When was the last time that you tried to print something out but ran out of ink? Almost everyone has had a situation happen when they were trying to print out something that they needed, like directions, a new recipe, or even invitations to a party, only to find that they had much less ink than they thought they did. The world seems to end and everything hangs in the balance while you search for a friend with a printer who can help you, or frantically rush to the library. When that happens the first priority you'll have will likely be to rush to the store in order to buy more ink. But what about the prices at your local office supply? The price of ink is absolutely outrageous, and can make even someone who needs to have ink desperately think about whether or not they truly need to print something out.

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Have you ever tried to figured out exactly why it is that ink cartridges cost so much? The chain of middlemen to get the ink to you is long and each person who touches the process of getting the ink to you adds cost. First of all there is the manufacturer. Printers are at their least expensive point in history, and this can be attributed to a few reasons. Partially, the parts that the companies need to have in order to make the parts have gotten less costly to produce, thanks to economies of scale, but the biggest reason is because the company knows that you need ink to print things, so instead of charging tons for the printer, they charge a lot for the ink cartridges. This is a marketing concept referred to as captive-product pricing.

Then you also have to pay the distributor. Any store that you go into needs to make money, so they tack a few dollars onto the price of the cartridge. That means, when you purchase ink in a store, you're not only paying the company that made and overpriced the cartridge, you're paying for the middleman's profits as well.

After this, you have to consider the costs of shipping and handling, possible intermediaries, taxes...the list goes on and on. It's no wonder that ink costs so very much!

There's an alternative to spending tons of money at the store, and that's buying ink online. Purchasing your ink cartridges online can be a huge expense-saver, particularly if you buy a package of multiple cartridges and pay a lot price. This lets you save on combined shipping costs and ensures you'll always have a stash of at least a few spare cartridges. Another way to save a few more bucks is with recycled ink cartridges, which can be purchased online for even less than knock-off brand name cartridges, since the cost-of-production is lower. Remember, when I say website online, I don't mean like some office supply store's website. You need to find an actual 3rd party cartridge vendor to get true savings.