Ink prices spiral

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Posted on 30 Jan 2009 at 17:35

The price of printer ink has been rising to unprecedented heights, Computer Shopper can reveal, although this trend has gone unnoticed by many a consumer.

With the rate of inflation escalating to 4.1 per cent in December 2008, it's plain to see the cost of living has increased in recent times. We've all noticed the rising price of our groceries, but what's not quite so obvious is the price hikes printer manufacturers have been levying for ink.

Since June 2007, the price of ink has shot up by over 50 per cent, and what may seem like just an extra 2p or 3p per printout, soon adds up. As illustrated in our graph below, there was a marked increase around December 2007 and January 2008. It is as yet unclear whether this is due to the impact of global price hikes in the oil needed to manufacture ink cartridges, or the opportunist pricing of printer manufacturers. However, the situation remains; the hidden cost of your printer is likely to have increased significantly over the past 18 months.

Even if you don't print out more than a handful of pages in a year, that doesn't necessarily make you immune from the rising price of ink cartridges. You may find you have to replace your cartridges because the ink has solidified and clogged up the print heads.

When purchasing a new printer, it's important to note that MFPs are often more expensive to run than single-function printers. Shopper advises buying high-yield ink cartridges to save costs. Where available, these are the cartridges that we use to calculate our print costs.

Also, when buying a new printer, be aware that cartridges for budget MFPs often cost more than those of their more expensive counterparts. Take note of our price-per-page calculations for the printer that you're interested in buying, to avoid getting ripped off at times when you think that you may be on to a bargain.

(Click to enlarge)

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota