**UPDATE** Printer Ink - Where do you buy?

Haui

Senior member
Feb 18, 2007
593
0
0
I have a Dell 810 All-in-One printer. For years, I never really needed a printer, but now that I am working from home a bit, I found the need for one.

I am just about out of ink and need to buy some new. Do you guys recommend a cheap and reliable place to purchase ink? Any places that give a discount or credit if you send them the old cartridge?


****UPDATE****

So I took my "only used once" ink cartridge to Wal-Greens, left it and came back about 30 mins later and they gave it back to me saying that it "failed" due to Electical problems with the cartridge.

However, I got back home, put it back in the printer and printed (it still had some ink in it). What the hell do I do now?
 

Special K

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
7,098
0
76
Originally posted by: FoBoT
costco

inkjets suck

get a laser printer

Aren't color laser printers (and toner) ridiculously expensive though?

I think I'll try getting my cartridges refilled at Walgreens the next time I need new ink. They charge $10 to refill a black cartridge, and $15 for a color one. I don't know if the refilled ones are of the same quality, however.

What I do know is that if I keep buying the retail HP inkjet cartridges, I'd almost be better off buying a new printer each time.
 

Haui

Senior member
Feb 18, 2007
593
0
0
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: FoBoT
costco

inkjets suck

get a laser printer

Aren't color laser printers (and toner) ridiculously expensive though?

I think I'll try getting my cartridges refilled at Walgreens the next time I need new ink. They charge $10 to refill a black cartridge, and $15 for a color one. I don't know if the refilled ones are of the same quality, however.

What I do know is that if I keep buying the retail HP inkjet cartridges, I'd almost be better off buying a new printer each time.


So does Wal-Greens refill Dell ink?
 

meltdown75

Lifer
Nov 17, 2004
37,548
7
81
We picked up a Samsung ML-1210 laser a few years back and it is the best thing that ever happend to us for printing. Went from ~5 cents /page to less than a penny per page and the cartridge lasts ~5000 prints.

We still have an HP 4-in-1 for odd jobs & scanning but if you are printing mass volumes of texty stuff I'd highly recommend a black & white laser like we got.
 

HannibalX

Diamond Member
May 12, 2000
9,359
2
0
eBay - I don't print much.

I have a Lexmark all-in-one do-hickey-ma-bob. If you try to buy cartridges for it at Wally-World or Bad Buy then it will cost almost $75.00 for a color and B&W cartridge. I ended up finding a store on Fleabay that sells "double" capacity cartridges for about $10/pop. My wife and I don't print much so about once a year I end up replacing the cartridges.
 

microAmp

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2000
5,988
110
106
Originally posted by: meltdown75
We picked up a Samsung ML-1210 laser a few years back and it is the best thing that ever happend to us for printing. Went from ~5 cents /page to less than a penny per page and the cartridge lasts ~5000 prints.

I got that same one from Best Buy for $100 a few years ago; $50 instant with $50 MIR, $200 to $100. I had issues with a parallel to USB cable but several months ago I saw drivers available for USB connection on Samsung's website. Haven't had a chance to try them yet. Great printer though!

 

steppinthrax

Diamond Member
Jul 17, 2006
3,990
6
81
Originally posted by: Special K
Originally posted by: FoBoT
costco

inkjets suck

get a laser printer

Aren't color laser printers (and toner) ridiculously expensive though?

I think I'll try getting my cartridges refilled at Walgreens the next time I need new ink. They charge $10 to refill a black cartridge, and $15 for a color one. I don't know if the refilled ones are of the same quality, however.

What I do know is that if I keep buying the retail HP inkjet cartridges, I'd almost be better off buying a new printer each time.

Yeah if your looking into getting a color laser printer. The toner itself is very cheap..... You can easily pop a hole in these cartridges and refill them. You simply put a plastic cap in there sealing it. All those toner cartridges are is a set of drums and the actual toner powder. The drums rarely go bad however if you replace them all the time your printout will be perfect each time.

Example

I got rid of my 20 yo Laserjet IIIP. I took all of the toners cartridges and poured the powder in a jar. I used it to refil my new laserjet I got (twice)!!!!!

Also older toner cartridges are much cheaper. Example: you can get toner cartridges for the 4m and 5P (commonly used commercial printers) for like 20 bucks. They also last significanly longer then a color.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
65,932
14,323
146
You missed it...there was an HP laser printer discussed in "Hot Deals" that was about $10. after rebate...(I procrastinated and missed it too...)
 

alkemyst

No Lifer
Feb 13, 2001
83,769
19
81
color inkjets provide much better output. I am using a Canon i960 and the refills are about $10 each and last a decent amount of time (there are 6 individual inks).

I get mine from amazon...at $10 a pop it doesn't make sense to try OEM brands. For my last printer a Canon 860 I did...the refills were more money. I can't remember which company had them the best price though.
 

Haui

Senior member
Feb 18, 2007
593
0
0
So I took my "only used once" ink cartridge to Wal-Greens, left it and came back about 30 mins later and they gave it back to me saying that it "failed" due to Electical problems with the cartridge.

However, I got back home, put it back in the printer and printed (it still had some ink in it). What the hell do I do now?
 

Evander

Golden Member
Jun 18, 2001
1,159
0
76
I've found ebay to be the best place for ink. Actually I have an old HP deskjet 600 series printer where the ink is damn near free. Very cheap on ebay (like $5 - 7 shipped, you can use either the black or photo cart to print black), and Staples accepts $3 trade ins for any HP cart. It's slow and doesn't look as nice as modern printers, but it's great for a workhorse printer, especially for text
 

SKORPI0

Lifer
Jan 18, 2000
18,471
2,411
136
Originally posted by: Haui
So what should I do about my Wal-Greens incident?
Bring it to Office Max, maybe they'll have better luck with your cartridge.

Brought home empty cartriges from our HP Laserjet 2100TN at work. Accumulated 35 of these after a few years. Got a 2100TN for $80 at craiglist.org that only had 900 printed pages. Bought my toner/powder from ebay.com for $7/bottle. This should last me for a while at the rate I'm printing.

 

Scarpozzi

Lifer
Jun 13, 2000
26,391
1,780
126
Originally posted by: FoBoT
costco

inkjets suck

get a laser printer
I agree. If you don't do a lot of color printing, get a laser. You can buy a cheap Dell Laser printer (1720 series) for around $150 or less. Once you get the printer, replacement cartridges will run you $30-50 and that will cover 3000 pages. It will only take a cartridge to pay for itself since inkjet cartridges are so high.
 

Special K

Diamond Member
Jun 18, 2000
7,098
0
76
Originally posted by: SKORPI0
Originally posted by: Haui
So what should I do about my Wal-Greens incident?
Bring it to Office Max, maybe they'll have better luck with your cartridge.

Brought home empty cartriges from our HP Laserjet 2100TN at work. Accumulated 35 of these after a few years. Got a 2100TN for $80 at craiglist.org that only had 900 printed pages. Bought my toner/powder from ebay.com for $7/bottle. This should last me for a while at the rate I'm printing.

OfficeMax charges more though. The one I went to wanted $35 to refill a color cartridge, and $20 for a black one. If you instead exchange your empty cartridges, they will give you $3 for each toward the purchase of new ones. Even still, that only brings the price down to about what you could get them for on Amazon with no discounts and free shipping.

This is for an HP printer, BTW.