Cheap Ink — Slash Prices and Save Printer Costs
Top Nine Cheap Printer Ink Sites With Coupons and Codes
If you’ve recently started printing more cover letters and resumes than in the recent past, you know it’s not the printer that’s expensive, it’s the ink. For more than two decades, manfacturers like Hewlett Packard, Epson, Lexmark and others have applied King Camp Gillette’s early 20th Century shaver marketing plan to today’s printers: give away the razor, sell the blades. The printer is the gateway product to the real profit center, the ink cartridge.
If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop best web site with the lowest prices for all printer inks or toners, stop looking. That site does not exist. A great price on a certain cartridge on one site does not guarantee that site will have the lowest price on all cartridges. When working with price comparison sites dedicated to shopping for ink, remember these also have a few major drawbacks, not the least of which is most ink comparison sites stop checking the price at the list price. You need to dig deeper. Find the price of the cartridge delivered to your door. Then, go beyond that delivered price to find discounts and coupons to lower the price even further. That’s what we’ve done here–we add in the shipping, show the free shipping price points, and provide coupons and links to lower the discounted price even further.
How to Narrow the Search
The great thing about searching for ink cartridges is there isn’t much of a search. You don’t have a lot of choice when it comes to what kind of cartridge you need. If your car has a 14 inch wheel, the universe of available tires for your car is limited to tires that fit that wheel. Likewise, you need a cartridge that fits your printer. Once you know the cartridge you need, your search narrows to that cartridge number or its equivalent.
Gnivas conducted a web quest of popular and well traveled ink sites as well as lesser known and newer locations. Here’s what we found: some places really do have free shipping on any product, regardless of the total amount. Others tout “free shipping” that becomes “free” with a minimum purchase of $30, $45, $50, or $55. Stores have discount codes that really work, and stores have broken codes. At a time when sites scream their total commitment to customer service, it seems working coupon codes would not be too much to ask.
Choosing the Test Ink Cartridge
We chose to look for a single black cartridge to match a printer in the Hewlett Packard Deskjet series, the world’s best-selling printer. More than 240 million Deskjets were sold from the time HP introduced the line in 1988 to its 20th anniversary in 2008. Out of all the Deskjets, we settled on the Deskjet 3845 and its black print cartridge, the C8727A, also known as the C8727AN. The cartridge is also compatible with 11 other printers, one fax, and a PSC. When the 3845 hit the market in August 2004, it had a retail price point of less than $100. Fast forward to today, and the combo pack of a black and color cartridge for the 3845 is available on the Office Depot site for $41.99. A used 3845 goes for around $50 on Amazon.com, plus shipping. New ink for the used printer is 84% of the total cost of the peripheral. Regardless of what marketing executives might say, whenever the retail cost of a manufactuer’s replacement component part (ink) is 84% of the total cost of the printer, the business model of that company’s printer division is give away the printer and sell the ink. Little wonder one of Michael Dell’s biggest regrets was not getting into printers ten years before Dell finally entered that market segment. Not surprisingly, there are a lot of web sites selling remanufactured and refilled Number 27s.
Search Results
After combing through a multitude of sites, we ended up with eight companies offering a single remanufactured compatible HP 27 cartridge ranging from $10.95 with free shipping and rising to $18.90 after all costs are added at the checkout counter. Rounding out the Top Nine ink price sites is Office Depot and the retail HP 27 OEM cartridge at $19.99. Since Office Depots are close to just about everyone, we did not include the shipping price on this top end example.
Finding Your Inner Inexpensive Ink
- Find the retail price of your cartridge. This is your ceiling price, your starting point for lower cost products. Until you know the price of a new cartridge made by the manufacturer, you don’t know what is and is not a deal. As previously stated, our price limit is the Office Depot HP OEM cartridge at $19.99. For an OEM cartridge, this is a good price. Other sites list the OEM cartridge at almost $22.
- Channel the bulk purchaser side of you. Like a lot of things in life, buying in bulk pays off. If you need one cartridge, inksmile.com is your best deal. If you want to stock up with more than $50 worth of printer cartridges, the $8.95 per unit offer from Iowa Ink gets you the most filled ink cartridges at the least price. Otherwise, for a single cartridge the Iowa Ink delivered price falls from first place to fourth.
- Channel your inner planner. All shipping starts off as ground shipping, the slowest way to travel. Plan ahead and order before you run out of ink.
- Find the real cost of free shipping. We’ve provided real shipping cost information for the sites below.
- Realize all quoted shipping costs in this example are based on deliveries within the continental United States.
- Note prices are based on remanufactured cartridges. There is not a great deal of difference between site prices for a manufacturer’s OEM new cartridge. The price gap gets bigger when cartridges are remanufactured and refilled.
- All of these sites have toll free order numbers. If you don’t want to order over the web, give them a call.
- Some sites ship only inside the United States. Other sites ship to all the states, U.S. territories and APO/FPO addresses, and Canada.
- Any state or local taxes are not included in these totals. Some sites charge tax on purchases depending on the delivery location. With the exception of www.iowaink.com, all the listed sites selling remanufactured cartridges are headquartered in California. As its name states, the Iowa Ink company is located in Iowa.
- Prices, policies and discounts are always subject to change.
- Your results may and probably will vary.
- Have fun saving money.
- Send us your comments.
With all the above in mind, here are the Gnivas search results in order of least expensive to most expensive:
1. www.inksmile.com $10.95 and free shipping. Ships within the United States. Has a referral program for 5% store credit on each referred sale. Does not sell toner. Link below gives you an additional 5% off the price of the order and keeps the free shipping.
Instant 5% Off AND Free Shipping On Printer Cartridges at InkSmile.com. Use code: 5OFFSMILE
2. www.inkplustoner.com $12.95 and free shipping. Shipping limited to the United States. As the name states, sells ink plus toner. Per the company’s web site, for any coupon discounts, enter the discount code AFTER you enter your credit card number so the discount applies to the total order. The following link gives 5% off your order when you enter the code 5off.
3. www.ocink.com $9.95 ($13.94 landed after adding the standard $3.99 shipping on any order less than $30). Use the coupon below for 10% off the price of the product, and the price drops to $12.95 for a single cartridge delivered. OCink also has a 5% store credit referral program similar to inksmile.
4. www.inkgrabber.com $12.95 and free shipping for continental U.S. orders when using the Free Shipping Code FREEBIE in the first link below. Usual shipping cost $4.95 for any order less than $75, free shipping on orders more than $75. The second coupon below is for 12% off inkjet cartridges and toners. If you are ordering more than $75 worth of product, then use the 12% discount since the shipping is already free. Inkgrabber ships to Canada, the United States, and Puerto Rico.
Inkgrabber.com – Free shipping on any order in the U.S. via code: FREEBIE
Inkgrabber.com – Save 12% OFF Inkjet & Toner Cartridges via code: JAN12 (excludes OEM & Media)
5. www.iowaink.com $8.95 ($13.90 landed price lower 48 states) For this Des Moines, IA company, $4.95 standard shipping charge within the continental United States. Free shipping on orders of more than $50 within the Lower 48. Ships to all states, APOs and Puerto Rico. Use the 10% off coupon code below. HURRY–Coupon expires May 15, 2009.
10% Discount on all Printer Ink Orders! Coupon Code SASAP10 One time use. Cannot combine with other offers.
6. www.4inkjets.com $12.95 ($17.90 with shipping) This company is one of the largest online ink sellers. Free shipping over $50. If not, then $12.95 for cartridge and $4.95 shipping. Ships to the United States and Canada.
Coupon says it offers free shipping for more than $50. Real saving here is coupon code gives 10% off all orders except OEM cartridges. Code expires May 31, 2009.
Free Shipping on Continental US Orders over $50–Use Coupon Code DAS926M, exp 05.31.09
7. www.inkjetstar.com $12.95 ($17.90 with shipping). Any order less than $55 has a $4.95 shipping charge. Ships to U.S. and Canada. Click here for more shipping details.
10% discount coupon for all printer ink and toner cartridges Use Coupon Code sum10 (expires June 30, 2009)
8. www.123inkjets.com $13.95 (18.90 with shipping). This is another large ink supplier. Free shipping starts with more than $55 per order. Ships to the U.S. and Canada.
15% Off Compatible Inkjet Cartridges (excludes OEM’s)
10% Off All Other Products
Coupon INKYARM63
Expires 6.30.09
9. www.officedepot.com $19.99 for new HP Black Inkjet Cartridge