Finally, Affordable Inkjet Cartridges

 http://www.pcmag.com/
 January 2, 2003
 Finally, Affordable
 Inkjet Cartridges

 By Lance Ulanoff

 I've used my Epson Stylus Photo 860 inkjet printer to print everything
 from cartoons to Web pages and highres photos. I manage to run through
 about four ink cartridges a year two black and two threecolor. That's
 about $140 annually roughly the same amount I might pay for a new printer.
 Printer makers follow the razorblade business model (cheap razors,
 expensive blades). I hate getting banged for over $60 every time I have to
 change the blackandwhite and color cartridges.

 So why am I telling this sad story? Because some alternatives seem to
 exist, now. No, I'm not talking about the messy refill kits (really only
 useful for black ink cartridges). I'm referring to the myriad Web sites
 that have popped up offering discounts on brandname, refurbished, and
 generic cartridges.

 Generic cartridges are the most exciting development I've seen cartridges
 that cost less than half of what I would pay for, say, a new black ink
 cartridge at Staples. A technically adept friend pointed me to Carrot Ink,
 which offers a $10.95 black ink cartridge compatible with my printer.
 Staples charges $19.95 for the appropriate Epson replacement. The deal for
 a color cartridge is even more impressive: $13.95 for Carrot's own brand
 versus $30 for the Epson cartridge at Staples.

 Carrot Ink isn't the only site offering such price breaks (by the way, if
 you block popups, you may never encounter any of these outfits, since many
 advertise via popups).

 One of the uglier sites is http://www.allink.com/. Here I saw prices for
 brandname cartridges that were roughly half of retail. Some of the sites,
 like inkprintercartridges.com, offer splashy interfaces you use to select
 your printer model, but link back to Carrot Ink for the actual products.

 Some of the better sites, like PrintPal.com, let you search by the part
 number of the original manufacturer's cartridge to find a compatible
 model. Of course, you can still search by printer model number. PrintPal
 offers some of the lowest prices I've seen ($7.95 for my coveted Epson
 color cartridge replacement!). The company offers a 30day moneyback
 guarantee and even free shipping for purchases over $40 (shipping and
 handling even for one cartridge costs $4, so buying in bulk really pays).
 Carrot Ink, InkCartridge.com, inkprintercartridges.com, PrintPal.com, and
 most of the other sites I looked at cover a variety of brand names
 including Apple, Brother, Canon, Epson, HP and Lexmark.

 There are dozens of other sites (you'll find many simply by searching on
 "inkjet cartridges" in Google), and my guess is that, as with any other
 supplies or media, satisfaction and quality will vary from site to site.

 These sites and deals are great news for consumers. They serve notice to
 manufacturers like Apple, Canon, Epson, and HP that their days of
 depending on revenue from aftermarket sales of printer supplies like ink
 cartridges and photoquality paper are rapidly coming to an end. Try out
 some of these sites and let me know what you think of the quality and
 service in the forums.

--- SLMAIL v5.1  (#SLO409KEDG15G098)