Apr 01
Ink is pricey, and it's difficult to get a lot of full-color sheets from one cartridge. However, I get all kinds of junk letters and booklets each day filled with rich ink. At its high cost, companies should be broke from the money they spend on ink in junk mail, but they aren't. How is the ink that they use cheap enough so that they have the ability to print so many papers, and how could this ink become available to the consumer?
Answer:
Here's the deal - ink is NOT costly, especially commercial inks sold in high volume. Those companies that make consumer color printers often sell the printers for extremely low prices, often at a loss, with the expectation that in order to use the printer, people will have to buy ink. They jack up the prices on ink cartridges to make their money back. There's actually a wikipedia entry on the subject if you’re that interested - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ink_cartrid…
Answer:
You also have to look at all of the adds that are in the books. They get a lot of money from that. And if they’ve an add for one of the brands that sells the ink, they might get free ink, or ink cheap.