What manufacturer's ink does each reseller sell?

[binkie]

Seems to me that it would be valuable to know what manufactrurer's ink a reseller sells. A few list the manufacturer on their site, but most don't.

How about we use this topic to list the manufacturer of a resellers bulk ink and various cartridges offered? It would be helpful to be able to come here when we see a bargain on a refiller's website but are unaware of exactly what ink he is offering? If I don't know the ink manufacturer, I am comparing apples to oranges when I try to find the best value out there. I can't go by price alone, as a cheap price on cheap ink is no value.

For instance, a friend uses, and likes, Ink Tech's bulk in which appears very reasonable in price when bought by refill kit. When I went on the site [ http://www.inkkitsales.com/ ] I found that they don't disclosed who their supplier is. Can anyone out there answer that question? If you can, you would help me decide whether to buy ink from them and would be the first to list a manufacturer for a refill web site. Hopefully, others will follow.

Any thoughts out there, or am I just blowing smoke?

 

[hpnetserver]

This is my guess of why many smaller resellers do not want you to know who their source manufacturers are.

Try to buy a, say Sony brand, TV. You probably will go to many of your town's retailers to find one that you like most. After seeing many resellers you probbaly will find that for a particular brand and model the price differences among all will be something like in single digit. Basically they are almost the same. If one of them is giving a discount almost all of them will say they will match the discounted price so the prices are still the same. This is called price fixing, but unless you can catch them doing it deliberately you can't accuse them price fixing.

I think this is maybe applicable to ink business. If a reseller discloses their brand name of ink they will be bound by a price guideline given by the source manufacturer. This protects their profit base. If free competition is allowed smaller resellers will keep driving prices lower, in order to attract customers from larger resellers, to a point that there will be no profit for anyone to make. Every reseller will go back to give pressure to the manufacturer asking for lower prices from the manufacturer. This hurts the manufacturer. It is kind of logical if a reseller disclose their source they have to be bound by the price quideline given by the manufacturer. If a reseller fails to follow that it will not be able to get their future delivery of the product next time.

The problem under such price fixing infra structure smaller resellers will be hard to compete with larger ones. What they can do is to not disclose their source manufacturer and they will not be bound to the price fixing requirement. They get an edge to compete with larger resellers with brand named products and high prices. The smaller ones get the advantage of lower prices and lower profit as well probably. But they have a better chance to compete. This is my guess only of course. But it seems to be reasonable. If this is the case the smaller guys maybe selling products of a same source of the big guy's. The manufacturers do want more resellers in order to sell more. If the smaller guys do not disclose where they get the products from they are not bound to the price fixing requirement.

They are probably other reasons why most resellers do not disclose their brand name of products. One of the reasons may be if there is a brand name at all. Another one maybe it is a trade secret they can not give out. If they do they may find dozens of smaller new competitors just over night after the day they disclose their source. Just look at eBay and try to count the number of sellers selling LED flash lights. The source of LED flash lights somehow became public information. The number of sellers virtually exploded over a short period of time. Same to the 3rd party prefilled ink cartridges. There are so many sellers on eBay now. The price and quality all fell like a falling rock over a short period of time.

Maybe I am blowing smoke too?

 

[Pistos]

hpnetserver wrote:

I think this is maybe applicable to ink business. If a reseller discloses their brand name of ink they will be bound by a price guideline given by the source manufacturer. This protects their profit base. If free competition is allowed smaller resellers will keep driving prices lower, in order to attract customers from larger resellers, to a point that there will be no profit for anyone to make.

I don't think this is the case. As an office products dealer I have contracts (through my buying group) with hundreds of manufacturers and wholesalers and I've yet to see one that specifies the selling price. In fact, many of them pointedly state that (paraphrased) "Suggested Retail Price is only a guideline and dealers may sell for any price without fear of negative repercussions".

Manufacturers will reward their larger dealers in two ways:

1) Sometimes larger dealers will receive discounts or lower net prices (10-15% is typical)

2) Manufacturers often offer back-end deals whereas some dealers or buying groups will receive at year-end a credit for up to 20% of their total sales for the year and independants may not even be aware that such back-end deals exist.

It may look like a smaller dealer with lower overhead could undercut larger dealers but having been on both sides of the fence, larger is better.

Having said that, I still prefer full disclosure. In fact, in setting up our new remanufacturing centre (small scale) one of the reasons I'm not going with Atlantic Inkjet (a company whom we have dealt with for several years) is that they won't tell me who manufactures their bulk ink. My thinking is that if you supply a quality ink then why not use the manufacturers name to help promote it? Consumers feel more comfortable when they can associate a product with a name (i.e. "Sony" from an electronics store vs "Phony" from an ebay store)

Just my 2 bits,

Cheers!

 

[binkie]

Here's one for our list:

alotofthings.com advertises that all their Truecolor Imaging Bulk Inks and Refill Kits contain Sensient Imaging, Formululabs Divisons Inks unless otherwise specifically noted.

 

[mikling]

This is an interesting question. As a late starter in this business, I confronted the issue whether or not I should privatize the Image Specilaists inks that I resell with a private brand. I was faced with a similar question. I mean here was MIS Associates charging $7.50 for 2 ozs for an identical ink that I sell for significantly less. Except that I don't have the reputation of MIS Associates Then I asked myself when I am buying something do I want to get great goods at good prices and want the straight goods? I answered yes to that and then I asked do I think other buyers would want to know EXACTLY what they are buying and I answered yes to that. I don't buy designer labels as a lifestyle choice... and that's a personal choice.

That drove my decision to market the inks that I resell exactly for what they are Image Specialists inks nothing else. No fancy Ultra Color or something at blown up prices. Call me stupid but I targetted the customer who wants the straight goods. Furthermore I decided that numbers were not going to be kept secret. All formulations are on the label as per Image Specialists. If you trust their color accuracy and expertise, then who am I to claim I can do better because I can't. If I secret have house numbers I can subsitute willy nilly and the customer will not know. I experienced this before so I thought there must be a better way.

The above decisions and the precise and accurate colors that Image Specialists were renowned for drove my business name as well ..... Precision Colors I thought that if I were unique in total disclosure that some customers would appreciate that.

Image Specialists do not control what I charge but one must understand that every business has operating costs and most times these costs drive the selling prices. If I charge less and more users are drawn to using their inks then they benefit. In such a market, I doubt that the manufacturer sets the price. It's not as if there is no competition like auto parts that are only available from a dealer. Also a lot of work is involved in reselling ink.... especially if you intend to offer after sales service.

 

[binkie]

Mikling,

A marketing comment about your website- There are many home users that order refill ink in 8 ounce or larger sizes who won't contact you since they are not dealers. I happen to be one of them. You really should consider adding 8 and 16 ounce sizes to you regular, non dealer, price list. My guess is that you would pick up customers as the per ounce cost would be less with the larger sizes. I might be one of them. Just a thought!

 

[mikling]

Yes, my new website is partially in my harddrive as I write and 8 ozs and pints will be there.

I am sometimes queasy about this. Why? For two reasons. Some customers get attracted at the lower cost and literally stock up and then not use it until many many years later. The other reason is that when a small amount of ink is held in a large bottle, the ink dries and changes characteristics. So it is advisable to transfer small amounts of ink to smaller bottles. Very few are this cautious. It is of significance especially when your Canon carts are getting close to needing a purge and the now more concentrated ink just tips you over to no flow. What's the tradeoff? Saving a few dollars over the burning and destruction of a head.

 

[binkie]

Mikling,

Great tip about not storing a little bit of ink in a big bottle! When you post your 8 and 16 ounce sizes, you should also post that tip nearby. It's well worth considering. If saving a few bucks may cause problems down the road, I might opt for the slightly more expensive smaller bottles. It's like the old Fram filter commercials - Pay me now or pay me more later. Food for thought!

binkie

 

[ghwellsjr]

Or you could do like alotofthings does which is to supply all ink in 4oz bottles but give you a discount for mulitple quantities. Actually, they don't tell you when you buy 16 ounces of one color that it will come in four 4oz bottles, but that's what they do.

 

[binkie]

Or you could do like alotofthings does which is to supply all ink in 4oz bottles but give you a discount for mulitple quantities. Actually, they don't tell you when you buy 16 ounces of one color that it will come in four 4oz bottles, but that's what they do.

Thanks ghwellsjr. That seems to be the most customer friendly approach. Well worth noting!