Finding inexpensive toner is a treat, one that can save you huge amounts of money over time. Finding cheap toner however… it may be less expensive but you are almost guaranteed to damage your printer or at the very least to suffer from shortened printing life and poor printing quality. So how do you go about filtering the good deals from the rip offs, and still avoid paying the extortionate printing costs that people, companies, schools, and libraries suffer across the board suffer in order to produce hard copies? You do it carefully, with trial and error, and most of all persistence.
First of all, a note to those shopping for printers. Be very careful that you pick a printer not based on its price, but based instead on the cost of ink or toner that it will used balanced against the life of that ink and toner, and the purpose for which you are buying it. For instance, if you are looking at the cheapest printers (such as dell, which often have very inexpensive packages that come with their computers) for home printing, you need to consider Dell toner costs. Dell toner actually tends to be slightly less quality than many others, with shorter printing span and increased cost compared to certain other models. Although you save money buying the printer, keeping your replacement cartridges flowing will actually cost you much more in the long run than looking for a more expensive printer with longer life and cheaper replacement packs. Remember as well to figure out cost per sheet, as many more expensive cartridges will carry much more ink than the small cheap pieces, making each droplet more economical over time. Buy your printer with an eye for the future, rather than the present.
To begin your search for a new toner source, do a quick check on coupon or discount sites for any special sales currently offered by large scale ink and toner distributors. Holidays, clearances, and store anniversaries can mean big savings if you happen to be looking at the right time. Just watch out for standing sales, or gimmicks that companies will put on to offer minimal savings (they often mark up the base prices before they add their discounts for these traps) with a time limit, hoping to pressure casual browsers into making a snap discussion and purchasing their product on the spot. The solution is fairly simple, however. If you find a time-sensitive sale on Phaser 8560 ink, go on line and check the other prices for Phaser 8560 ink. If the sale does not actually equate to savings, you would be well advised to continue your search elsewhere.
If you do not find any leads there, its time to head to eBay, Amazon, Google product search, or any other massive search engine you can find. You want to visit sites that specialize as marketplaces. Amazon and eBay are good examples as thousands upon thousands of sellers are listing the same products searchable at the same time. This is good for you as the fierceness of that competition will tend to lower prices for the consumer. In order to keep your search moving along, enter long tail searches instead of short tail. Meaning, instead of searching for ink cartridges or even Epson Ink cartridges, search for the entire make, model, and code that is printed on your cartridge. This will return results aimed as tightly on your focus as possible. If all the results you return are relevant it will speed things up considerably compared to the process of shifting through several thousand results.
You should also consider looking at large specialty shops. These also face fierce competition and will usually have special deals for large orders. They also usually have access to OEM product. OEM refers to products made by the original electronics manufacturer. These are the best quality with the highest functionality. One small problem with ordering toner from eBay or Amazon is that you can often come up with very cheap product that unfortunately does not work very well. Often the ink supply will be lower, the consistency of the ink worse, or it may just not work right in your machine. Ordering from a large store with an established client base ensures that you can return defective material for a refund.
And above all, make sure to check reviews and outside customer rankings. If someone has an unusually bad or good experience they will tend to leave a note. This can save you a lot of time and hassle and help you avoid some bad deals.