BEWARE OF eBAY PRINTER CARTRIDGE OFFERS

Have you asked yourself why so many offers of cheap printer cartridges advertised on eBay seem too good to be true? 

Unfortunately, if you go ahead with your order, and upon installing the cartridge, you disappointingly find that indeed it was too good to be true! It might be that the print quality is not quite good enough in that it doesn't truly reflect the colour but has a faded appearance, or the print is not sharp but has blurry edges. In photos the colours might run into each other.

Why should printer cartridges advertised on supplier web sites be of reasonable quality when those advertised on eBay be inferior?

This is no reflection on eBay. They are offering a marketing venue for merchants to sell their products, and are not responsible for the quality of those products.

What you, the purchaser, need to be aware of, are the following qualifications you should put on your purchase decision for printer cartridges:

• that printer ink and toner are very expensive commodities to manufacture, more expensive than the most expensive champagnes per mille litre. So if a printer cartridge is very cheap then the vendor is not providing suitable quality
• that the vendor does not offer any guarantees/warranties as to the quality of their product
• they have not undertaken any research into the quality of the product they are selling
• once you have outlayed your hard earned cash for their product, it is gone; there is no recourse such as a product review web page to complain as you didn't buy from a business where reputation is important

This does not mean to say you shouldn't buy compatible printer cartridges and enjoy the savings when compared to genuine cartridges.

As long as the supplier is established offering a range of choice on their web page, and is guaranteeing to refund/replace the product if you the consumer is not satisfied with the purchase, then go ahead with your purchase.

We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support

HOW TO BUY PRINTER CARTRIDGES ON THE INTERNET

How to buy your ink and toner cartridges through the internet? 

There are different ways of purchasing your printer cartridges, be they genuine brand, remanufactured genuine, or compatible ink or toner cartridges. Some purchasers are very happy with their chosen internet supplier, and will maintain their relationship with that supplier, going straight to their web page which they might have Bookmarked through Internet Explorer, Chrome, or Mozella.
Other printer cartridge users prefer to shop around for the best deal, whenever it is time to replace stock, or are buying for the first time.
So using a search page on Google, Yahoo, or Bing, they call up what they think is the best way to finding their ink or toner cartridge. Their query can be anything from " cheapest Brother toner cartridges" to "Brother TN240 toner cartridge", or just "TN-240". I have used these three particular examples, because they can all lead to the same web pages in internet searches
 They are then confronted with page after page of the best deals in the land - from individual suppliers, such as ABC Print Supplies, to E-commerce merchants like Get Price, or My Shopping, or Shop Mania, who in turn rely on data product feeds from the retailers to provide their stock. Pricing is readily available for shoppers to compare, and they can then go to the selected products web site to have a closer look at what that supplier is offering, including delivery times, courier charges, support, references etc.
And there is another path for enquiring purchasers after entering their product query on the Google, Yahoo, etc search page or going directly to this type of ECommerce merchant. I'm talking about eBay &/or Amazon.


We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support

WHAT TO BUY - GENUINE OR COMPATIBLE PRINTER CARTRIDGES?

It's a tough question, but really it depends on what is important to you.

There are a lot of good reasons as to why you can benefit from selecting the compatible ink/toner cartridge rather than the genuine brand (Brother, Canon, HP Xerox etc.) But there is for many users, a very good reason why they will still buy the original brand, even after researching the reasons for choosing to use a compatible printer cartridge.

Let's examine the reasons why customers are happy to choose/use compatibles, and there are quite a few good reasons:

a) Quality Assurance. This was the bete noir for compatible printer cartridges a number of years ago. But today the reputable suppliers manufacture to the highest quality setting as per ISO (International Standard Organisation benchmark) set by the genuine OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) 

b) Suppliers of Compatible ink/toner printer cartridges offer technical support personnel to contact in the event you are not satisfied with your purchase. 

c) Additionally these suppliers will guarantee to replace the cartridge, or refund your money in the event that a compatible cartridge doesn't perform.

d) often the compatible cartridge will hold a larger quantity of ink/toner than the comparable genuine cartridge, thereby providing a higher printer yield (no. of pages printed), which means greater return for your $$.

e) The most significant reason why people choose compatible cartridges before genuine cartridges is PRICE.
Compatible cartridges that print to the same quality and with the same/greater yield than the OEM cartridge can do so at a much lower price (up to 80% less).


So with all these reasons for buying compatible ink/toner cartridges, why do so many people, and businesses in particular, choose to stay with genuine cartridges, knowing them to be much dearer.
The answer is the knowledge that you are getting the best for your money. The OEM product gives you assurance, and peace of mind. Even if its not necessarily true, many users believe that by using compatibles it will cause damage to their printer, and that eventually the quality of the print will diminish.
Many businesses are concerned of their image; and this is partly reflected in what their customers receive from them in printed matter.

So even thought they might buy generic blood pressure pills from their chemist rather than the genuine ones because they trust them, this logic doesn't necessarily apply to generic printer cartridges.




We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support

WANT TO MAKE INK CARTRIDGES GO FURTHER?

The cost today for ink is more expensive than Moet champagne, so how do you get the most from your cartridge.

Ink printers today have many purposes. Not only are they used for text, but applications such as Photoshop and Coral or Windows Paint application allow for the use of graphics, and then there is always the camera photos, which thanks to mobile phones, are more popular than ever before.

So not only is the demand for black ink increasing, but so too are the colours.

The suppliers of genuine ink cartridges are looking to make their margins not from the printers themselves, but from the ink cartridges, which at times can cost almost as much as the printer itself. Indded there are stories of consumers buying a new printer when their cartridge runs out, because along with the cartridge that comes with the printer , it is cheaper than buying a genuine ink cartridge. 

So there are a number of ways to reduce the quantity of ink you use per print exercise, and thereby reduce the cost to you by not needing to purchase a replacement ink cartridge..

• An important feature to take advantage of when your computer is in printing mode is to make sure that you use draft mode whenever possible, such as for recipes, invoices from suppliers, or a trial run for a graphic, etc. Sometimes the quality of print might not be acceptable. Then you can choose a low or medium quality of print, rather than the expensive high quality.
• If you do not require colour, such as for text printing, then check that you are only using the black cartridge. Often users are not aware that upon printing black text or black & white notices with images, that the printer will call in the cyan, magenta, and yellow cartridges, or the tri colour-cartidge,  to create the black.On your computer, if using Microsoft Windows, you can call up grey scale under preferences. You can also make this the default mode, so that you will always use just the black cartridge unless you specifically require colour.
• When you are printing from a web-page, there is often a lot of blurb, advertisements, pictures etc that you don't really need on the finished product. There are two ways to save on ink here. Firstly look for a 'print this' indicator somewhere on the page. It will usually show you what will be printed, eliminating a lot of the unnecessary stuff. Or secondly you can copy & past to Microsoft word or any similiar user software, and print just that instead.
• Compare the yields between genuine and compatible cartridges for your printer. In spit of what the brand name cartridge suppliers tell you, compatible cartridges do not ruin your print heads, unless supplied by a very dodgy dealer. (refer previous article here). But if you buy directly from a web page supplier, who guarantees their product, you should'nt have those problems. The advantage can be, aside from a lower price, a higher yield from the compatible supplier.

So by applying any/all of the above suggestions, you will achieve savings that will make you happier when you do need to buy  that replacement cartridge.

We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support

COMPATIBLE/GENUINE PRINTER CARTRIDGE - WHICH ONE PRINTS LONGER?

 Not long ago, I was asked the question, "Which Brother TN240BK lasts longer, the genuine or the compatible?"

It is understandable a purchaser desiring to get the maximum usage for their purchase. 

There could be the following answers such as it depends upon what you are printing, e.g. pictures use a lot more ink than text, or using more color than using black will lessen the usage of black. or even relating to the printer head, which in turn relates to the quality of the toner/ink used.

But the right answer  is none of the above!

It depends on the yields offered by the genuine and the compatible TN240BK toner cartridges.

And in each case the rated yield is 2,200 pages, meaning that the one type of TN240BK doesn't out perform the other. Be aware though that each cartridge type will  only print approximately 5% of stated yield as according to ISO9001 (International Standards).

If your question though, was "Which Brother TN2150 high yield cartridge runs the longest, the genuine or the compatible?" Then the answer would most definitely be the compatible one (TN2150X) as it has a yield of up to 4,500 pages, as compared to the genuine high yield TN2150 with a yield of 2,600 pages (both ISO ISO9001 Quality Standards).

So the answer is to look at the yield advertised with each printer, remembering that in most, but not all cases the yield for the genuine and the compatible will be the same.

We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support

WHICH TONER CARTRIDGE YIELD SIZE IS BEST FOR YOU?

When you go to purchase a toner printer for business usage, or for frequent printing from home (home/office), which toner cartridge yield size should  you really think about?

Your very first thought will probably be 'the bigger the yield, the extra pages I can print ahead of having to buy yet another toner cartridge'. And for the most part, that may be right. But big isn't necessarily beautiful.

Often,u pon looking in the printers that use greater yield cartridges, you'll discover that they also have quicker print speeds. "Even better" you might say. True, for those who have money to burn.

 Within the case of firms which have a high demand for printing, for example professional printers or mail out organizations, then you can surely get a return from your investment by printers that are high yield with quick throughput.

But what is you're a company that say only has a high demand for printing at the end of your month (statements for example), then you will have an highly-priced piece of equipment doing little to earn its preserve for the rest on the month. So what if the printer takes four hours rather than 1 hour to accomplish an end-of month run.

For instance you'll be able to acquire a Lexmark X854e MFP for ONLY $17,000 with a monthly duty cycle (maximum advisable monthly usage) of approx. 300,000 impressions. It has an output speed of 55 pages per minute and may srack up to 5,100 sheets. For several companies this could be like using an elephant gun for shooting rabbits. The Lexmark cartridge for this number cruncher is the X850 at an approx. expense of $200, although having a gigantic yield of 30,000 pages, or $0.06c every page -good value when you can afford the machine.

For a majority of customers, the Brother HL-4570CDW at $475 would prove eye-catching usage wise, with an output of 30 pages per minute, plus a monthly duty cycle of 60,000 pages, along with a holding capacity of 250 sheets. It reviews really highly. It can be the perfect printer when you want to print dozens of pages every day, printing at a rated speed of 28 pages per minute for both black & colour. The laser toner printer cartridge for your Brother HL-4570CDW would be the TN340BK using a 2,500 page yield, at approx. $80 per cartridge, or the TN3480BK compatible, using a 4,000 page yield at $64 per cartridge..

So as you'll be able to see from the two different printers, its really usage which in turn effects price (for both the printer and the cartridge), which is the deciiding factorr as to what you get.


We thank our sponsor, ABC Print Supplies, for their support