# Why is printer ink so damn expensive? HELP.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 5, 2001, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542 "2001-01-05T06:39:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542/21 "2001-01-06T16:42:12Z")

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    - Apparently you have forgotten what printer prices were like _before_ ink jets and lasers became available.

- Also note that home PC ink jet printers are not real well suited to massive amounts of printing, and the heads can clog over a few months of non-use. If you want industrial printing capacity you gotta pay for it, and $69 doesn’t cover the tab. - MC

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2001, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542/22 "2001-01-06T16:50:49Z")

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Laser printers are much cheaper now. Some of them have cheap toner too. $35 toner carts that do 1,500 pages are just awesome.

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**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2001, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542/23 "2001-01-08T20:31:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Duck Duck Goose \*  
> Oh, yeah, I feel so sorry for them, they gotta recoup their research costs, those poor starving but hardworking printer designers, toiling away in their little workshops, and the Canon baby needs new shoes, and the oldest Lexmark kid needs his teeth straightened…

What exactly is this supposed to mean? Would you rather go back to dot-matrix printers? Should Canon stop doing research? If they’re going to do it, who do you _think_ is going to pay for it?

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**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-printer-ink-so-damn-expensive-help/48542/24 "2001-01-09T00:09:18Z")

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I agree with the answers here, the ink isn’t really expensive. It seems that way because (a) you’re paying for the R&D that got printing technology this far and (b) the printers are heavily discounted to trap you into buying the refills and peripherals for years to come.

There’s another factor which kicks in, at least here in the UK. The people who make the printers advertise their (very low) prices in their national advertising, and also insist retailers stick to these prices. So, the retailers can’t do much about the actual price for the printer, which they make little or no moeny on. But no such controls apply to the print cartridges and other accessories. So that’s where the poor cash-strapped retailer (yeash, right) makes some money.

This sounds almost plausible, until you compare prices here in the UK with prices almost anywhere else. In reality, it’s just another example of “ripoff Britain”, a phrase now in very widespread use to describe the artificially inflated cost of living here on this damp little rock.

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