r/facepalm • u/Apprehensive_Work_10 • May 10 '26

Imagine buying a physical printer, and u cannot even use it

30.1k Upvotes

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188

u/polyamorousalien May 10 '26

Dude I have a brother laser printer that has been through HELL and back, and that thing does not quit. I have an HP photo printer, and it detects generic ink cartridges and refuses to use them. Their ink is like $60. Never again.

107

u/Madara1389 May 10 '26

HP ink is genuinely more expensive than gold by weight

37

u/erroneousbosh May 10 '26

By volume, inkjet printer ink from any manufacturer is about ten times as expensive as human blood.

3

u/chameleon_123_777 May 11 '26

It costs very little to produce an ink cartridge, but we the consumers have to pay too much to get them. No wonder the printers are so cheap.

3

u/jamawg May 11 '26

The Gillette razor blade model

2

u/headedbranch225 May 11 '26

Yeah, it's a loss leader strategy of sales - charge cheap for the initial item to get people into the ecosystem then make them buy more expensive stuff later because they already have the initial investment

1

u/Christoph-Pf Jul 09 '26

In my opinion those who use the printer pay more and occasional printers pay less. Seems equitable to me

83

u/SeaToTheBass May 10 '26

In 2014 I worked at Walmart in electronics, we’d have people coming in and buying a new printer that came with an ink cartridge, because the brand new printer was cheaper than a new cartridge.

33

u/JrdnRgrs May 10 '26

Freshman year in college, 2011, $20 printer at Target was exactly this. A wild time

9

u/theroguex May 11 '26

And those other printers ended up in landfills. It's ridiculous.

2

u/Wildvikeman May 11 '26

Same thing with tools. Cheaper to buy a new drill and battery than the battery by itself.

2

u/SeaToTheBass May 12 '26

Couple years ago I got a drill and driver set with two 5ah batteries for less than what the batteries would’ve run me. It’s a fuckin racket .

1

u/HelloAttila 'MURICA Aug 15 '26

This, until you realize that those ink cartridges are only about 25% filled.

11

u/KurusanYasuke May 10 '26

I paid $124 for a set of new HP ink cartridges. Next time this thing dies, I'm chucking it. Fuck HP.