Anyone Know Where to Find Generic Ink Cartridges?

November 10, 2011 11:21 PM

I have an older Canon inkjet printer (ip8500) that has been very reliable. However, it really gripes my tush every time I have to pay a fortune for replacement cartridges that don’t seem to last much past the time they come out of their wrapper.

I know the manufacturer’s game: cheap printers, audacious ink cartridge prices. Well, after buying Canon ink for years, I decided that my printer is old enough that I don’t mind buying a generic ink version until it finally buys the farm. The problem is, I can no longer find vendors online that sell generic ink. I know that a number of companies were run out of business by the printer manufacturers through some legal manuevers, but I had no idea they had chased everyone off. Is my google-fu failing me, or is there indeed no alternative to $8000/gal ink. (older reference, but prices haven’t gone down much, if at all).

I now do much less printing than I used to. I use OSX and save most of the articles that I would print as PDFs and dump them into Yojimbo where I can tag them for quick reference. Besides ink, I also save a ton of paper that way.

So, I have 2 questions for the community:

1. Does anyone know of a reputable online company who sells generic ink for a decent price? (I have limited use of my legs and would prefer not to have to go to a store)

2. In your opinion, what online printing service does an EXCELLENT job with photo prints, (4x6 and up, including picture wraps) for a fair price?

Just trying to cover all the bases, and willing to listen to any advice. Thanks in advance for any assistance!

posted by konig to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

I use Snapfish for photo prints and have always been happy with their Australian arm's price and quality. Beats the hell out of photo paper and inkjet ink.

Also, my experience with off-brand inks says that if you're doing enough printing that the cost of ink is irksome, the correct fix is to change your printer, not your brand of ink. Some after-market ink is OK but most is not, and if you're doing an appropriate amount of printing for the kind of printer you have, the hassle of clogs and drips and off colours and non-functional ink level metering rapidly outweighs the savings.

In theory those hassles matter less for the Canon printer you have than for many others, because when you fatally clog an ip8500 print head with dodgy ink you can just click it out and replace it. In practice you'll find that a replacement print head costs damn near as much as a replacement printer.

I don't know what your local suppliers charge for these things, but in Australia the going rate for a genuine replacement Canon ink tank for that model is around $15, while a generic sells for around $7. Personally I would skip two cups of coffee and buy the genuine ink.
posted by flabdablet at 12:30 AM on November 11, 2011

Best answer: By the way, Googling ip8500 ink from Australia scores loads of results, most to online stores offering both genuine and after-market inks. Is the Great Moogly somehow not so generous to you?
posted by flabdablet at 12:36 AM on November 11, 2011

Best answer: I recently bought cheap generic ink to use in my expensive 8-color Canon photo printer. Now I am the proud owner of a brand new printer, because the cheap-o ink leaked onto the logic board and fried it. The sole recourse I could get from the ink seller was a refund on the ink. I will never use off-brand ink again, even though it's ridiculously expensive.
posted by Capri at 7:28 AM on November 11, 2011

Best answer: I've used Image Specialists ink in several Canon printers for a number of years, no problems- IP5000, IP5200, also high-end Epson printers.
Here's what they have for your printer- image specialists
They don't sell to individuals... they leave that to dealers.
Colorbat is the one that I use. He's a crusty old bugger, but knows his stuff... I think your carts have chips, not sure, but if so you'll have to buy empty carts or replacement chips. I'll do some more lookin' and come back with more info.
posted by drhydro at 2:06 PM on November 11, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks very much to each for your input. And mea culpa regarding the online search for generic ink. My search was done a month or so ago, and I do not recall what phrase I searched under, but I was got nothing in return, and now I feel pretty dumb. I should have tried again before posting, and I apologize. Fabdablet, though your links were hits on down-under enterprises, I did a search using the same term and got several more localized hits, thanks!

I certainly understand the hazards of using 3rd party ink—I just don't like monopolies on products where companies know they have you by the short & curlies and charge what they damn well please. But I guess that's the ugly side of capitalism...and my desire to stay within a budget.

If anyone has further suggestions regarding quality online print services, I am still all ears. I am looking at what has already been suggested.
posted by konig at 5:39 PM on November 11, 2011

I just don't like monopolies on products where companies know they have you by the short & curlies and charge what they damn well please

Me either, but that's really not a good description of the state of the inkjet printer market. There are a hell of a lot of inkjet printer manufacturers to choose from, and a hell of a lot of models from each manufacturer. So we can choose to pay a fair price up-front for a printer with lower running costs, or we can choose to pay well under manufacturing cost for a printer and let the vendor make their money on consumables. Which choice makes more sense depends primarily on print volume. I don't believe there's a conspiracy across inkjet printer manufacturers to keep per-page costs as high as possible for the end user; it seems far more likely to me that the market is in fact quite competitive.

We can also choose to treat a cheap printer as disposable and use it with off-brand consumables we know are going to break it, but I have yet to be convinced that this approach is cost-effective even though there seems to be a good business case for selling substandard ink to people who do believe that.
posted by flabdablet at 6:56 PM on November 11, 2011

By the way: my opinions on this subject have changed over the years, and my current position is derived from experience as a school IT technician. I've put a lot of ink in a lot of printers, and tended to a lot of clogged print heads, and in my experience after-market ink is about ten times as likely to cause problems as OEM ink.

To be fair, I need to tell you that the guy who runs our local printer refilling store has fixed many more broken printers than I have, and disagrees with me on this point.
posted by flabdablet at 7:00 PM on November 11, 2011 [1 favorite]

Your IP8500 evidently uses the same carts that my IP5000 does. No chips to reset. I refill mine while they're still in the printer, have had no problems with the Image Specialists ink. I do agree with flabdablet that after-market ink is more likely to cause problems, BUT.... I think that applies more to Staples and Ebay-type stuff. This stuff I use is a cut (or several) above that.
posted by drhydro at 8:11 PM on November 11, 2011

Response by poster: Thanks again drhydro, for the search that you did to find the info on my printer. I did some reading on the Colorbat website and he mentions that he adds a bit of "thickening" to his colors to keep them from dripping onto the service plate. Maybe there's a bit too much water involved in the production of some of the generics, and that lends to them being messy.

Flabdablet, I understand your assertion regarding the necessity of the printer manufacturer to make a profit on one end or the other. Believe me, I am not opposed to a company making a good profit for their effort. However, it does strike me as a bit greedy to charge what they charge per gallon of fluid, when I think that their production cost in no way compares to what it costs to look for, procure, refine and distribute a gallon of gasoline. For the arduous process that oil companies go through, I think that their retail market price is extremely fair! But I do not like gougers, and I believe strongly that they are wholly unfair in their ink product charges.

Thanks again for your comments as well!
posted by konig at 11:12 PM on November 11, 2011

Response by poster: BTW, forgot one thing: I do not feel that there is a direct collusion amongst printer manufacturers to keep the price of ink jacked up. But there really doesn't have to be. As long as one of the major manufacturers doesn't decide to cut the price of ink drastically, they can all ride their ponies for a long time! That's an indirect and unspoken collusion, and they all know it. It happens in other industries as well. But it is part of the free enterprise system and the way the market works. We, as consumers, can participate in purchase or not, and that's the great thing about free enterprise.
posted by konig at 11:31 PM on November 11, 2011