but it worked, and I never had ink cartridge problems. I just wish I could remember which ink type I used, waterproof or non-waterproof.

[weegee]

Why do CD players now cost $20 or less while CDs cost $15-19?

[bert]

Buy the ink in volume

Global ink 877 534 1297

Buy it by the quart.

[timydnuc]

Answer to title: Cause they cost $35.00.

[mountainfolk]

For general information. We have an old HP deskjet 520 that we refill from a kit that SAM's club sells. Kit name is STRATITEC and fills various HP, Cannon, Epson, Compaq, Lexmark, Apple, Brother, Okidata, Xerox. Phone # on package is 888-336-4418. Web site is www.easyinkjetrefill.com. Has 5 colors, 3 blacks. Very inexpensive.

[TheRedSoxWinThePennant]

It's all gwb's fault with his ties to BIG INK

[PJ-Comix]

Has anybody else here ever tried the ink injection kits? I tried it ONCE and it was a DISASTER! Am I just a klutz or is it almost impossible to successively inject ink into the cartridges?

[PJ-Comix]

I use black ink cartridges nowadays because it is a lot cheaper. 95% of the time all I need is black ink anyways and if I do need a color printout, then just put it on a floppy disk and take it over to Kinko's for a printout.

[FreedomCalls]

Well clearly what is called for are Congressional hearings to determine why they cost so much. This can be followed by the appointment of an "Ink Cartridge Czar" who will monitor ink cartridge prices and report back to the President. After that we can have a flood of legislation making the selling of high-priced ink cartridges illegal. The IRS will need to impose a progressive tax on cartriges. The BATFE will have to add another division "The Ink Cartridge Enforcement Division" to persue those who buy high-priced cartridges. The BATFEI will then investigate the connection between high ink cartridge prices and money being funnelled to Al Qaeda and to prevent the importation of printers that can only accept high-priced cartridges. And so on and so on until we have an cabinet-level Department of Ink Cartridges. The 52nd President (a Republican) will campaign on the need to eliminate this department, but the 54th President (a Republican also) will decide to keep it rather than eliminate it because he needs the "printer-moms" votes since a part of his campaign promises was to be the "printer President."

[zip]

ping

[TankerKC]

Why Do Ink Cartridges Cost So Much?

The cartridges don't cost one penny more that we are willing to pay.

[Servant of the Nine]

Lexmark is accusing Static Control of contravening the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which makes it illegal to circumvent any digital technology used by a company to protect its intellectual property.

If the DMCA had been in effect in the '70s, Compact could never have cloned the IBM PC and today we would still be using IBM ATs running DOS 2.1 at 12mhz for $5,000.00 each.

So9

[Lady Heron]

It gives a graphic image of the supposed level of ink remaining in each cartridge, and then warnings each time I print that I need to purchase a new cartridge. I have purposely not changed it, and still am able to print, despite the graphic showing no ink remaining in my black cartridge.

Our Cannon does the same thing. We can go for weeks of printing once it begins to tell us that the ink is running low. We just wait until it runs out.

[ArneFufkin]

Ohhhh ... it's a profit deal!

[HairOfTheDog]

I have purposely not changed it, and still am able to print, despite the graphic showing no ink remaining in my black cartridge.

Certainly.... I use it till it runs out, I don't live by the light.

I have a high-end HP color inkjet, and it's cartridges are particularly expensive.... Having not been really hungry yet, I haven't tried the third party replacements, and consider myself warned now not to expect much out of them if I do.

[MHT]

I just got my "universal" $10 generic inkjet from bestbuy.com (no shipping and handling fees)--and it seems to be working at the same level as the "real" Epson inkjets. I'm encouraged and plan to buy more of this bestbuy product (interestingly, it's only available online, not in the stores).