What’s The Big Deal With Fake Ink?
Ink for my Canon MX310 runs around 24 bucks for 13 mL of ink. If each mL costs around $1.80, by those figures, then printer ink costs an eye-opening $1,800 per liter.
Ink is part a higly lucractive business for the printer manufacturers called captive-product pricing. Because they make so little off the sale of a printer, comapnies like Samsung, Kodak and Canon recoup their margins in the sale of ink.
Any profitable brand name lures counterfeiters and fakers. In the tradition of fake Louis Vuitton purses and cheap Rolex watches, an epidemic of fake printer ink has been spreading over the country.
A fake ink cartridge can actually be a bigger problem than a fake Rolex, however, because a fake Rolex just sits there and is fake. It doesn’t cause any more damage, unlike fake ink cartridges, which are prone to leaking ink, exploding while in the printer, smudging and running over printed sheets and creating jams in the printer. This often puts consumers out of not only the cost of the fake ink cartridges, but the cost of a new printer after their old one is ruined.
These fake ink cartridges are usually manufactured in China, Malaysia or the Philippines, then shipped overseas to buyers eager for a discount. Then, they are usually distributed to midsize ink distributors to unwittingly pass them on to consumers or smaller distributors. Midsize ink distributors are used because it makes the counterfeit ink more difficult to trace, particularly when a single consumer has a problem with their ink and may need to trace it backwards through several middlemen.
In Latin and South America, the problem is far worse than in the US, where authorities estimate that as much as 50% of all ink cartridges sold are counterfeit. The current numbers in the US are closer to 5%.
The best way to avoid this plague is to buy from a licensed distributor or a reputable third-party distributor. Their products are almost always refilled and recyled manufacturer cartridges. Their margins are lower and aren’t necessarily branded, so the counterfeiters aren’t making fakes for them (not yet at least).
If you got brand name ink at a significant discount, you should check the packaging and ink cartridge itself for anything that looks out of the ordinary like misprinted labels or weak seams.
Try 4inkjets.com for good deals on cheap ink cartridges.