liquids are more precious than printer ink, but that’s not because ink is expensive to make. How can HP— and its handful of competitors in the highly concentrated printer market—get away with charging these kinds of markups?
Two printers. One costs 3x+ more than the other.
Ink for the cheap printer: $54 for 440 pages of black and since the cartridge combines color and black, you have to throw the extra ink out.
Ink for the cheap printer: $14 for 6000 pages. I couldn’t even find the official Epson ink since there are so many third party options. Because Epson doesn’t have to lock down their ink because you paid full price for their printer.
superkret@feddit.org 1 year ago
Printers are cursed abominations unleashed upon our world by Those No One Dares Mention.
One of the secrets of the printer “manufacturers” is that they don’t actually know how printer ink is made.
They just know they have to chant the incantations written down by hands unseen on scrolls bound in human flesh, sacrifice a sysadmin, and a new shipment will materialize in their warehouse.