The real price of ink....

[chippedoff]

Hi.

Not entirely certain to which sub forum this should fit under, however...

Have you ever wondered about what it actually costs Canon or Epson, e.t.c for a single ink cartridge?

After reading canonfodder's posting on the resetter it got me thinking as to the markup ink/inkjet hardware manufacturers receive.

3000$ for a machine that cost about 50$ to build, and perhaps (guessing) 2000$ for R&D, if any.

What do you think a CLI-8, or BCI-6 cart costs canon or generic manf? Same goes for epson or hp, e.t.c.

Granted not all that interesting a subject.

Also why printers (most inkjets) can't only clean one colour at a time.

Enjoy.

:/

 

[hpnetserver]

Don't look at the possible cost of ink only. There are a lot of other costs associated with selling an ink cartridge. You will notice that Canon does put some quality in making the plastic of the ink cartridge. Their packaging is really not cheap stuff. They need to invest in marketing by paying hundreds or thousnads of marketing reps. The middle man also demand a huge profit in order to pay for their sales floor space, store rental, transportation and expenses associated with seeling the ink cartridges. It's easy to imagine that the actual cost of perfume in a perfume bottle is nearly nothing comparing to the cost of packaging. Promoting the perfume, marketing, cost of sales floor space, etc. all take the major part of the cost. So it is not very meaningful to look at the actual cost of the ink in an ink cartridge. It may not be a surprise if it is only $0.10 per cartridge. But Canon may actually lose money if they sell it at $5 a cartridge. Did I mention cost in R&D? That needs to be figured into the cost of ink too.
They need to sell a huge quantity to eventually bring the average cost down to make a profit. They need to sell a lot of printers first. I think Canon hasn't sold enough printers to make a good profit yet.

 

[printerenquirer]

i think what they charge for ink the whole of the canon country will be in profit soon lol, but yeah your absolutely right, everyone wants a cut of selling it even the guy that sails the boat to get it from a to b, and the grand ol harbour master too bring it safely to shore

 

[mrlemon]

Yes you need to figure in the costs of R&D, Advertising, Packaging, Transportation, etc etc, but why is it that OLD cartridges still cost an arm and a leg?? I think they made back their original R&D and much much more.

The music industry did the same thing with CD prices. They recouped the R&D costs a long long time ago, but still new release CD's are not priced much lower then the 80's. They cost $1 to make and even poor selling CD's make money for the record companies.

All these ink companies have been making money from INK for a very very long time, and i bet they even have their R&D costs streamlined in a very efficient manor. Why not?? You're not staying in business with messy uncontrolled expenses.

Example, since Epson won their court case the price of ink at Epson has gone up $2/cart. Also the cartridges have shrunk in size. Old carts for my Epson R200 held about 15ml, of which the printer would let you use from 13-15ml before it read empty.

New carts for my Epson 1400 maxfill to about 12ml, and I am hearing that you get to use about 8-10ml before it reads empty. Is it a more efficient printer? Does it use less ink to do the same thing as the R200? Beats me, I have heard it empties quickly, which makes me think the higher cost lower capacity carts are to blame.

Obviously, this is plain gouging and they do it because they CAN!

New chips, software updates, hardware lockouts. It is all so they can charge what they want for INK and make more and more money. Ink has always been ridiculously expensive. So expensive that it seems impossible they can get away with charging that much. Where is the value for the customer in smaller ink tanks and higher prices? How does this save money?

The worst of it is that no one reads the label(HP carts ml on the side) or asks questions. The worst of it is that they give the printers away for FREE and my favourite, most average uses never get all the ink out of the cartridges (age, usage patterns,etc). If they get half they are lucky.

Oh i have many more examples if anyone is interested... I think I am done preaching...


TOM...

 

[Smile]

The worst of it is that no one reads the label(HP carts ml on the side) or asks questions. The worst of it is that they give the printers away for FREE and my favourite, most average uses never get all the ink out of the cartridges (age, usage patterns,etc). If they get half they are lucky.

TOM...

Exactly, HP 10 black and 82 cmy all are 69ml of ink and cost 42$ = 1ml costs 0.42$
Compare to HP HP 102 PHOTO CARTRIDGE 23 ML 20$ = 1 ml costs 1.15$ that is 2.7 times more same ink

For example all canon ink like yellow is universal all printers use the same ink, did I mention waste problem when you throw away many cartridges that are made from plastic, I wonder how many bottles can you make from 1 canon cartridge, I bet at least 2 or 3.

 

[NoWaste]

Though the cartridge manufacturers are charging a high price for their cartridges, it is up to you to overcome this. From my experience, non-OEM cartirdges are not a good option as there are little R&D done on it. Ink refill kits is another option but in my opinion most suppliers of ink refill kits do not fully understand the design of the inkjet cartridge and the instructions provided are not effective and many of them seem to be incorrect.

However the cheapest way is first to select the correct printer so that you will not have to pay for the replacement of parts (like print head) or new cartridges (cause by excessive usage of ink) due to the design of the printers.

And secondly is to make a simple but yet effective refill kit and purchase alternative ink or bulk ink to refill your cartridge. All in all, you will likely to spend about 10 cents per cartridge and a refill kit that cost about $1 or lesser for many years of refilling.

 

[fotofreek]

Nowaste - I don't think you are quoting US $????

 

[NoWaste]

Hi fotofreek - ink as well as cartridges are sold at different prices in different countries. One main reason is the standard of living within that country. So a country with lower standard of living may be selling the ink from the same manufacturer at a lower price. Yes, it is not in US $. I would expect it to be cheaper if in US$.

 

[Tin Ho]

Are you saying $1 RMB (Chinese dollar) or less for a refill kit that will last for many years? Does it include ink? I would buy one a day everyday if I can buy it from USA. Frankly I wonder if you are misinformed of such pricing. Even in China the price is likely more than 100x of that. I think prices for food and produce will be likely to be proportional to domestic living standard. But price for technology products will only be slightly cheaper.

 

[fotofreek]

Tin Ho - is it possible that buying Chinese-made ink in China might be very inexpensive? Kind of like the knock-off purses, watches, etc.