The Blog at SuppliesUSA

HP announced that it will increase prices on toner cartridges and drum kits for 2 of its older color laserjet printers. The price increase will be effective 9/1/2007 and cover increased costs on these lower-volume items. The list of items is available below. Order now and avoid the price increase.

Color LaserJet 8500/8550 Supplies:
HP Drum Kit, C4153A, Was: $207.00, New: $228.00
HP Toner, C4149A, Was: $150.00, New: $165.00
HP Toner, C4150A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00
HP Toner, C4151A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00
HP Toner, C4152A, Was: $233.00, New: $256.00

Color LaserJet 4500 Supplies:
HP Drum Kit, C4195A, Was: $114.48, New: $126.00
HP Toner, C4191A, Was: $119.78, New: $132.00
HP Toner, C4192A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00
HP Toner, C4193A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00
HP Toner, C4194A, Was: $173.84, New: $191.00

Remanufactured cartridges made by third-party companies are not all equal to original cartridges and can actually cost more.

According to Buyers Laboratory (BLI), a leading independent test lab and business consumer advocate, the lower average price claimed for remanufactured cartridges translated in a true cost up to 34% higher than the cost of original cartridges. BLI further concluded that a majority of non original toner cartridges tested failed to deliver acceptable performance.

On average, 22% of remanufactured cartridges experienced out of the box failures, 19% experienced quality failures over the life of the cartridge, 20% caused premature fuser replacement or even failure, and only 56% of expected pages actually printed.

When buying your toner and inkjet cartridges, think “true cost”.

After your first purchase at SuppliesUSA, the ‘Your Account‘ section is automatically activated and updated for you.

From there, you can view your account history, quickly repeat orders, purchase frequently ordered items, and even change your information.

We know you are busy. This section will allow you to complete your transactions at SuppliesUSA in a jif. If you spend more than a few minutes here, it will not be because you have to, but rather because you want to.

Either way, we appreciate your visits.

We just added 2 new brands to the site.

Xante offers great solutions for prepress, graphic, and printing professionals. You will now find the quality original Xante toner cartridges required to optimize output from these professional-grade printers at SuppliesUSA.

We also added compatible cartridges for Dell printers. Todate, the original cartridges can only be bought directly from Dell so we decided to look for the best quality compatible cartridges. When offering compatible supplies, SuppliesUSA only features best-of-class items, manufactured with quality to original specifications. And, we are offering them at a discount. You can now find quality compatible Dell toner and inkjet cartridges at SuppliesUSA.com.

Many of the brands offered at SuppliesUSA were affected by mergers and acquisitions. This sometimes results in cross-referencing of supplies brands between joined companies, so we listed these changes below.

Except when specified, the consumables are still listed at SuppliesUSA.com under their original brands.

Compaq:
Acquired by HP; Original printer consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Copystar:
A Kyocera-Mita company

DEC:
Aquired by Compaq before Compaq was acquired by HP; Original printer consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Genicom:
Now part of TallyGenicom

Gestetner:
A Ricoh company

HP:
Parent company of Compaq

Imation:
Parent company of Memorex and TDK

Infocus:
Parent company of Proxima

Konica:
Now part of Konica-Minolta

Konica-Minolta:
Parent company of QMS

Kyocera:
Now part of Kyocera-Mita

Kyocera-Mita:
Parent company of Copystar

Memorex:
An Imation company

Minolta:
Now part of Konica-Minolta

Mita:
Now part of Kyocera-Mita

Proxima:
Acquired by Infocus

QMS:
Acquired by Minolta, before Minolta became part of Konica-Minolta

Ricoh:
Parent company of Gestetner and Savin

Savin:
A Ricoh company

Tally:
Now part of TallyGenicom

TallyGenicom:
Also, manufactures original supplies for legacy Tally, Genicom, Compaq, DEC, and TI printers

TDK:
Data Supplies division acquired by Imation

Tektronix:
Printer division (Phaser line) acquired by Xerox; supplies now listed under Xerox brand.

TI:
Original consumables manufactured by TallyGenicom

Page yields express the total number of pages that one can expect to print with a specific toner cartridge or ink cartridge.

These yields are important to accurately calculate costs per page and to compare brands when evaluating printers, copiers, or even fax machines.

However, manufacturers can each decide the method and the environment to run those tests, so the results are not as reliable as they should be.

In December 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved new standards for ink and color toner cartridge yield measurements. A standard for black toner cartridges was already published in June 2004 and endorsed by companies like HP, Lexmark, Canon, and Epson.

The new standard defines a uniform methodology to measure these yields:
- 9 cartridges will be used for the test. They must have different manufacturing dates, come from different locations, and be used until empty.
- A minimum of 3 different cartridges are tested on a minimum of 3 different printers to reduce printer-based variability.
- Printer default settings are set.
- A standard PDF document suite is used.
- The paper size must be 8.5”x11” (letter size) or A4.
- The environment is kept at a controlled temperature.
- The reported yield must be at, or below, 90% of the mean.

We hope this standard is promptly applied by all toner manufacturers. Consumers will benefit from this long overdue transparence.

Used Data Tapes: Don’t buy them, Don’t sell them!

To control supplies costs, companies changing data storage formats sometimes consider selling their old data tapes instead of destroying them. At the same time, others consider buying recertified data cartridges instead of new ones. SuppliesUSA recommends against both practices.

Companies selling their used data cartridges might expose internal data. Indeed, degaussing data tapes is not an exact science. For example, not all degaussers erase data on all data formats. Different formats require different magnetic field strength to actually erase the data. Post-degaussing audits are often telling. Imation Corporation documented several audit cases where they found data on tapes that large organizations were about to resell, this after established recertifiers had degaussed the tapes. Also, some new formats tapes like LTO and others run the risk of becoming useless if the servo track is erased during the degaussing.

From the buyers perspective, recertified data tapes don’t offer the peace of mind companies need for their critical backup storage media. There is no way to determine the environmental factors the cartridges already endured, or how past mishandling might have affected the cartridge’s integrity, or the useful life remaining. Abnormal stress, debris, damage, all affect a data cartridge and recertifying it does not remove any of these factors.

Companies left with data cartridges to be retired should degauss and securely destroy the cartridges. Companies buying data tapes should always buy new ones, even if, to adhere to a low budget, they have to buy fewer tapes. Your data is your business, and it must stay that way.

HP is introducing a manufacture date on its toner cartridges. The change is going in production this month, and we can expect to see it on HP laserjet print cartridge boxes starting late April or early May 2007. The date, formatted YYYYMMDD, will be located in the back of box, next to the manufacturing code. It is not to be confused with the expiration date currently displayed on HP inkjet cartridges. There are currently no expiration dates on HP toner cartridges.

Pricing for the following IBM toner cartridges and laser consumables is scheduled to increase on April 1st, 2007. Today’s prices are still in effect until 3/31/2007.

Infoprint 1120/1125
IBM Toner, 28P2493, was $179.00, new $184.00
IBM Toner, 28P2494, was $325.00, new $335.00

Infoprint 1130/1140
IBM Toner, 28P2009, was $192.00, new $203.00
IBM Toner, 28P2010, was $375.00, new $385.00

Infoprint 1145
IBM Toner, 28P1882, was $304.98, new $314.13

Infoprint 1220
IBM Toner, 53P9368, was $252.41, new $252.41
IBM Toner, 53P9369, was $537.20, new $537.20
IBM Toner, 53P9370, was $537.20, new $537.20
IBM Toner, 53P9371, was $537.20, new $537.20

Infoprint 1226
IBM Toner, 53P7582, was $202.98, new $209.07

Infoprint 1228/1357
IBM Toner, 53P9393, was $341.00, new $351.00
IBM Toner, 53P9394, was $341.00, new $351.00
IBM Toner, 53P9395, was $341.00, new $351.00
IBM Toner, 53P9396, was $217.00, new $223.00
IBM Photodeveloper, 53P9397, was $182.00, new $182.00
IBM Photodeveloper, 53P9398, was $54.00, new $54.00

Infoprint 1332/1352/1372
IBM Toner, 75P4301, was $121.00, new $125.00
IBM Toner, 75P4303, was $341.00, new $352.00

Infoprint 1352/1372
IBM Toner, 75P4305, was $369.00, new $380.00

Infoprint 1354/1454/1464
IBM Toner, 75P4052, was $200.00, new $204.00
IBM Toner, 75P4053, was $200.00, new $204.00
IBM Toner, 75P4054, was $200.00, new $204.00

Infoprint 1354/1354L/1464
IBM Toner, 75P4055, was $170.00, new $173.00
IBM Toner, 75P4056, was $400.00, new $408.00
IBM Toner, 75P4057, was $400.00, new $408.00
IBM Toner, 75P4058, was $400.00, new $408.00

Infoprint 1412
IBM Toner, 75P5709, was $74.00, new $76.00
IBM Toner, 75P5711, was $115.00, new $117.00
IBM Photoconductor, 75P5712, was $63.00, new $64.00

“Free” printers are often expensive.

Gillette’s famous marketing approach of offering free razors to profit from the sale of the blades has been used in the printer industry before.

HP, for example, spends billions of dollars in research and development to produce some of the world’s best printers, only to offer these printers at extremely low prices and incredible value. Lexmark, Xerox, and others also offer very aggressive prices on high quality printers.

They do so to profit from the sale of consumables for these printers. It works for consumers as they get great values on good printers. The supplies are broadly distributed and that ensures competitive pricing to all.

Now, Dell is giving away, or heavily discounting, its printers.

This is different: Supplies for Dell printers can only be purchased at Dell. As a result, there are no substantive discounts. No distribution means no competition. The prices are inevitably higher.

If you use your printers in a medium or heavy office environment, what you will overpay for your not-discounted supplies will pay for this “free” printer in months. What you will overpay after that, well, you will overpay.

Free anything is appealing but when buying, or getting, a printer, it behooves you to focus on the total cost of ownership. You will avoid poisonous gifts.