[Topspinmo]

Why does my HP printer color/black cartridges cost more than my printer?

Rant over.

[jimhoward]

That has been true for a long time. And, of course, now that they have chips in the cartridges and have upgraded the firmware in the printers the inexpensive third party cartridges generally don't work unless you transplant a chip from a used genuine cartridge.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

The printer is just a vehicle for the ink. I have an Instant Ink plan with HP - I pay around $70/year to print up to 50 pages per month, no matter how much or how little ink I use. When my printer runs low, HP automatically sends me replacement ink. The replacements will typically get me through around 4 months of use. If I don't use 50 pages in a month, the unused pages carry over to the next month - for up to 3 months total overage (I can save up to 150 pages of unused pages, if I want to make a lot of color copies of something, or have a multi-page presentation with a few distributions, for example).

If I find I'm needing only 25 pages a month, I can downgrade to the next-less-expensive plan. If I go over my total (including saved unused pages from previous months) alotment, I pay extra for every 10 pages over - or if I know in advance I'll need more, I can upgrade to the next-more-expensive plan for a month, then go back to my 50ppm plan when I'm done with that run.

No contract, no yearly commitment. Can cancel any time, and if you get a new printer you can transfer your existing plan to your new printer without losing any overage pages you've saved up.

[CarlR33]

Who prints anymore, LOL. I agree the cost is crazy and I hardly print anymore. With working remotely the age of printing is almost gone. You can always print to PDF and save copies to a hard drive or cloud drive as a non ink option.

[dewilson58]

Like elevators and escalators...................."you" make money on the maintenance.

[JoelJohnson]

I use a Laser printer, no "ink" that drys out, it uses a powder that fuses to the paper. It's only black and white. If I "need" a color print, I can bring my phone to CVS o ro Staples and get a color print.

[Robbu]

Originally Posted by JoelJohnson

I use a Laser printer, no "ink" that drys out, it uses a powder that fuses to the paper. It's only black and white. If I "need" a color print, I can bring my phone to CVS o ro Staples and get a color print.

They do make color laser printers, I have one from HP connected to my local network that allows printing from any device, even phones and tablets. It's never asked me to subscribe to anything.

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by Topspinmo

Why does my HP printer color/black cartridges cost more than my printer?

Rant over.

I've been an Epson user for some years now. Bought an Epson Eco-Tank ET-3958 (same printer as the ET-3950 but sold only thru Costco) about eight months ago and I print more than a fair amount; estimate 150 pages, more or less, per month. It came with the four needed ink bottles, 1 black, 3 colored, to fill the printer, plus an extra black bottle. Bottles, not cartridges. The black reservoir has gone down about 1/4 of the way (you can see the level on the front of the printer for each bottle) and the colored cartridges have gone down maybe 1/8, if that. Plus I still have ink left in the bottles for when the cartridges run low.

I had my last Epson for 3 years. In that time I bought ink exactly once, four bottles for about (at the time) $60 total. Most of that second round of ink is still in the printer which I am trying to sell.

I was an HP guy exclusively for decades before I got tired of paying more for ink than the printer. The overall print quality as well as the color quality of the ET-3958 is every bit as good as the HPs I've owned. To be honest the Epsons are a bit "clunkier" and slower than the HPs, but saving hundreds of dollars in ink in a year more than makes up for that.

[Caymus]

HP sells inkjet printers below cost and makes their profit on ink. I remember reading that the ink would cost about $40,000 per gallon. My inkjet printer stopped working and now I only use it as a scanner. I find that a B&W laser printer meets my needs and uses generic replacement cartridges.

[retiredguy123]

I buy HP ink jet printers and use the HP ink cartridges. I use the XL ink cartridges for black ink and the regular cartridges for the color ink. Could I save money doing something else? Probably, but I really don't care. When I buy a new printer, I don't buy the cheapest one available.

[Stu from NYC]

Happily my HP printers only does black and able to use toner.

Found out a few years ago can buy a generic toner via amazon for a fraction of the cost HP charges

[Sparky99]

Can the answer be BOTH?

[Scottmwhitney]

I bought a Brother laser printer 4 years ago. Accounting for the cost of the printer and the 2 laser cartridges I've purchased, I spent about $500 in total. In the meantime, I've printed well over 6,000 pages. That's less than a penny a page (INCLUDING THE COST OF THE MACINE)
HP sells ink-jet printer cheap. Why? Because it cost more than 5 cents per page to print. HP is robbing you blind... and that doesn't even include the cost of the machine.
If you gave me an HP printer for free, I'd turn down the offer. I simply couldn't afford to print anything on it.