How To: Get Cheap Ink

Kevin!

Ink prices can often be extortionate in bricks and mortar shops, with mouth watering markups for the retailers.
Branded ink is more expensive per ml than vintage champagne. A bottle of Dom Perignon costing £109 is 15c per ml whilst ink works out at 51c per ml - shocking, right?

What type of Printer should I go for?

(1) It is important to buy a printer with individual ink cartridges, as the printers which have the colours combined into one cartridge do not generally have generics made for them.

(2) Certain manufacturers have installed microchips into their cartridges to communicate with the printer in relation to ink levels, but also to sus if the cartridge is genuine or not. Sometimes, the printers which rely on chips can spit out the cartridges if it determines to be a non genuine product.

Printers with chipped ink still run well on spurious cartridges, and generally accept the unofficial cartridges but if you are buying a printer from new it is worthwhile to purchase a printer that does not contain chips in their inks.

An example of a manufacturer that doesn't rely on chips is Brother, which is why a lot of the pop up ink shops are selling their printers.

Whilst brother printers are dearer in general to purchase, you will quickly recoup that cost in ink usage.

An example brother printer: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-DCP-J552DW-Multifunction-Wireless-Printer/dp/B00ELG4SF2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1402402813&sr=8-4&keywords=brother+printer £86.99 at the time of posting - all of the brother inkjet range do not contain chips so it doesn't have to be this particular model.


Where to purchase the cartridges?
eBay. There is a vast amount of sellers, so pricing is extremely competitive. It is recommended that you chose a seller with a high feedback rating, and also one that has sold a large volume of the cartridges that you are intending to purchase.

HP 364

A set of HP 364's Xtra Large (an extremely common cartridge) works out at just five euro per set, compared to the retail price of HP cartridges 115.96 for the large ones (26.99e per cartridge) a saving of 110.96 per set of cartridges!

(http://r.ebay.com/dDVNNQ) - 3 set multipack

Brother LC123

The ink compatible with the printer listed above works out at 4.93 per set, the retail on the same set in a bricks and mortar store is e119.99! a similar saving to the HP printer

http://r.ebay.com/vAxIUv


Postage is expensive?
Ink sellers on eBay seem to have very high postage costs to the Republic Of Ireland. The workaround is to create an account with http://parcelmotel.com, and deliver it to their UK address which will then be forwarded to yourself - for a minimal cost of 3.50. Order a couple of sets and that cost is practically nothing.

Should I buy a printer with a years free ink?
Your choice, but buying replacement cartridges from eBay is most likely cheaper. You also don't have the hassle of having to return the cartridges to be refilled each time you want ink.

Is the quality as good?
For general everyday to day prints, absolutely. It's not going to be studio quality but I would strongly recommend to get photos printed professionally at the likes of Boots because it works out much cheaper than using the liquid gold ink that the manufacturers provide.

stimpson

Just buy a B&W laser printer and get your photos done professionally.

You can refill laser cartridges and rechip them for a few quid and get thousands of pages from one.

Kevin!

stimpson wrote: »

Just buy a B&W laser printer and get your photos done professionally.

You can refill laser cartridges and rechip them for a few quid and get thousands of pages from one.

Laser printers are a similar deal, but as most households use inkjet I thought this guide would be more suitable.

A common HP laser toner from eBay costs http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Black-CE310A-Toner-Cartridges-for-HP-CP1020-CP1025-CP1025NW-M175hw-126A-/380645493260?pt=UK_Computing_Toner_Cartridges&hash=item58a03d4a0c 10.49 compared to 64.99 bricks and mortar