Ink cost justification

[Robert Oliver]

Can anybody name another liquid that costs well over $300 a gallon in bulk or $2000 in individual serving size packages. Epson sells a gallon of ink in individual 220ml cartridges for around $2000 a gallon

As I'm researching ways to fix my epson 4000 woes, I've been looking at continuous ink systems and third party inks. How can anybody justify selling ink at the prices we are all paying.

I understand supply and demand, but damn. Are we a bunch of idiots or what.

What makes ink so expensive? Gas is only $3.00 a gallon. Gas is a vanishing resource and is incredibly difficult to find and refine.

I think i'll try to find some sucker to trade me my epson 4000 for a darkroom.

[Ted Harris]

Hmmmmm ..... not that I feel any better about ink costs than you do but there are lots of examples. To name a few: some perfums, some cognacs, some wines, some flavoring extracts, etc.

[Kirk Gittings]

As my chef wife reminds me, there are some aged basalmic vinegars that go for $200 for 6-8 onces!

[Dave Parker]

There are actually quite a few things that sell in this price range...not that I like it, but believe me there are!

LOL

[Robert Oliver]

at least if used correctly, perfume, alcohol and maybe even aged balsamic vinegar will get you laid.

I'm only getting the occasional decent print for my ink costs. I can almost justify the cost when my printer is working correctly but when I'm wasting tons of ink just trying to get and keep the heads cleaned then it's a little frustrating.

It's interesting that I'm using almost as much color ink only printing black and white. I think I need to start printing color again or switch to the strictly b&w ink cartridges. I'm constantly running the auto head adjustment.

anybody using the b&w ink sets? what worth looking at.

[Ralph Barker]

I've paid $18 for a tiny glass of vintage port (a yummy '55 Woodhouse) and $60 for a small glass of cognac (Louis XIII), but the per-gallon cost of inks still irks me, too. But, we also have to recognize that what we pay for inks is where the manufacturers make their profits, along with funding the additional research that makes our old printers obsolete in a year or two.

[cyrus]

aged balsamic vinegar will get you laid...Wow, now I know what I have been doing wrong all this time!

So what exactly do I do with the vinegar?

[Robert Oliver]

that would be the "if used correctly". You cook a nice dinner for a significant other and use aged balsamic vinegrette you could probably even get a wife to put out.

[Robert Oliver]

can you tell i'm having a bad printer day.... I have a huge project due for a client and I can't get my stupid printer to even spit out one print without a million white lines.

As I'm starting to analyze the costs and compare them to silver prints, I'm starting to think about going back to the enlarger. I went back into the darkroom for the first time in over a decade and actually got some really cool results on some really tough negatives. I think I saved some money too. In three hours I ended up with 3 really nice prints. Thats quicker than what I'm doing when I factor in photoshop and fighting with my damn printer.

[Greg Lockrey]

It's BIG INK! Time to sic Nancy on 'em.