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by treeman79 1390 days ago
He may have been smart. Cost of printer with starter ink was occasionally cheaper then just getting new ink.
3 comments

Yeah, totally. He only printed things a few times a year and by then inkjets usually dry and print poorly. I don't fault him but it's interesting to these strange market forces in my life.

As an aside, my grandfather was a terrific guy. He bought a Gateway 2000 PC in the 90's and spent lots of time with me getting Sim City 2000 loaded up on it. He always had some gadget to show me since he knew how much I loved technology and he was very good at it for someone of his generation. I don't begrudge recycling 11 printers as I cleaned up his house and it always gives my dad and I a good laugh and nice memories of an important person in my life.

Lovely story. Never knew any of my grandparents and my kids chose not to have kids, so no grandchildren to spoil.
But incredibly wasteful. For sporadic printing it really makes the most sense to go somewhere where you can print by the page like a public library, office supply store etc. I think I've spent about $2 on printing in the past 5 years.

The most common electronics I see being thrown out these days is some shitty inkjet printer. Unlike a CRT or computer nobody wants them and so they sit by the side of the road for several days.

> The most common electronics I see being thrown out these days is some shitty inkjet printer.

I've had a broken HP inkjet on my desk for 10 years. The only reason I've hung onto it is because it makes for a very nice network-connected document scanner. I got it used from one of my spouse's parents, and I haven't ever even tried to print with it. I keep thinking about replacing it with a multifunction laser printer, but why bother? I only ever really need the scanner.

100% agreed, wish the "printing somewhere" experience was better too.

Printed at a print shop, paid 50cts for the prints and $3 to use the computer for 10min trying to print from USB drive

Printed at a library and for the printer could only pay in cash and there was a long line.

Ah that sucks. My local library's is pretty good as you can just email the file and use a print release station to print it. They have enough that I've never had to wait. Plus you can add print credit with a debit/credit card if need be.
But the starter cartridges are probably only partially filled.
Does it really matter if you're only printing a dozen or so pages a year? They might dry out before going completely empty.
But if you bought full cartridges they would be expired or clogged before you half-used them.
They are these days, but did printers always used to come with "starter cartridges"?