Q2612a cartridge
ink technology, computers & printers

You Need Your Printer!

The word is out: An accountant with too much time and angst on her hands figured out the ‘real” price of the ink in our printer cartridges. Her results are staggering, and we predict they will change gift-giving and printing practices around the worked.

Researching the topic with more scientific rigor than we routinely see at Cal Tech or the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, the accountant ascertained how much actual ink goes into that little $12 tank; she concluded we squeeze-out approximately 1/5 ounce from each plug-in we purchase. Those numbers apply to cartridges that have ink tanks. Other models with different designs may contain up to 1.2 ounces of real ink, but they retail for approximately $45(US).

Then, crusading fiercely as a squad of Ralph Nader’s commandos, our accountant began multiplying. Fast-forwarding to the bottom line, we learn the ink our little dot-matrices and ink jets numbers among the most precious liquids on earth, ringing-up at about $120(US) per ounce or $7500(US) per gallon. Yes, $7500(US) per gallon of ink. For the sake of comparison, we extended the accountant’s research, discovering that a gallon of ink alone costs approximately $400; if we settle for slightly less reliable stencil ink, we can reduce the cost below $100 per gallon. To some extent we are blaming the contents for the sins of the vehicle, but even at $85 gallon, ink numbers among the world’s most costly commodities. Why do we keep hording gold and silver when we ought to be hording ink?

The implication grows frighteningly clear. For those of us who have taken printer ink for granted, we must cultivate the habit of holding it in much higher esteem. As a matter of fact, at these prices, we must reconsider our whole approach to printer cartridges and ink. At $125(US) per ounce, printer ink costs more than twice as much as Chanel #5, and it costs nearly 40% more than Yves Saint Laurent’s precious fragrance, “Opium.” At $125(US) per ounce, ink and cartridge cost considerably more than cocaine, so that Columbian and Mexican cartels ought to begin smuggling it. Caviar is clearly the economic equivalent of fish sticks by these standards, and rocket fuel is a total bargain. Finally, and perhaps most revealingly, exquisite vintage champagne in the biggest, most extravagant bottle still costs less than ink and printer cartridge.

We are conscientiously revising our office supplies requisitions, finding ways to reuse the printer cartridges they have, so that we do not cut so deeply into our profits, and so that we may show our proper, profound respect for our high-tech inkwells. We also are conscientiously revising our special occasion gift lists: Imagine how thrilled our husbands will feel when they un-wrap those precious little cartridges. After all, nothing says love better than a Canon B6 photo cyan.

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