Today I was shopping for sand for my Zen garden when I saw some Lexmark printers for £10 each, including a colour cartridge and a black one. However, in the ink aisle, the cartridges alone cost £15 for the black or £20 for a black one and a colour one. An old story, but a nonetheless compelling one when one’s editor at Hippyshopper and have to decide between having three printers, three colour cartridges and three black ones, or one printer, two colour cartridges and one black one for the same amount of money. Gadgetress writes on the same subject, plus the ink refill aftermarket in her own blog, then a piece on how Cheaper ink refills making their mark. Basically, the aftermarket refill machines are about half as expensive as the brand-new cartridges, but unlike the old-school syringe kits, they don’t seem to suck. [GT]

Why does printer ink cost so much?