News Every Day | 30 March 2025, 12:00

‘Just buy a new printer’: Woman goes to Staples for HP printer ink. Then she sees the price tags

Home printing has become more complicated and expensive than it needs to be. Printer companies make customers constantly refill ink cartridges and even started charging a monthly subscription to print.

In a TikTok with over 1.4M views, content creator @trygal shares about her recent trip to Staples to buy HP printer ink and she was in disbelief to see how much it costs now.

In her TikTok, this Staples customer was shocked to find out how expensive HP printer ink was. She needed to replace her HP Cartridge 902 and was in disbelief at the price tag to replace. She reveals the cost to replace her color ink cartridge was $103.99 and $59.99 for black ink.

Why is HP printer ink so expensive?

Printer companies such as HP use a business model called razor-and-blade. According to Investopedia, it's a pricing tactic in which a dependent good is sold at a loss (or at cost) and a paired consumable good generates the profits. In other words, a company will sell the razor for cheap and rely on customers to buy blades ongoing.

Printer companies have implemented this strategy as a way to make recurring profit off customers. HP will convince buyers to buy their printer with a cheap price just to turn around and make the printer ink expensive to recoup profits.

By instilling this business model, the goal is generate profit through the frequent ink cartridge replacements and not through the sale of the actual printer. By luring customers in with the cheap printers, HP is creating multiple future sales transactions. Printer companies will ensure this by designing the printers with chips and software to only accept HP ink cartridges.

Printers can also be programmed to not operate even when there is still ink remaining in the cartridge.

What are some cheaper printing alternatives?

Now that we are aware of the razor-and-blade business model utilized by printer companies, what are some alternatives?

HP printers begin to be costly due to the constant need to replace ink cartridges. By knowing that companies will program its printers to reject 3rd party ink cartridges, it’s important to find out which printers accept cartridges outside of the brand.

One of the top suggestions on this Reddit post to r/todayilearned is to look into laser jet printers. These printers can be more costly upfront, however the constant need to replace ink cartridges is eliminated. Laser jet printers use a laser beam to produce high-quality text and graphics on paper removing the need for ink.

Now if you want nothing to do with printers in your home, utilizing public printers is an option. All local public libraries should have printer services available to the public. This allows for cheaper printing without having to deal with the hassle of expensive HP ink cartridges.

In addition to libraries, coffee shops across the U.S. have even partnered up with companies like PrintWithMe to offer printing services.

All and all, home printing should not cost as much as it does. Falling for the razor-and-blade business model that is utilized by printing companies can turn out to be costly. So when you are in the market for a printer, consider getting a laser jet printer or a printer that accepts 3rd party ink cartridges to save money in the long run.

@trygal Printer ink is EXPENSIVE! #hp #hpink #copy #print #expensive #bleedingmoney #jeez #ouch #wth ♬ original sound - | ???????????????? ???????????????????????????????? |

What did the viewers think about this?

“Epson EcoTank! I use mine everyday for business and school and print many pages at a time. I've only replaced ink 1 once in 2 years,” one shared.

This printer features a large tank to store ink and doesn’t have cartridges. Customers are able to fill out ink bottles themselves making it possible to buy 3rd party ink.

“Bought a Brother laser printer. Had it for a couple years. Haven't run out of toner yet. Don't buy HP or Epson,” one shared.

“Printer ink has been expensive since forever,” one complained.

“Wait until you find out that certain printers need a SUBSCRIPTION to be able to PRINT,” one added.

“Printer ink is such a scam,” another person said.

“It’s cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy new ink,” joked someone else.

The Daily Dot has contacted @trygal via TikTok comment and direct message. We also contacted HP and Staples via email. This TikTok has more than 1.4M views with over 117.9K likes.

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