[PCWorld]

Post your comments for Are printer companies gouging us on laser toner pricing? here

[Dekaw]

Based on the article title I was expecting something more like an analysis of the cost to produce toner vs. the price, particularly for color toner. Also, buying toner at retail is insanely expensive...is there anyone who doesn't order their toner straight from Hong Kong or China now? Where the real price gouging comes up is when printer companies start suing manufacturers for making toners and inks that they claim violate their patents, to the extent that you cannot find generic toner for most models of certain brands. There are only 5 big brands in upper-consumer, lower-industrial printing right now anyways, so a nice oligopoly based on patent law will certainly create some price gouging. But I don't see any analysis of any of this.

[UltraHumanite]

Is this article for real? Welcome to 20 years ago.

[JamesVelasquez]

however at the same time china toner just prints 4 pages then runs out of ink

[brainout]

I have two Brother and four HP Laserjet printers. I've not seen toner prices rise on any of them. One of my Brothers is brand new (MFC 8480DN); the other is seven years old (MFC 9700). So I think it matters what brand and model, you buy. My HP's are Laserjet 4050, 4, 5 and 4 Plus, so all over 15 years old. I prefer OEM toner to the knock-offs, which are of inferior quality. Frankly, I get better performance out of the Brothers, but prefer the old HPs solely because I programmed my own font commands into them.

I don't think the toner or the drums are overpriced, sorry. And, it makes sense that toner prices WOULD rise, what with all the environmental regulation, and the shift to paperless. Toner, like most other things, is cheaper if you sell a lot of it. You have a fixed cost for the equipment to make the toner, and a certain amount of maintenance of that fixed equipment. So if you're not generating enough toner out the door each month, your unit costs rise. That, even before considering a) the rise in delivery costs which have been sharp over the past several years; B) inflation.

No complaints, here.

This post has been edited by brainout: 25 September 2012 - 07:56 AM

[appleman]

I find it is cheaper to buy a new cheap laser printer than buy toner now a days.

[mipa]

Because supply and demand is a myth. Thanks the Big Oil every company realizes--especially the airlines--that they can fix prices and the government--compliments of Obamanomics--won't do a thing to regulate it or penalize the companies caught because the government is powerless to stop it and they all know it.

[RobLewis]

Printer companies gouging on consumables? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!

Seriously, that's their whole business model.

[RobLewis]

Quote

Because supply and demand is a myth. Thanks the Big Oil every company realizes--especially the airlines--that they can fix prices and the government--compliments of Obamanomics--won't do a thing to regulate it or penalize the companies caught because the government is powerless to stop it and they all know it.

This is perhaps the most confused bit of quasi-political polemic I have ever read. If supply and demand is a myth, then we need a whole new science of economics. Isn't Obama the socialist who's destroying our economy by over-regulating everything? If airlines are such greedy gougers, why are most of them bankrupt? Why is the government powerless to stop whatever it is that's going on? (Now, if you had said the government fails to use its power because politicians are corrupted by money, I'd agree with you.)

My head is spinning.

[uk01789]

take no excuses, just company greed trying to maintain total profit from declineing sales-Like when the total yield of a crop is 'less than expected' the growers up the price per unit of weight to try to maintain their bottom line, stupid really when there is less money about

[mjd420nova]

There has become a huge industry centered around recycling used toner cartridges. Most are non-profit organizations that hire handicapped and disabled people to do the work. Refilling toner hoppers and cleaning out overflow bins and doctor blades are the most often completed jobs. Tests are run to insure the photo drum is still viable and they take in your empty/used cartridges and return a refilled one for half the regular price. The quality is comparable to a new one and solves two problems at the same time. A certain percentage are damaged and can't be refilled and get trashed in an e-cycle program. Comparing prices of cartridges can give some insight into the complexity of the process, especially on the color units.

[Argyris]

Quote

Because supply and demand is a myth. Thanks the Big Oil every company realizes--especially the airlines--that they can fix prices and the government--compliments of Obamanomics--won't do a thing to regulate it or penalize the companies caught because the government is powerless to stop it and they all know it. This is perhaps the most confused bit of quasi-political polemic I have ever read. If supply and demand is a myth, then we need a whole new science of economics. Isn't Obama the socialist who's destroying our economy by over-regulating everything? If airlines are such greedy gougers, why are most of them bankrupt? Why is the government powerless to stop whatever it is that's going on? (Now, if you had said the government fails to use its power because politicians are corrupted by money, I'd agree with you.) My head is spinning.

No kidding on the head spinning part. Everything you wrote is well said, sir.

As far as the toner pricing goes, big shock, huh. You always knew they had you by the you-know-what once you bought into their platform.

If you want an area where the precious government might actually be able to do some good, here's what I would do. I would make all the companies offering laser printers come together and decide on a standard toner cartridge design and toner formulation and then devote a line of their products to using this standard. It would of course be an open standard so anybody who was certified by the standard board could use the design and manufacture cartridges separately.

The printer manufacturers could of course choose to differentiate their other product lines using their own proprietary system (e.g. offer special features, optimize performance, etc.), but then at least they would all have to compete against the standard they created (and are likewise profiting from). Any collusion by these companies to collectively cripple all the standardized models to make their own respective proprietary lines look better would result in a huge fine, of course.

[mjd420nova]

Wow, standardization of toner cartridges, a novel concept but not reallt feasable. NES, HP, Brother and Canon being only a small cross section of manufacturers are very careful about not violating any hardware copyrights. Thus, different processes require diffferent toner composition to make their printers work. Also, different make ups of photo drum and toner require different hardware alignments. HP would scream bloody murder if someone made a generic cartridge that would fit their printers. That is their bread and butter market.

[blackcross]

Inflation at 7% yet all but Xerox are at 5.8% or less and you're claiming massive boosts in toner pricing?

Glad you got that out of the way early so i could stop reading.

[bmallow11]

I am the EVP for Laser Rite Business Systems a family owned business in Sarasota, Fl and we remanufacture toner for most makes and models of printers right in our facility in the good ol' USA.

We ship nationwide at a reduced cost as we feel the same as most of you!

The big companies are more worried about their profit margins than helping businesses like ours during these economic challenges most of us are faced with at this time.

So, give Laser Rite a chance to earn your business just mention this post and receive an extra 25% of your initial order.

[billdsmith]

Quote

I am the EVP for Laser Rite Business Systems a family owned business in Sarasota, Fl and we remanufacture toner for most makes and models of printers right in our facility in the good ol' USA. We ship nationwide at a reduced cost as we feel the same as most of you! The big companies are more worried about their profit margins than helping businesses like ours during these economic challenges most of us are faced with at this time. So, give Laser Rite a chance to earn your business just mention this post and receive an extra 25% of your initial order.

[eeenok]

i understand that cheap ink jet replacements are inferior to originals ... but i'm still trying to find an equivalent comparison for (especially color) laser toner. the huge numbers of refillers out there seem completely disproportionate to the number of reviews of this nature

[finnola]

Bought a Brother HL2130 for $A45. Toner cost $A123.