It’s fairly well-known that it’s not the price tag on the printer that’s the biggest issue to consider when looking for value, but rather the cost of using the printer over time, which inflates rapidly when you factor in the cost of the ink. But in this article, it seems at least one printer company has discovered that cheap ink prices are important. Now whether the new photo printer ink cartridges from Kodak actually last as long as the more expensive ones the press release doesn’t say, but you have to admit that prices like $10 for a black ink cartridge and $15 for color do sound pretty good, especially coming straight from the manufacturer.

Disclosure: The author, Amy Sage, is employed by MyInkPro.com.

This PCWorld article is a bit scary for someone who goes through a lot of ink cartridges… essentially, the article says that ink cartridges are notorious for claiming they’re empty long before they actually are, forcing consumers to replace the cartridge early and wasting a ton of costly ink. In many cases, according to the study, fully half of the ink in those cartridges will go unused! Depending on the brand of printer, this can be just an annoyance, as the cartridge will still print despite the low ink warning, but in other cases, the printer actually won’t work once the low ink sensor’s been tripped, which can mean that in order to use your printer, you’re having to replace parts that still work perfectly well. One more aspect of the problem with ink cartridges… it’s bad enough that replacing the ink for a year will often run you close to the price of the printer… but when you find out that you’re throwing away half your ink… makes full-price cartridges sting that much more. As a note, the article says that cleaning cycles on printers can be a major factor in wasted ink, so make you sure to avoid doing that any more often than necessary!

Disclosure: The author, Amy Sage, is employed by MyInkPro.com.

Printer prices are going down right and left. That's great, right? Maybe not. According to this article (it's a good read), one of the problems with printers these days is that they don't cost enough. Sounds odd, but true, as the low initial cost draws people into buying a printer, which then ends up costing them far more down the line in ink cartridges.

It's not all bad, though, since all you need is an affordable ink retailer in order to beat the system and get a printer that's genuinely affordable. But do read the article, as they give good tips on not falling into the trap of snapping up the first color inkjet you see. For one thing, they recommend against the all-in-ones, as they feel it's better to get printers that do one thing really well than to buy a printer that does several things only marginally. Well, maybe that's not exactly what the article says, but that's my thought, anyway.

Disclosure: Amy Sage is employed by MyInkPro.com.