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Walk into any printer aisle, or go to any printer website, and you are bound to be blown away by the huge variety available. There are a dozen major printer manufacturers each sold at hundreds of outlets, and each of those companies make entire families of printers with multiple options in each. And then there is the toner that you need to continually refill afterwards, often with four or five more options including color, page count, remanufactured, or OEM. It is a dizzying market and intentionally so as each corporation fights hard for every printer sale and sets up an entire niche market around the ink and toner for it. Understanding this market, and the little nuances that come with it, is the best way to decide what printer to invest in, what ink and toner is best to also invest in, and how to save money as you do it.
First you need to understand the big two types of printers. While there is additional diversity these are the two families you are most likely to encounter and, in fact, buy. For home and small business use you have inkjet printers, printers which take a sheet of paper and apply a huge number of tiny liquid dots of ink to the page in a pattern as it moves up. Literally the ink shoots out of jets. These printers have a very quick start up time and can print high quality images. They are also convenient as many come as all in one printers with scanning and copying ability built in. However they tend to print slowly. These printers use, as mentioned, liquid ink, which can be easily located online by the term ink. For example, to find an online retailer of brother inkjet supply you would search for: Brother ink
If you want something for high volume office printing you will need more of a LaserJet printer which will use high capacity ink powder cartridges, called toner. Just type: Brother toner into the search bar to find an online retailer of brother printer supply. LaserJets are typically far more expensive, far larger, and are worth the investment. They print fast high quality text and last a long time by literally using a laser to draw the shape of the text onto the document in a negative charge. The positively charged toner dust sticks t this charge and heat fixes the toner onto the sheet. Unfortunately these printers take a while to warm up and can sometimes get stripy in their printing. The cartridges are also more expensive, but last far longer in terms of pages printed.
You can decide on individual printers by looking for what is available, running quick price comparisons using Amazon, and looking online to check consumer and business reviews of the product. If it has a generally good ranking you will be set, if not then you may have something to worry about (although you should keep in mind that people are generally more apt to complain than complement).
You should NOT be fooled by the promise of a suspiciously great deal on a printer. When this happens it usually means one of two things: either the printer is low quality or else it is a trap and the ink for that printer will be especially expensive. These types of printers are often found bundled into personal computer deals, and can be a good solution if you only have occasional printing but definitely should be avoided if you need a workhorse. As you check your reviews make sure you also check the cartridge price relative to other similar printers of the same brand.
When a company, say Dell, sells a printer they will often discount the price in order to win a buyer (as the competition is fierce and market share is everything). They make this cost up in the huge profit margins of their Dell toner cartridges, especially considering that when someone buys their printer they are essentially planted in a monopoly and forced to buy only one type of cartridge—the cartridges for that particular printer. It ensures long term profits against the short term.
However, other companies are quickly muscling into these mini monopolies. Third parties, both reputable and not so much, offer a wide variety of third party cartridges online and sometimes, in the case of a few office supply chains, in physical locations as well. While some of these cartridges are indeed generic low quality junk that essentially robs you of your money (and can harm an expensive printer) other cartridges are perfectly comparable. Always be sure of your seller, again, by checking the reviews.
While it may seem like ink and toner sellers such as HP toner are keeping up a great scam every time they sell you a cartridge, the fact is that there are serious office supply schemes going down all the time and no company with a phone number is safe. Prevention is the best bet when dealing with these con artists, and to prevent falling victim it is most important to know what types of toner scams are out there, to understand them, and to have basic guidelines about information privacy which your secretarial staff follow on a daily basis.
But first, why is toner so often the trigger point for scam artists the world over? Since the seventies con artists and scammers have been milking thousands of dollars from legitimate companies taking advantage of the universality of printer toner, the value of the cartridges, and there quick replacement rate. These details make them perfect for scams since everyone uses printers, there is real money tied up in them, and with the rapidity of toner resupply and shuffling many times the scam is lost in the shuffle giving them a quiet lifeblood. And every time a scam works it only opens the door and funds another scam behind it.
The most common and oldest form of toner con is the classic ‘toner phoner.’ In this scam a secretary is cold called by a scammer, usually one with a pleasant and businesslike phone voice. This call begins with a greeting and then attempts, by various scripts, to get the secretary to reveal information. Often the caller will pretend to be the normal toner supplier with a question about the company’s printer or maintenance. Other times they may be pretending to take a survey. In the end, however, these con artists are after two pieces of information: the name of the person in charge of ordering for the targeted company, and the type of printers used.
It is unfortunately clever. This information lets them know what name to put on a fake invoice and what toner cartridges to ship to the company. A scam where they sent an invoice by itself may work every once in a while, but most people like to compare what they have to what is being charged. By sending actual ink and toner products that work for the printer the victim company owns and uses these scammers increase the odds tremendously that the follow up invoice will be paid without contest. And if it is contested, these toner sellers are masters of bullying, claiming that they sent the product and that the victim company has a moral obligation to pay them. This is absolutely not true, as the law states that unsolicited product shipped to a person or company is a gift—and should not be paid for. It is especially untrue when you realize that the prices these toner phoners charge are tremendously greater than they should be and the product itself is low quality and may actually damage the printers it is used upon.
A second, similar scam begins with a free trial offer over the phone of some new amazing type of ink or toner, so long as you let them know whether you use HP ink cartridges or Lexmark model such and such. The secretary, of course, sees an opportunity to try out some new ink and save product costs. The toner arrives shortly thereafter and it may or may not prove to be decent or even great stuff. The problem is in the non-existent fine print. The scammers follow up with a bill claiming that the free trial was contingent on the product being returned, unopened, by a certain point or some other garbage that goes against the very idea of a free trial and was never mentioned. However, bullying and empty threats are often enough to convince many fed up or frightened individuals to sell out to the scammers—and the game goes on.
For these scams prevention is everything. Never give out or allow your employees to give out information regarding the hardware you use or other data points such as manger names or order mangers, which can be used to fill out a phony invoice. Also make sure that everyone is familiar with your regular suppliers, as this will allow them to recognize interlopers. Information security is everything in the modern world, even when facing a forty year old family of toner scams.
What makes for a good blog about ink? I have been in this industry for a long time and we all know that the main reason people come to these blogs is to review products and save some money. However, I am convinced that an ink blog can be a niche topic with a strong following just like any other type of blog.
Just like in any other blogging genre, personality is king (yes, even more than content). You will read about any topic imaginable if the right storyteller is the one writing it. For example, at least once a week or so I see articles bouncing around twitter about typesetting and typography. I thought my industry was boring in printing and toner, but typesetting? Seriously? Who even does that? Yet there are geeks who specialize in it and a few of them have a strong, interesting personality that comes through when they write about it. Boom, their content goes viral and makes the rounds.
The other thing about a good blog is spreading out a little. For instance, if your blog is nothing but reviews, that is helpful, but you will only see one-time traffic. People come to get info on product X and then they leave. A good rule in blogging is 80/20: about 80 percent of your content should be on your core topic (ink) and 20 percent can be on whatever strikes your fancy. Since people are reading for your personality, they will stay with you and even like it when you stray onto other topics.
I am not saying that content is not important. Always make sure you know your industry, but put some personality into it and you will go far.
I trade stock and I tend to be a little bit of a corporate history geek. I like to know something about the background and history of the companies I am trading. To me, Epson Corp is one of the companies with the most interesting background out there. Nowadays Epson makes some of the top of the line printers and copiers, as well as other fine electronics such as projectors, computer devices and so forth. However, it was not always the case. Epson has come a long way in the last century.
The first thing I love about Epson is that it is a true “mom and pop” success story. Epson started off as Seiko. One skilled Japanese watch maker started his business and decided to expand to the repair and manufacture of clock pieces as soon as he had the funds to do so. This is what separates a true visionary from the typical business owner: he went outside his comfort zone and expanded into a new, but related, line of business. The result is he had more control over every stage of his product and Seiko watches are still a leading product line today.
Another thing I find interesting is that Epson is actually a Japanese company. The name Epson does not sound Japanese, but remember that in the post-war years Japan did not have a high reputation with Americans. If products came to America with a Japanese sounding name on them, they might not be well received, but a name like Epson had no problems.
It is this kind of long term savvy that makes me like Epson.
If you have never read an ink and toner blog, you might not even be sure why one exists. It is not a topic most people read about on a daily basis. You might think it is only there for industry professionals who actually make a living buying or selling toner and ink. But, these blogs are not just for people in the printing industry. They can actually be extremely helpful to the everyday consumer.
To understand why, let us think about the purpose that blogs serve. If you mostly read a friends personal blog, you might think of blogs as just journals or social platforms. And they are definitely social. But blogs have become a new medium for the spread and distribution of information. They have some advantages over traditional media like magazines, one of the most important advantages being a community of readers to leave comments. These comments can offer further info or even a good counterpoint to the blog author himself. Another advantage is that blogs, unlike magazines, can instantly link to their sources or to products they discuss. You have the freedom to click instantly to what the author is talking about.
Take a second to think about the value of magazines like Consumer Reports. These magazines provide you with useful information that helps you choose what products to spend your money on. Now take that same important role and apply the advantages of blogging: instant links to all the information the report talks about, and a community of commenters who can critique and expand on the information in the report.
Now you can see why an ink and toner blog would be so useful. Check it out and save some money!
Have you ever watched a Video on Toner? If you have not, I recommend you take the time to sit down and watch one some day. These videos will give you insight into the ink and toner industry which will ultimately allow you to save money. And if there is anything we could all use right now, it is saving some money.
You might not think you can save that much money on printing. Many people think of printing as a fixed cost and believe there is nothing they can do about it. Well, if you do not take the time to educate yourself on your printer, I guess that is true. But a little knowledge can go a long way and that translates to dollars.
What I mean by educating yourself is learning what factors influence how much toner you go through. It is not just how many pages you print, it is how much toner is used per page. Many printers are wasting excessive amounts of toner. This toner is laid thickly on the page on every print job. This can be caused by having the printer set up wrong, or by not maintaining it properly. In extreme cases, this toner overuse can lead to shoddy print quality as well as wasted money. That feeds a vicious loop in which people have to reprint their print jobs, further wasting toner and money.
These problems can be fixed easily. Simple steps that only take a few minutes can end up getting your printer to maximum efficiency and quality. Always know your machine!
You may not spend a lot of time reading ink and toner articles, but I do. For me it is part of my job. When you are responsible for the supplies for a large organization, you have to know what to buy, what to avoid, and how to make the best use of what you have.
However, I think an average individual consumer like you could benefit from these kinds of articles too. I know you probably do not go through that much ink or toner, but when you do have to buy some, you are paying resale price on something that is not cheap. But there are ways to make it cheaper, and they come in basically two forms.
First off is understanding the industry. You might think of a printer as a major purchase and replacement toner as a relatively minor purchase. But to the industry it is the opposite. Printers cost a lot to make and you will only buy one every five years at best. On the other hand toner and ink is much cheaper to make, and you have to buy it regularly to keep printing. That means the industry considers toner their bread and butter. By understanding how and why it is priced you will be able to get the best deals.
Secondly is understanding printer efficiency. There are many factors that can lead to an inefficient printer, from using the wrong settings to not maintaining your machine. Inefficiency translates to wasted toner which means you have to buy it more often. Understand these things and you can save substantial money on printing!
At our office I am the one stuck with making sure we have plenty of office supplies and everything is stocked and ready to do. Obviously, this includes toner for the printers. I never thought of getting a Printing Guide but a friend convinced me to check it out. It made a big difference in my budget.
I spend a good chunk of our office budget on toner, but when I told my friend (with a similar job) how much she seemed shocked. I had never thought about it – I mean, toner is just expensive, right? But she said we were spending way too much. She recommended I check out the guide because it would show me how to bring down cost for us. I know I am not exactly paid to make the big decisions, but my boss is nice to me and I do like the idea of impressing him by telling him how much we saved. So I jumped right in.
There were some things in there that were obvious, but also some really helpful things. Did you know that many people have their printers set up with the wrong settings? For instance, the paper type is often set wrong on different trays. Paper type is how the printer determines how much toner to use (different textures of paper call for more or less) so if it is set wrong it may be dumping way too much toner out on hundreds of copies a day.
I went around our office and checked and sure enough a lot of the trays were set wrong! I got everything working properly and can hardly wait to see how much we saved!
People will read consumer reports on a lot of topics. I see them checking out comparisons on the newest smart phones, or on cars for their families. However for some reason I never see anyone read a consumer report on printers before they buy one. It seems like people just blindly trust whatever brand they are familiar with. But a printer is an expensive investment. Do you really want to buy one without doing your homework first?
First off I should point out the incredible value of consumer reports. Most of the information in the marketplace comes from companies that paid to put it there. They have an interest in showing their product in the best possible light, or at least denigrating their competitors. Obviously the companies do know their products well, but if they are trying to sell you something you cannot take everything at face value. The great thing about consumer reports is just that: they are assembled by consumers. All the tests are done, and all the data collected and interpreted, by people who paid to purchase the product and have no incentive to make it sound better than it is.
That is why I trust consumer reports so much. In the realm of printers, it means that I am buying a machine that has a track record of quality print jobs with minimal errors or failures, at a price I can afford. It is like optimizing my purchase.
If you have not checked out reports on printers I recommend you do so before your next purchase!
My wife and I went shopping recently to look at printers. We were trying to decide if we wanted an Inkjet Printer or something else, and decided to make a day long trip out of it to learn as much as we could about different models.
I should say, neither one of us is normally a big technology person. To be honest the last time we purchased a printer it was the old dot matrix kind. Do you remember the ones with the hole-punched strips along the paper that you had to tear off? Wow were we proud when we brought that home. Of course, we have not used it in years. When it got old we just went without a printer for quite a while. As time went on we realized it really is more convenient to have a printer at home – making runs to the copy shop or mooching off friends gets tired quick. We are getting older, and we are sick of the hassle, so we knew we had to get a new printer of our own.
The sales people tried to talk us up to a laser printer at every store we went to. I listened to their technical explanations and nodded, but I learn by experience. Finally I asked the salesman at one store to fire up an inkjet and a laser and print out the same color image on both of them for me.
When I took a look at the test image, the quality looked the same on both to me. We went home with our new ink jet and I am happy we did!
Let me ask you a question: where do you get your ink and toner supplies?
If you are like most people your answer is an office supply store – probably whichever one is closest to your house or office or whichever one most recently sent you a sale flier in the mail. But if that is your answer, you are actually throwing away a stack of money every year. Let me explain why.
When you walk into a store, you are unlikely to leave empty handed. The store knows that you took the time to drive there and probably do not want to go to yet another place. That means that, whatever research you may have done before coming in, once you get through the doors your comparison shopping is probably over. If the toner you are looking for is a few dollars more than you thought, you will not just walk back out and go elsewhere. You will suck it up and pay the extra money to get your errand over and done with. The same thing goes if they are out of your preferred product: as long as there is something remotely similar on the shelf nearby, you will settle for it.
So how can you shop for ink and toner supplies without falling into this trap? Well, the easy way is to avoid the store altogether. I do my toner and ink shopping online, which has a lot of advantages. I can have several tabs open at once and compare prices instantly. If a site does not have a product I go to a different site. And, of course, due to the lower cost of web business I save money. It is a win-win.