Printer Ink

   / Printer Ink #1  

coffeeman

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How can one print advertising papers the cheapest way? Want to do on computer; 200 about once a month. Will be changed monthly. It seems if one wants to use traditional computer printer the ink will kill us. I just cant understand why a printer isn't made that has bottles we can fill?

Ideas welcome.

Cheers...Coffeeman
 
   / Printer Ink #2  
The profit is on the ink. Printers are cheap... sometimes it is actually cheaper to buy a new printer with ink than to purchase the ink tanks. Your best bet is to find a design/print/service bureau with a digital printer/output device. Because most print shops do volume they can give you a better price. Essentially you can email or upload the file to their email or ftp site and pick the job up later. If you are doing this monthly you have room to negotiate a better price over a 12 month period - return customer.

Average cost of home office printer per 8.5x11 sheet - colour - is about $.65 per sheet. If you are doing 200 a month that is about $130. I would sub the job out. You can probably get prints as low as 15 to 25 cents each depending on time frame and turn a round.

You can buy kits at Stable, Costco etc that will refill some ink tanks. Also there are some shops that refill tanks cheaper than buying new. But I do believe you best $$$ would be to sub the job out.

Good Luck...


PS: I once figured out the cost of ink per gallon based on the small tanks - it worked out to be close to $3200 per gallon....
128 ounces = 1 gallon: 128 x $25.00 = $3200.00
 
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   / Printer Ink #3  
How can one print advertising papers the cheapest way? Want to do on computer; 200 about once a month. Will be changed monthly. It seems if one wants to use traditional computer printer the ink will kill us. I just cant understand why a printer isn't made that has bottles we can fill?

Ideas welcome.

Cheers...Coffeeman

We refill our own printer ink cartridges...just google refilling printer ink and also Google Printer Ink refills and you will see how to do it and all that is available to do it cheap...cheap..
 
   / Printer Ink #4  
Look into getting a printer with ink tanks instead of ink cartridges. Some of (all of?) the Canon Pixma line of printers are setup that way. Then you can get ink tanks which are MUCH cheaper and hold 100x more ink than a ink cartridge. Another benefit is that there is one tank per color, so if you have a run one month that has a lot of red in it, you will just need to replace the red tank, rather than the color ink cartridge.

Edit: here is a set of tanks http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300317766430 $16 for a set of 280 page rated color tanks and a 650 page rated black tank
Aaron Z
 
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   / Printer Ink #5  
I print hundreds of pages monthly on my Epson printer. Epson ink cartridges at the stores sell for about $25 each. I buy generic ink cartridges on ebay for about $1 each and never have a problem.

My printing cost is about $1 a month. :)
 
   / Printer Ink #6  
It seems if one wants to use traditional computer printer the ink will kill us.

It sounds like you have not considered a laser printer. You can buy one for
under $100, and your cost/page is very low. I refill my own cartridges, but
rarely need to as I do not print often. I have had HP and Samsung.

You also did not mention color or B&W. If you must have color and there
are no photos, consider a color laser printer....they can be bought for
under $250 and cost/page is still less than inkjet. (They do not do photos
well, however.)
 
   / Printer Ink #7  
You may want to consider creating them on the computer but having a print shop print them for you. You could give it to them via email/cd/dvd/usb jump drive..

I second the idea of using the toner printers.. I have an HP 4in1 work printer that is very nice... They are a little more expensive than the inkjets, but will save you money in the long run

IF you use an inkjet printer tell me which brand so I can buy their stock.. lol

Brian
 
   / Printer Ink #8  
I'll add a vote for a laser printer.

When I used to do the quarterly newsletter for my wife's Quilt Shop, I used a Brother laser printer that has a duplexer. I refilled the toner cartridges with bulk toner bought on the internet. The duplexer let me automatically print on both sides of the paper, saving on paper.

The newsletter was usually four to five double-sided pages.

We mailed out the newsletter so I used endicia.com to automatically print the address and postage on the last page of the newsletter so the "only" manual part of the process was stapling, folding and sealing shut. We mailed about 400 newsletters quarterly.
 
   / Printer Ink #9  
Find a printing service that does print on demand (POD) using a DocuTech or similar printer. If black and white will do, the suggestion of a laser printer is easily the best solution. I'm not sure, but you might even check with a Kinkos to see what their prices are. Printing color for yourself in quantity is a very expensive process.
 
   / Printer Ink
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Good Luck...


PS: I once figured out the cost of ink per gallon based on the small tanks - it worked out to be close to $3200 per gallon....
128 ounces = 1 gallon: 128 x $25.00 = $3200.00

That's interesting. I wonder.....if Tony Soprano wanted to make such a profit, wouldn't the Feds put him in jail?

Coffeeman
 
 
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