We all know that the sale of printer ink cartridges is a great source of revenue for printer cartridge manufacturers. High revenue products often become “knock-offs”. Those less scrupulous individuals see an opportunity to make some quick money by creating, and selling, a knock-off. In the case of printer cartridges, knock-off is probably not the best description. Counterfeit is much better.

Counterfeit printer cartridges look almost identical to the manufacturer brand cartridges. I saw almost because of you look really close you can spot some differences. Most will never see any difference in the appearance of the cartridge or the cartridge’s packaging. Unfortunately, buying a counterfeit cartridge can cost you more than buying, for example, a fake Rolex. With a Rolex you are just out the money you spent to buy. You’ve still got something that looks like a Rolex, and probably works. With a counterfeit printer cartridge, you are buying something that will cause you a few more headaches.These cartridges are prone to leaking, falling apart, exploding, smudging paper and jamming the print heads. When these kinds of things happen, you are now incurring the added cost of photo or printer paper. You also run the risk of the added cost of having to purchase a new printer when the counterfiet cartridges ruin the one you own.

The American (North, South, Central) printer cartridge market is the prime selling ground for counterfeiters. We are so desperate to save a few bucks on printer cartridges that we’ll snatch up just about any cartridge that will save us the money. These cartridges are produced in China, Malaysia or the Philippines, then shipped to Americas. Once here, they are usually sold to unknowing midsized printer cartridge distributors. From the midsized distributors they end up on the hands of the end user or a small distributor, who then sells them to the end user. Mid and small sized distributors are targeted because they lack the standards and systems of the large distributors.

It’s estimated that about 50% of the cartridges sold in Latin and South America are counterfeit. In the U.S., the estimate is 5%.

The best way to make sure you don’t end up with a counterfeit cartridge is to buy your cartridges from reputable resellers. Find out what your cartridge would cost if you bought it direct from the manufacturer (go to their web site). Once you have this information, you are prepared to start your shopping. If you find cartridges that cost considerably less, ask the vendor some questions. If there is any hesitancy to answer, or just a lack of knowledge about where the cartridges came from, move on to another vendor. If you are really in to it, go to one of the office super stores and study the manufacturer brand packaging of the cartridge you use. When you are out shopping other vendors, inspect the packaging their cartridge comes in. If you spot any differences, find another vendor.

Every had an experience with a counterfeit cartridge? If so, let me know. Thanks!

Is remanufacturing printer ink cartridges good for the environment?

Your (and my) immediate reaction would probably be yes. You are taking a cartridge that has already been used and instead of throwing it in the trash you are turning it in to a cartridge that can used again.  Remanufacturing is nothing but good, right? Let’s take another look.

This logic assumes that 100% of all empty printer cartridges collected can be remanufactured. That’s the way the remanufacturing world would like you to think about it. Truth is 100% of empty printer cartridges cannot be remanufactured. Truth is that only 41% of inkjet cartridges and 21% of toner cartridges can be remanufactured (source: InfoTrends 2009).

What happens to the cartridges that cannot be remanufactured?

In their study, InfoTrends, found that the cartridges that cannot be remanufactured are going in the trash.

In my 10 years doing this I have seen a wide range of printer cartridge remanufacturing operations. Everything from a guy in his garage to huge warehouses filled with expensive machines. Common to each and every operation was a lack of systems for properly disposing of cartridges that could not be remanufactured. Disclaimer: It’s been a while since I’ve been to anyone’s remanufacturing operation so if yo are reading this and have a system for properly disposing of cartridges you can’t remanufactured, let us know what you do.

Why aren’t these cartridges being disposed of in an environmentally friendly way?  Because it’s expensive.

Unfortunately, the cost of finding a company that will recycle inkjet cartridges is prohibitive. The plastics they are made from do not provide much, financially, to the recycler. To make it even worth the recycler’s time and efforts, the remanufacturer must be able to provide them with thousands of cartridges at a time. There are larger companies that can produce empty cartridges are this level, but the small to mid sized remanufacturers cannot. Their only option is to store them until they get enough (maybe 1-2 years) or to immediately dispose of them (in the trash).

It’s a shame we can’t do more with these empty cartridges. If you’ve got any ideas, share them with me. Thanks!

I posted a few weeks ago on  Kodak’s ‘Print and Prosper’ program . . . If you print with Kodak printer cartridges you’ll prosper to the tune of one hundred more dollars a year. Kodak also touted the depression and despair caused by high priced printer cartridges (laugh).

Not to be outdone, HP introduced their Ink Amnesty program (launched 4/23/10).  Unlike Kodak, who is aiming their marketing efforts at stealing customers from HP, HP efforts are concentrated on convincing those that use cartridges refill services that they should stick with HP brand cartridges. How do you feel about that Kodak? HP is more concerned about an industry filled with people using syringes to refill ink cartridges in their garage than they are about you.

The Ink Amnesty program invites those with ink cartridge refill (bargain ink) horror stories to share them on an HP blog (http://h30484.www3.hp.com/InkAmnesty/Default.aspx). For sharing your story, HP will email you a coupon for 20% off an original HP ink cartridge (their version of amnesty).

AMNESTY – an act of forgiveness for past offenses, esp. to a class of persons as a whole.

That’s right, that is the definition of amnesty. Forgiveness for past offenses.

HP is forgiving all you bargain ink users (class of persons) for your past offense (using bargain ink). How noble. How dare you defy the almighty HP and try to save a few dollars by refilling your cartridge or using a cartridge made by another manufacturer. If you’ve had a bad experience with those cartridges, the almighty is willing to forgive you. All you have to do is profess the error in your ways on a blog! Remember, governments are usually the only ones that can grant amnesty.

I wrote all that with tongue in cheek because, let’s face it, marketing efforts need to be creative in order to get our attention. But, the approach does speak to HP’s overall position in the printer and printer cartridge world. They rule it. With a more than 40% share of the worldwide printer market, HP runs things like your local government runs your city, state, etc. Additionally they have always taken the ‘better than you’ approach when it comes to dealing with other printer cartridge manufacturers. Who better to grant amnesty for the offense of using a non-HP cartridge in an HP printer.

Seems like they could take this thing a step or two further. Why not take the religious angle? Come confess your sins on our blog and be granted forgiveness. I would not put it beyond HP to take on the role of whoever your almighty power might be.

How do you feel about HP forgiving you for your past bargain ink offenses? Let me know. Thanks!

Not an uncommon question, right? Well HP has finally stepped forward and is willing to give some answers. What you read below is information from Thom Brown, an individual HP sent out on a media tour to make a presentation called, “Why Does Ink Cost So Much?”.

Mr. Brown started his presentation by detailing the workings of HP cartridges, specifically HP’s print heads, and the billions of dollars that went in to the development of these print heads. He then continued by describing the challenges of designing a product that shoots drops of ink at moving paper and having them end up in a exact location on the paper in order to create an image. In addition to research and development of cartridges, HP also spends a lot of money on testing broken cartridges (cartridges that don’t work).

So, now we have some idea of what HP is spending money on, and some idea why ink cartridges cost what they do. A lot of research and development, but what about a lot of marketing?

Mr. Brown didn’t touch on the amount of money HP spends annually on marketing, the stuff that convinces us we need to buy HP cartridges over any other cartridge out there. The money spent on this has to come from somewhere. My guess would be profits from ink cartridges.

HP’s marketing efforts are very effective. Granted, marketing efforts are useless unless you’ve got a good product. Thanks to their efforts, HP has a worldwide printer market share of more than 40%. With this kind of marketplace domination, HP has no motivation to lower the cost of their printer cartridges (another reason one could say cartridges cost so much).

All this said, I do want to end with one last bit of information from Mr. Brown. Despite saying his area of expertise was technology and not profits, he did estimate that HP’s profit margin on ink cartridges is somewhere between 20-30%.  That’s it?

While this is a healthy number, it does not strike me as all that high. At this level of profit, HP is depending on streamlined manufacturing and high volume sales. A great model for any business!

What do you think of HP’s profit margin on printer cartridges. Are they making to much? Are they making to little? Let me know what you think. Thanks!

A few days ago I wrote a post about HP’s regionalization of their printers and printer cartridges (5/14/10 – Can’t Use My HP Printer Wherever I Want). Well, turns out there is an easy fix, and HP will help you with it.

Apparently the issue was big enough, because HP has said it will help reset printers to their local region. All the printer owner has to do is call the local HP support center and a representative will walk them through the reset process.

HP said the printer cartridge to printer regionalization process began in 2004. They did not comment as to why.

Anyone want to speculate? Thanks!

We’ve added eight different cartridges for the Lexmark C500n printer. These cartridges also work in the Lexmark X500n Printer, Lexmark X502n Printer. The are available in both standard yield ($116.49 black, $122.79 color) and high yield ($164.99 black, $154.49 color). Standard yield cartridges provide 2,500 pages (black) or 1,500 pages (each color). High yield cartridges provide 5,000 pages (black) and 3,000 pages (each color).

Cartridge numbers for these printers are:

Standard Yield:

Lexmark C500S2KG Black Toner Cartridge

Lexmark C500S2CG Cyan Toner Cartridge

Lexmark C500S2MG Magenta Toner Cartridge

Lexmark C500S2YG Yellow Toner Cartridge

High Yield:

Lexmark C500H2KG Black Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Lexmark C500H2CG Cyan Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Lexmark C500H2MG Magenta Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Lexmark C500H2YG Yellow Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Here’s an interesting fact about HP printers cartridges, they are regionalized. This means that HP creates different printer cartridges for different regions of the world so that I cannot take the printer I own (here in the United States), go to Australia, buy cartridges there, put them in my printer, and expect it to work.

Put shortly, a printer bought in one region of the world will not recognize printer cartridges bought in another region.

So far as I can tell, HP has established seven different world region markets (European, UK, Latin American, North American, Asian-Pacific, Western Hemisphere, and Mexico). Printers produced for these regions are programmed to only recognize cartridges produced for these regions as well. If you try to use a printer from one region and a cartridge from a different region, your printer will give you an error message. Your printer will be rendered useless until you can get cartridges that match its region.

The conspiracy theorists claim this is just another attempt by HP to make more money. They are holding those that want to roam the world, with their printer in tote, hostage. Huh? I have to think HP has a much better reason than this.  Can anyone provide it?

For those that plan on moving to a different HP printer region soon, don’t worry to much. I did read a few stories of HP being able to “re-regionalize” a printer, you just need to contact their support center.

What do you think of HP’s printer and printer cartridge regionlization? Take a few seconds and let me know. Thanks!

Three cheers for Office Depot!

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Office Depot sent a challenge out to all of its customers. That challenge was to collect and turn in 400 tons of e-waste during a one month window (surrounding Earth Day). What happened? Office Depot customers crushed the 400 ton goal and showed up with 560 tons of e-waste to be recycled. Congrats to all those that helped make it happen. Three cheers for you too.

E-waste includes such electronic items such as cell phones, printers, shredders, notebook computers, desktop computers, computer monitors, digital cameras, inkjet cartridges, and toner cartridges. This kind of stuff has not business in landfills. The EPA says that in 2007 over 3 million tons of e-waste was disposed of in the United States . . .

Hold on.

In 2007 somewhere between 3-4 million tons of e-waste was disposed of, yet just three years later Office Depot can collect 560 tons. Is this a staggering number to anyone else? How fast is the U.S. population consuming electronic products?

Okay, back on topic.

Of that 3 million plus pounds of e-waste collected in 2007, only 410,000 pounds were recycled. The rest went in to landfills or incinerators (the stuff does not burn, but does release toxic gases when you put it to fire).

Just because Office Depot’s recycling challenge is over, don’t assume that you can’t recycle your e-waste. Next time you’ve got an electronic product to dispose of, do some checking around. There will most likely be plenty of recycling opportunities in your area. A school in my area had an e-cycling event last weekend. They collected a whole bunch of stuff and raised a fair amount of money for themselves. Maybe even call your local electronics store to see if they have any in-store recycling opportunities.

Do you know where you can recycle e-waste in your area? Leave a post here with the information. Let’s help each other keep electronics out of landfills. Thanks!

We just finished adding cartridges for the Xerox Phaser 6280DN and Xerox Phaser 6280N printers to the web site.  Pacific Ink now offers 3,644 different printer cartridges for 5,456 different inkjet and laser printers.

Xerox offers a full set of color (black, cyan, magenta, yellow) toner cartridges for these printers. Cartridges are also available in standard yield (3,000 pages black, 2,200 pages each color) and high yield (7,000 pages black, 5,900 pages each color).

Cartridge numbers for these printers are:

Xerox 106R01391 Black Toner Cartridge

Xerox 106R01388 Cyan Toner Cartridge

Xerox 106R01389 Magenta Toner Cartridge

Xerox 106R01390 Yellow Toner Cartridge

Xerox 106R01395 Black Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Xerox 106R01392 Cyan Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Xerox 106R01393 Magenta Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Xerox 106R01394 Yellow Toner Cartridge, High Yield

Have you used this printer, or these cartridges? If so, let me know what you think about them. Thanks!

I’ve been focusing quite a bit on Kodak lately. I guess it is because I find their battle to gain market share in the inkjet printer world interesting. I felt the same about Dell when they released their line of inkjet and laser printers. They were interesting because they were putting computers in everyone’s  homes. It made sense to try to put printers in their homes too.

Kodak is interesting because, unlike Dell, they are not putting printers in everyone’s home (no easy way to enter the market) and they are challenging the long standing inkjet printer/cartridge model. Sell cheap printers to get the customer to rely on more expensive ink cartridges.

Kodak’s first quarter profit numbers came out the other day. Their inkjet printer division is losing money, but they did not expect to earn a profit until 2011. They are spending a lot of money on advertising, trying to convince the consumer that their ink is cheaper, so anyone looking for a new printer should buy a Kodak printer.

Two things of interest:

1) Why is Kodak pitch solely based on the cost of an ink cartridge? Are consumers that price conscious? Do they not care about the quality of the printer they buy? This is very interesting to me because with the millions of dollars Kodak is spending on advertising there is not one mention of the quality of their printer. Consumer feedback on quality is mixed.

2) I heard one critic comment that:

. . . this is a very difficult uphill battle with HP where for years they will have to “buy” a subscriber base large enough to start purchasing high-margin cartridges.

Two things stand out to me here. The first is buying a subscriber base. Is that what all these marketing dollars are being spent on, buying a subscriber base? A base of consumers that own a Kodak printer. Can the base get big enough to earn back the millions spent on marketing? The second is the use of the term “high margin cartridges”. That’s right, high margin cartridges. Even though Kodak is selling the consumer on the low cost of their printer cartridges, the cartridges are still a high margin item for them. The margins made on printer cartridges (by the manufacturer) are the only reason to get in to the printer business.

If you’ve got a (strange) fascination with Kodak’s progress in the inkjet printer world, like me, take a second and let me know your thoughts. Thanks!