Mountain View Computer Users Group

(Note to PC Users: Dealnews.com provides the same services for PC users as Dealmac.com does for Mac users. Of course inkjet printers and cartridges are not platform specific.)

A recent meeting of the Mountain View Computer Users Group dealt with refilling your own ink cartridges. A representative from the company that makes kits for doing this said the cost of refilling a cartridge was about $5. I wondered why we would do that if we can buy new cartridges for $2 to $3. She agreed that if we could get them for that amount, it didn't make sense to refill them.

Members of the club asked me where they could find inkjet cartridges so inexpensively, and I answered that such bargains could be found at Dealmac.com. Most of them seemed to be unaware of this wonderful resource for saving money.

The purpose of this article is to introduce you to Dealmac.com and to use inkjet cartridges as an example of one of the services of this website.

Inkjet Cartridges

First of all, let me confess that I'm no authority on computer printers or on printer cartridges. The only brand of inkjet printer I have used is Epson, and in the last three years I have accumulated three of them: a Stylus Color 740i, a Stylus Color 860, and a Stylus C42UX.

I got two them free, when buying computers, and the third was very inexpensive, when purchased along with an Epson scanner and digital camera. Inkjet printers can be cheap or even free because just as Gillette makes its profits off the blades not the razors, inkjet printer manufacturers make theirs off the cartridges not the printers.

Epson inkjet printers have been severely criticized for being too prone to having the ink dry up in the nozzles. And some people say that this happens more frequently with inexpensive clone cartridges than with Epson brand ink. In three years I have only had one serious problem with this, and that was when during the course of moving to Arizona I didn't use the Stylus Color 740i printer for about a year.

It used to be that when I printed out a web page, I set the printer on black only, because I really didn't care about using color. Now I print everything in color to prevent the nozzles from drying out

That brings us to Rule Number One Concerning Inkjet Printers: Always print something in both black and color inks at least once each week. Some of you are going to say that you don't use your printer that often and it will be expensive to do so. And I'm going to respond that if you don't, you're asking for trouble, and if you're buying ink for $2 to $3 per cartridge, it isn't going to cost much.

Dealmac.com

Whenever I buy anything over the Internet, whether or not it relates to computers, I always check with Dealmac.com. They cover deals that involve CD discs, books, electronics, etc. They have coupon codes and other special offers for dealers like Amazon.com and Overstock.com.

But let's use the example of buying inkjet cartridges, both inexpensive clones and brand-name printer inks. Go to Dealmac.com on the Internet and look in the upper right corner of the home page. There you will find some buttons for taking you to specific areas, including "Dealink."

Click on that and then choose your brand of printer, plus the specific printer model. When I checked today, Inkgrabber is offering black Epson 740i cartridges for $1.47 when purchased in quantities of 12 and Inkjet Madness has them for $2.03 when you buy 6. Don't need so many? Epsilon Ink has 5 black and 3 color for $2.50 each. You will generally need to enter a "coupon code" to get these prices and Dealmac.com gives you those codes.

A couple of years ago I bought 6 black and 6 color from Ink4Art and I still have two of each left. Notice that the ink dries out in the printer nozzle after you start using the cartridges, not when you haven't pulled the tab on the cartridges. Incidentally, both of my 740i and 860 use the same cartridge, so that makes it easier to buy them in quantity.

The various generic cartridges may differ in quality, and you will want to check with others to see what luck they've had with a particular brand. But, remember, if your friends aren't using their cartridges frequently, they can have problems, even with the printer manufacturer's ink cartridges.

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