How To Save With Discount Toner And Cartridges For Inkjets
Right now it seems like nearly everybody is hurting for money due to the horrible economy and the effects that it has had on personal spending, and as a result trying to spend that extra money on buying brand new ink and toner cartridges for your printer is even more painful than it was before the recession hit. When it comes to printing the biggest impact that the recession has had is to illustrate exactly how exorbitant the prices of ink and toner are to essentially everyone in the nation–which has had its advantages, to be sure. For example, it is now much easier to find discount toner and cartridges for your inkjet printers, with literally thousands of websites offering up various sales and discounts to try and boost sales revenue as much as possible. These discounts are often created simply by purchasing the ink and toner cartridges from the original equipment manufacturers, like Epson or Hewlett Packard, in large quantities to take advantage of bulk rate pricing, which they then pass on to the consumers in the form of sales or discounts.
Another great opportunity for people to save a little extra money on their printing supplies comes in the form of remanufactured cartridges. Ink and toner cartridge recycling has actually been around for quite a long time by now, although it has recently become far easier and more ubiquitous than it had been previously. Now there is actually competition between the OEM and other competing (third party) companies to buy up as many recycled cartridges as possible to either prevent or produce remanufactured cartridges for mass consumption, leading to a fairly wide assortment of opportunities for the savvy consumer. The major OEM companies all offer various recycling programs that make it easy for people to return their used cartridges (usually with little or no direct incentive), and now a number of other companies have started to buy those same cartridges for small fees. This has led some people to create businesses buying and selling used ink and toner cartridges to be remanufactured and resold at discount prices, and even nonprofits have jumped into the fray with running used cartridge donation drives to sell and raise money for their programs.
The great thing about remanufacturing cartridges is that it allows you to avoid some of the security features built into the cartridge, and it goes a long way towards preserving the environment at the same time. Remanufacturing is a much bigger deal with toner cartridges than with inkjet, since toner cartridges tend to have less security and are more difficult to refill at home due to parts that need to be replaced. The advantage is that this keeps over 3 pounds of barely biodegradable material from polluting the ground for almost a thousand years after only using it for a couple of weeks, but the disadvantage is that most people cannot just keep refilling their toner cartridges at home. The same cannot always be said for inkjet cartridges, however. It is actually fairly easy to refill fancy canon pixma mp560 ink cartridges, or HP cartridges, or almost every other brand. In fact, essentially the only commonly used printers that you cannot refill or remanufacture at home (given enough experience and materials) are the solid ink sticks produced by Xerox; these were designed to be much cheaper than regular ink and toner anyway, thus negating that issue almost entirely.
One other option that does not get much ink in too many articles and blogs is to modify your printer and ink cartridges in order to avoid ever needing to refill or replace an ink cartridge again. There are modification kits available that can help you bypass the ink cartridge in your printer to set up a continuous ink feeding system that is plugged directly into a vat of ink, rather than your puny little cartridge. Although the ink itself is extremely expensive all by its lonesome you still save money by avoiding purchasing new cartridges (and their security features), and by purchasing your ink in bulk vats and jars rather than a little at a time, giving you significant discounts and one freaky looking printer. Imagine never having to buy new epson ink cartridges for inkjets again. Every few months or longer you just need to buy another tube full of ink, which may cost a little more up front but will save you a lot more down the line.
This is by no means an exhaustive summary of the cost cutting options that you have available to you. This article did not delve into great detail on bulk purchases, nor where to find the best discounted cartridges, or even some simple tricks to make the cartridges you have last you longer. It did, however, lay some groundwork to help you figure out some additional ways to say you and your family or business a bit of money when you need it the most, and should serve to set you down the path to discovering your own cost cutting strategies. May you make the best out of it and save as much as you can.