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Anyone use generic ink cartridges?


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In the middle of setting up an online store, ink cartridges/toners/printers are among the things I'm selling. Just looking through a suppliers price list and what I can buy ink for for one of my printers and came across generic (with chip - it states). The ridgy didge retails at around $30 at Officeworks, $31 at Harvey. And then there is a generic brand - which I could probably sell for $5. Does anyone use generics? are they the same? I've heard the usual void warranty/wreck your printer arguments, but surely there wouldn't be a market for generics if people aren't using them? And at around 16% of the cost, if your printer is out of warranty would you possibly risk it? Given that inkjet printers are cheap as chips to buy these days.

 

Quick plug, I'm selling all manner of things I.T. related. Hoping to get in on the printer consumables market to start, so if you regularly buy ink or toner from a retailer and want pricing, just send me an email: sales@dropship.com.au or PM me here. Just need printer model and what ink/toner you are after. Anything else I.T. related, just email me and I'll see what I can do. I'm hoping to have similar if not cheaper pricing that other very large online retailers. Website is in the process of being setup, was up earlier but NetRegistry are experiencing problems - either way, should have all printer & consumbables online in the next 48 hours. I have also upgraded my membership to Sponsor on AA, I'll have my own sponsor sub forum up shortly too.

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CISS is continuous ink supply system. a few people make them but everyone i know uses rihac. a few tried others, but ended up going to rihac also. ive been using a CISS from rihac (rihac.com.au) for the past 4-5 years, only had to fill my tanks maybe 3 times which makes life oh-so easy when using inkjets. gone are the days of ink stained fingers and desk etc and the remote tanks mean i can look at how much ink i have pretty regularly and top up in moments. refills are cheap (mine is about 65 delivered for 5x100ml bottles) and the systems are pretty much available for all inkjets i think. they now call it InkLink i think.
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I'll buy one shortly and see how it goes. My supplier is the major supplier of ink/toner in Australia, so pretty sure they wouldn't be selling something that could cause problems. I'm just majorly surprised at the price difference.
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What he said. You remove the cartridges and replace with ciss. Bottles of ink sit on side of printer and tubes feed right to the heads. Super cheap.

 

Very weird, never heard of this - like I said, I'll grab one and give it a go - for one model of Canon the price was < $2.00 compared to over $9.00. I used to know a guy who purchased bulk ink and used a syringe to inject the old carts - saved him a mint.

 

I was more interested in seeing it there was a market for people buying these things or whether most people believed the manufacturer hype that non-genuine would wreck your printer/void warranty.

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i used to use generic cartridges if they were cheap enough and refill them till they ran no more and buy more cheap ones and so on and so on. people will always buy cheap ones if they dont cause issues, its why the refill places do so well as genuine pricing sucks, but i wouldnt go back to cartridges myself now ive had the remote tanks in place for years. my mate in melb put me onto them and he has several printers going on them and none have played up, i know how much he thrashes them and that on its own is good enough for me, but im sure some people wont want to either spend the initial outlay or cant justify it, nor will some want to set them up. that is an avenue for cheap cartridges and i think gumtree would see many sold to people who just want to pop in a new cartridge and print. good luck with them!
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Ink prices make me mad, more than GOLD per weight.........I hate to admit it but my last printer I put in the bin even though it still worked, I was tired of poor quality refills that didn't last (local) and couldn't buy any cheap ink for it online. I ended up buying a new pinter and scanner for $30 inc postage from Grays online, it's a decent printer and scanner (for half the price of just new ink for my old printer) after making sure I could buy cheaper ink online. Two years later I'm still enjoying the printer and scanner for casual home use, if we want GOOD quality we take the file to officeworks to print.

 

I have read stories about printers having "suicide" chips that give an error after so many prints, and chipped cartridges that say they are empty on a bullshit estimation.

 

Ink, it's a dirty dirty business..............

 

That said..... @John73 if you can undercut or even match the import eBay prices I get then YES I would buy from you.

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I used the refills before they chipped the cartridges and found the ink was not as good and ended up causing problems with my printer. I have seen the system referred to by the previous posters and they look good but the quality if the ink itself has stopped me from bothering .
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That said..... @John73 if you can undercut or even match the import eBay prices I get then YES I would buy from you.

 

PM me and I'll let you know what prices I can get for you - unfortunately being overseas (Tassie) means freight will suck.

 

Not sure if it's still the case, but 10+ years back when I was in the IT game, story was most printers were sold dirt cheap, but you only got ? filled carts with your purchase - looked like a good deal and then you paid through the roof for replacement carts

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I get mine from china via ebay, last one I bought was black, cost 1.89 posted, and will fill the cartridge 2, maybe 3 times. I am interested in that system with the tubes the guys are talking about, sounds the go, because refilling the cartridges is a messy job.

 

pretty cheap indeed http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/CANON-MP190-MP210-MP220-MP470-MP450-CISS-CIS-Continuous-ink-supply-system-DIY-V1-/110867732240?pt=US_Ink_Cartridges&hash=item19d03b5710&_uhb=1

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I get mine from china via ebay, last one I bought was black, cost 1.89 posted, and will fill the cartridge 2, maybe 3 times. I am interested in that system with the tubes the guys are talking about, sounds the go, because refilling the cartridges is a messy job.

 

I haven't at this stage looked at any of the fill your own kits, the guys I'm buying through are 100% cartridge products - no ink on it's own. I'll probably look into other suppliers though if there is demand for this stuff, but as you mentioned this sort of stuff is so cheap from places like China & Hong Kong. My target market for printer consumables will be people that can't be stuffed refilling them themselves :) and also people that need it quickly - I can get most stuff delivered same day to metro area's of Melb, Adelaide, Perth & Brisbane if it's ordered in the morning.

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Very weird, never heard of this - like I said, I'll grab one and give it a go - for one model of Canon the price was < $2.00 compared to over $9.00. I used to know a guy who purchased bulk ink and used a syringe to inject the old carts - saved him a mint.

 

I was more interested in seeing it there was a market for people buying these things or whether most people believed the manufacturer hype that non-genuine would wreck your printer/void warranty.

I first encountered the ink feeder system in 2011. They were a common aftermarket installation when you bought a printer in Thailand.

 

In Australia, We completely miss some of the worlds domestic trends because the retailers are too stubborn/inflexible or just want to milk the ignorant markets here.

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I brought a new Brother laser printer to China for my use from DSE - $45 (ridiculous price) and the first cartridge I fitted was an aftermarket, generic one and it works perfectly. The original supplied with new units (from my experience) is about 25% filled to force you to buy a replacement for $125 within a short period of time.

 

There is no way they made money selling the printer for $45 so it's pretty obvious the 'scare tactics' - ONLY use genuine toner etc etc are what they rely on to make a buck.

 

A generic replacement toner cartridge complete (not a do-it-yourself refill kit) for this machine is around $25 - in China this scare tactic obviously doesn't work because this same printer from a Brother retailer sells for around $350 so there is no doubt they are playing 'silly buggers'.

 

The reason I stick to these Brother printers is they have a seperate toner cartridge and roller so when you replace the toner you are not throwing out the roller as well - the roller usually lasts about four cartridges.

 

Good luck with your venture, there is obviously a huge market for cartridges that the printer manufacturers have created by using shonky sales tactics.

 

As a side note there is a HUGE Canon printer factory a few streets away from the Homepin factory here in Shenzhen - I'm not sure exactly what parts they make there though?

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I brought a new Brother laser printer to China for my use from DSE - $45 (ridiculous price) and the first cartridge I fitted was an aftermarket, generic one and it works perfectly. The original supplied with new units (from my experience) is about 25% filled to force you to buy a replacement for $125 within a short period of time.

 

There is no way they made money selling the printer for $45 so it's pretty obvious the 'scare tactics' - ONLY use genuine toner etc etc are what they rely on to make a buck.

 

 

That has been the tactic for a long long time in the printer market. Give away the printer, and make your money on the ink. From memory it probably first started with the original Canon Bubblejet Series, all of a sudden one day the printer costs next to nothing and the ink was (from memory) probably around the $30-$40 per cartridge. Going back around 10 years ago, the colour Laser market was just becoming affordable, we were selling a "new" brand for around the $1200-$1300 mark - which was CHEAP at the time. Several months later, the importer decided to stop selling the printers and moved to the consumables model. Anyone that wanted a printer could have it free, but they MUST purchase the toner through them, which I think probably memory was probably around $150 per colour. Four toners, waste toner, rollers etc. it doesn't take long to recoup your $1300 as an importer.

 

The tactic of not supplying full toner/ink with the printer has also been going on for a long time. It's a akin to buying a $40k BMW and the dealer not bothering to put any fuel in the tank.

 

 

Good luck with your venture, there is obviously a huge market for cartridges that the printer manufacturers have created by using shonky sales tactics.

 

Thanks, I hope it goes well. This is just a sideline to other work, if all goes well I have big plans for something more arcade related - but that is a way off yet :) The consumables market is absolutely huge, and has been for years which is why every Tom, Dick & Harry (and John) is selling them. The guys I'm buying from I knew from my courier delivery days, and it is absolutely mind boggling how many ink & toner cartridges get purchased every single day, not to mention the amount of copy paper I used to deliver. Some of the places I used to deliver paper to, I'd swear they were buying it just to put it through a shredder - I'm talking 40-50 reams of paper every other week. The hospital in my area was on a printer maintenance program with another company, I would delivery probably 40-50 toners to them every single week - unbelievable :o I'm no big greenie, but no wonder Planet Ark started up - the landfill just in used cartridges must have been massive :lol

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I've had mixed results with CISS.

Have tried two different types, either bad luck or Epson Artisans do not cope with them as each time I've used a CISS it's screwed up the print head. after a month or so usage, could be coincidence cut happened each time I used one.

 

I'm trying out generic ink from inkstation.com.au

 

Not sure how they lasting ability is (fading), but so far seem fine

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I've had mixed results with CISS.

Have tried two different types, either bad luck or Epson Artisans do not cope with them as each time I've used a CISS it's screwed up the print head. after a month or so usage, could be coincidence cut happened each time I used one.

 

I'm trying out generic ink from inkstation.com.au

 

Not sure how they lasting ability is (fading), but so far seem fine

 

Let us know the final results... and also let me know if you need pricing ;) I'm looking around at various online sellers, and so far my pricing seems like it competes rather well, and as far as I can tell, I'm the absolute worst pricing level at the moment - I'd imagine with volume I can get stuff cheaper in the future. Very hard market to break into I think.

 

Note to all:

 

Website is up: http://www.dropshipit.com.au - should have my AA sponsor section open later today when Trav get's a chance to add it in. Slowly adding all the printer products, hope to have them nearly all done by tonight. Email me from the contact us section if you need a price on something I haven't yet listed.

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I have a Epson Stylus Photo 1410 A3 printer and use top quality paper (ilford) but have used ink tank cheap ink cartridges for years and they seem fine to me.. Some pictures have been framed for about 5 years now using that ink and not an issue (don't look faded, yet), never had a print head blockage either...

 

I think the aftermarket ink cartridges cost me around $26 for the set of 6 (or there about), same as ONE real cartridge from Officeworks/Epson, though the printer wasn't that cheap like Homepin's example...

 

What annoys me about many of the online stores is they just say 'compatable ink' not which brand; as I did (with my canon printer) find some horrible brands of ink before settling on the ink tank brand..

Edited by joele
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What he said. You remove the cartridges and replace with ciss. Bottles of ink sit on side of printer and tubes feed right to the heads. Super cheap.

 

I've got the exact same thing from Rihac also. Got them to install it 5 years ago and am still on the same tanks.

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