Not the first to wonder about the cost of liquids.

Is it wrong that the first thing I thought was "how much is semen worth?"

http://voluntaryxchange.typepad.com/voluntaryxchange/2006/...

Finally.

News you can use.

Rob at cockeyed.com did a liquid cost list a while back.

http://www.cockeyed.com/science/gallon/liquid.html

That actually makes me mad.

Does anyone know of a printer maker doesn't charge retarded amounts of ink? I'm sick of my current printer which is $20 per ink and only gives 200 black and white pages.

As the geologist in the room, I would just like to point out that the graph says oil costs less than bottled water.

It's called a laser printer.

That's why I use Lexmark printers! I swear I'm not addicted.

Of course oil costs less than bottled water... bottled water is generally $1.00 out of a pop machine... sometimes more. That's $1.00 for 20 ounces... compared to a barrel of crude which is hovering near $70.00 the last time I bothered to check, a barrel of oil coincidently is 42 gallons (U.S.).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_(storage)

Also what vodka did you use for reference... are we talking Stoli or 5 o'clock. Cuz 5 o'clock will give the price of gasoline a run for it's money.

You know what is funny, is the 50 gallon drums of the ink, are not expensive at all. My family has been manufacturing Ink Cartidges, Toner Cartidges, and Nylon Ribbon (Type Writer Ribbons) since the depression. (Obvisiouly Ink and Toner Cartidges were not around, but typewriter ribbons were), and we cannot believe the mark up. These things cost dollars to make, and they sell them for $20-40.

Word of advice, most of the ink cartidges/etc are made by a select few and than sold to Canon/Epson/HP and they brand them. By Generic, they are identical for the most part.

My family's company makes all the Office Depot and Office Max generics, and we use the same materials and everything for the brand name stuff.

I'd like to see how Lexmark ink compares to HP ink in price per mL.

I just bought 24 20 ounce bottles of water for 3 bucks. And since you are talking about buying oil by the barrel, you should also calculate water by the barrel. Not individual bottles. Or can crude oil be purchased by vending machines? You need to use at least similar quantities, not 20 ounces versus 42 gallons.

Why bother with ink refills?

When you run out of ink, throw out the printer. Go over to Target, buy a new printer (which has a new cartridge conveniently included). Voila, new printer AND ink cartridge for less than the price of a refill.

Rasaustin: That would work, except that the cartridges that come with the printers are typically only half full.

> Rask says: Rasaustin: That would work, except that the cartridges that come with the printers are typically only half full.

Ahh, an optimist :D

/they're half empty
/how much of the cost of a cartridge is because of the electronics that are included on the cartridges now

When I worked at Lexmark a couple of years ago, there was a story going around that Lexmark ink cost more per ounce than dom perignon.

Haha, I had the perfect argument to your comment spenc. Then my computer decided that it needed to restart itself. Oh well.

let's not forget that the cost of the cartridge, filling it, packaging, and transportation are all being left out of this calculation. We should also remember that we're getting a heck of a deal on the printer in the first place, since most companies only being to make back their development costs through ink and paper sales.

I've got a HP Design Jet 500 42" inket printer at work. It ran out of black a little while back and I was worried that the cartridge (Just ink, no print heads) was gonna be a hundred bucks. The price for the 69ml cartridge: $30.

For comparison, common HP cartridges are 19ml and cost the same price. I think there's a definite correlation between the original cost of the printer ($4000, in my case) and the cost of refills. We have a stack of cheap inkjets at the office from Dell and HP that were cheaper to replace than to refill

But blood only comes in red. And is largely useless, outside of writing demonic messages on the wall and cryptic clues on the floor. Well... that and the whole "carry oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies" thing.

But blood only comes in red. And its usefulness is largely limited to writing demonic messages in blood on the wall, or cryptic messages on the floor. Well then there is the whole "carry oxygen and nutrients throughout our bodies" thing that it was designed for, but even that is now antiquated.

I want to know why my brand new HP deskjet printer pushed out only 10 pages before the machine started reported the cartridges were nearly empty?

Does this mean it's going to cost $30 for every 10 pages?

HP I think you know where you can stick it. Thank god for refill shops and avoid HP!

Why only pick on HP? Is this blog sponsored by Canon?

I can't be sure, but I think gold is actually worth less than printer ink in weight.

What makes this even worse is that frequency at which we buy the listed liquids...I don't know about you, but I require much more ink than I do blood. If demand were put into this equation we could recognize some serious injustices.

This is the reason I hate HP printers, Canon on the other hand does not charge like crazy for new catridges.

In a true free market this wold be impossible. Competitors would come in quickly to drive down the price of ink.

$0.71/ml is nothing, Bausch & Lomb rewetting drops for contacts goes for around $1.12/ml. This for what is basically fancy saline solution.

Shawnj

I bought a Brother laser printer HL-1440 for about $ 100 a year ago, and the high yied cartridge TN 460 runs about about 6,000 pages at cost of $ 60...

Last year Business Week had a graphic which showed HP ink was more than Chanel No 5 and 1990 Dom Perignon on an ounce price comparison

Obviously you are not paying only for the HP ink. A fair comparison would include the "price" of the human being or other animal containing/producing the blood as well. Bottled water requires a marketing system to get yuppies to buy the stuff; this is part of the "package" just like the HP cartridge and electronics for the printer cartridge is part of the package. So this is not a fair comparison at all. As for oil, the liquid itself is not all you are buying, you are also buying the entire system supporting it so it's even cheaper and at the same time more expensive than the price of the liquid at the pump. If you didnt have blood you'd pay any price for it, but wouldnt have time to reach for your wallet. The other things do allow time to get to your wallet but then you have to have someone to pay and the liquid, be it water, oil, or ink or Red Bull, would have to be in sufficient supply not to cost an arm and a leg. In fact most of these things are fundamentally free or not necessary, you only pay for them out of a combination of stupidity, relative wealth, and convenience. Water shouldnt be something you have to pay for. Oil can and will be replaced by better sources of energy. Ink can be electronic ink and we shouldnt be cutting down forests which we need to breathe, to print ink on newspaper which most dont read or even recycle.

would replacing my blood with HP ink raise my net worth?

it's just the old give away the razor and rape you for the blades thing...

What infuriates me is the cheapness of most printers... I say most due to my limited exposure. When I bought an iBook 5 years ago, it came with a free (after $100 mail in rebate that was never mailed in) epson printer. I printed with it for about 3 months, then it started putting lines through everything, and cleaning the heads using the software for the printer didn't fix it. At the time I was trying to print an essay for a class that was due in 15 minutes, so I promptly kicked the printer across my dorm room, shattering it, and ran to the computer lab.
Now where I work we have older lexmark laser printer's (real pieces of garbage). And also HP's 4000's 4100's 4250's and various new color printers. And the HP's are pretty junky in my opinion too... all the internal gears are plastic, they are constantly in need of repair... the color printers were get have the most convoluted toner carosel designs I've ever seen in my life (dont' know model numbers, but one has them all in a line, and the flip out on this thing when you open the front of the printer, and another model has them chambered like a revolver would bullets...). They just all feel so cheesy... for what these printers cost why doesn't someone make a nice product? Addmittedly my experience is limited, but is there something good out there? I'm just always blown away at the price of these things when you look at the internals. Maybe I'm just not buying quality printers and that could be, I'm just curious who makes a quality printer? Canon?

If only my body produced ink instead of blood, I'd become rich!

>jakesolo says: would replacing my blood with HP ink raise my net worth?

Nah, you're priceless already! :)

actually about canon.... Possibly worse than HP

I thought it would be the opposite but the ChromaLife 100 8M (Magenta) CLI-8M for the Pixma iP4200 & MP500 series of printers cost me $16.25 (we'll forget the tax) @ Staples (where they stopped giving back $3.00 for Canon & Epson carts. btw - HT, Dell *!?* and LexMark only nowadays) for a 13ml tank.

So Let's see 13ml for $16.25 - That's $1.25 per ml!! I can't find replacement carts. for this model yet (it's been a year already! - nobody on dealink.com seems to make 3rd party carts. for this model)

HP ink is almost a bargain... I suppose we're all getting screwed.

Regarding ink being less expensive on a more expensive printer (and one you will use more), why does that surprise you -- would you pay more for the printer if the ink cost less?

Regarding cost-per-ml, please note that in typical usage (less than 100 pages-per-month) some Epson printers get only half as many pages-per-ml as some HPs -- cost-per-print at your usage level is the more meaningful metric.

Regarding the "cheapness" of printers, not that those designed to print a million pages-per-month cost a good fraction of a million $$, but a lot less per-print.

Regarding where to get lower cost inkjet prints, take a look at the HP K550 -- a "business" inkjet that costs less per print than personal/small business lasers.

BTW, would you use 3rd-party blood in your body (if it was cheaper)?

The wall of text crits.

Any question that starts 'why do they' or 'why don't they' is always answered by 'money'. 'They' don't make a good printer because it costs more. People need printers and will continue to buy crap ones for the same price because there's no replacement for it.

I had an HP Laserjet Series II, two feet square and almost a foot tall, that felt like it was hewn from a solid block of steel. I got it for 20$ on Ebay; it cost more to ship (Lots more. I'm not kidding about the weight). I had it for around 6 years, and it was old when I got it...I finally gave it away when it needed the paper pickup roller replaced (I think it fossilized...) and I got an HP laserjet 4 for free...That lasted a couple of years, and now needs a motor replaced. The whole thing is modular, will take me about 20 minutes to do, once I get around to digging it out from under the crap on my desk.

Part of the crap is a Lexmark all in one copier/printer/fax/scanner/ toaster/carwash/dessert polish/floor wax monstrosity that lasted less than two months, bought brand new. It either picks up no paper at all or all of it at once, nothing between.

I prefer my elderly printers to this new thing...they cost less (even buying toner carts with it) and last a hell of a lot longer.

Justified? it doesnt have to be justified.
they ell it for as much as they can. if they could sell it for double they would. if yoy really want a justification its that legally the corporation is required to make as much profit as possible
robert

I'll purchase vodka instead. Drink enough, you won't be thinking about using your computer and printing!

Its a bogus comparison.

There is of course a fair amount of mark-up, as everyone here pointed out (see Lexmark vs. Static Control), but that $30 is buying you the ink AND the inkjet head. On HP printers the head is built into the cartridge. The inkjet head is a complex little bugger to make.

I'm not saying that these cartridges are cheap, but this comparison is akin to saying "My new car came with a full tank of gas cost $30k, so gas costs $30k/15 gallons = $2k/gallon."

I bought a Samsung black laser printer about 4 years ago and haven't looked back. I am still using the original toner cartridge that it came with and have only refilled it once (each refill is worth about 5,000 pages). The refill ink I bought off of ebay for about $15 for 4 bottles.

Screw ink jets. Laser printers are FAR superior in quality, cost, and print speed.

Yes, if you don't need color, get a laser printer.

The cartridges are pricier, but last so much longer. We're still on our half-full starter cartridge (full cartridge - 2500 pages), 4+ reams of paper later. The toner doesn't dry out or get clogged, and modern printers are fairly good at avoiding paper jams and such.

Laser printers are the perfect example of "pay now, or pay later". A laser printer and a new toner cartridge is cheaper than an inkjet probably within a year or two of printing.

I buy my cartridges at Printpal for $6.95 and I am happy with the result. Try it: Printpal.com

It is insane that my HP 970 Inkjet won't print if the color cartridge is empty, even though the black cartridge is full and I only wanted a b/w print out. Go figure!

What about HP hiding the cost per ML? Check out these "Photo Value Packs" where they don't disclose how much ink you get in each cart- just that they are going to give you "150 pictures". There's no way to objectivly compare the cost of the ink this way! Am I getting a full 10ML of black here?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/store_access.do...

The value is to HP, not the consumer. Only suckers buy this stuff!

The value is to HP, not the consumer. Only suckers buy this crap!

went to target. cost of 2 head for electronic replacement heads: $13.00. Cost of original toothbrush with AA battery and head: $6.00.
grrrrrrrrrrr.

Went to the printer section the cost of HP cartridge $25. Cost of new HP printer was less than $50. (comes with black and color cartridges).
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

I remember one year HP made some huge chunk of their profits from just printer cartridges.

Yes it's true that the manufacturers attempt to sell the printer for cheap, and make it back from the ink/toner. Especially HP, as far as ink cartridges are concerned. The reason is that they make the cartridges with a new printhead and chip as to justify the higher cost. The use of printhead + chip also makes it harder for generic products to appear on the market, for it is still illegal to reverse engineer an HP ink cartridge. The best thing you can do is to find a quality remanufactured, compatible ink cartridge.

In contrast, the Canon and Epson cartridges normally do NOT have a printhead built in, and