Desktop ink jet printers.
They have come down in price partially because the manufacturers can make more profit by selling the cartridges, which they thought they had a lock on. If they get more printers out there, they can sell more cartridges which have the real markup. I won't go into the whole debate, but I have always steered clear of the HP, Lexmark, and selected models of the others which build the print head into the ink cart. This forces you buy a new print head - cart combo each time, and they can patent or uniquely build the printhead so third party (read as cheap) replacements are not easily made, so the OEM will more likely sell the bulk of the ink, and the price will be in the stratosphere. So the understandable trend in all manufacturers is now to make as many models with proprietary carts as they can get away with. My advice is not to participate in this. Don't buy into those messy refill syringes, or trade in schemes either. Just get a printer that uses separate carts that have cheap replacements available. I know there is an ink chemistry element to this as well, but in practice, it doesn't seem to matter as long as the new one matches.

I mean really, I have two Epson printers. One is a ColorPrinterFaxCopierScanner thing and one just a printer, but they both take the same carts and I pay about $3 black; $4 color for ink carts that Epson sells for $25-$30. I have paid as little as $1 - $2!! see ad clip below. Of course they are from China, like everything, but I have been using this kind of ink with few glitches for years and years, and I am a high graphics and photographic user. This is the real cost of a printer, and there is a backlash going on rebelling against these higher than reasonable prices. If others want to zip down to the computer store and get a Black HP cart for $32 and a color for $43 (=$75!) and get no better value for that than I get for mine at $7, that's O.K. by me, but it's not right. The marketplace is bit by bit testing to see what threshold the users will put up with, and it will shake out, but I hope the users win, not the manufacturers.

Example actual ad:
Free Shipping Avail., Epson compatible black ink cartridge S02... $1.00
Free Shipping Avail., Epson compatible black ink cartridge S020189 for model(s) Stylus Color, 740, 760, 860, 1160 Epson compatible black cartridge for model(s) Stylus Color, 740, 760, 860, 1160 ref # S020189 SHIPPING IS 4.75 PER ORDER, ... CARTRIDGES FOR $49.00 AND GET FREE SHIPPINGWHOLESALE INQUIRIES WELCOME epson S020189c ...

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