Do You Have Real Ink?

Ink for my Canon MX310 runs around 24 bucks for 13 mL of ink. A little math reveals that each mL costs around 1.80, or an astounding $1,800/liter.

Printer manufacturers depend on their ink sales, in a business model usually referred to as captive-product pricing (like replacement blades for mens' razors). Because they make so little off the sale of a printer, companies like Samsung, Kodak and Canon recoup their margins in the sale of ink.

Something that nets good margins as a branded name can also product positive margins for a faker. Not unlike other counterfeit products like iPods or Cartier watches, fake printer ink cartridges are making an appearance.

Unlike the mistake of buying a Cartier that turns out to bogus, however, these ink cartridges' damage is not finished after you buy them. They are still prone to leaking, falling apart, exploding, smudging paper and jamming the print heads. 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.

The fake ink cartridges are generally produced en masse in cheap facilities in China, Malaysia or the Philippines, then shipped to the Americas for distribution to discount-hungry consumers. Next, unwitting midsize ink distributors purchase them and redistribute them to end consumers or small distributors. They use midsize ink distributors because they're too large to trace any individual cartridges and too small to have top-notch buying and processing standards to catch the counterfeits.

Relatively infrequent in the United States, authorities in Latin and South America estimate that current counterfeit ink cartridge penetration on the market is around 50%. The values in the US are more along the lines of 5%.

The best way to counteract this problem and eliminate your risk of a counterfeit cartridge is probably to buy from a reputable third-party distributor. They generally are selling recycled manufacturer ink cartridges that have been refilled anyway. Because they sell at a discount over the manufacturer prices, no one is bothering to make counterfeit recycled cartridges (at least not yet, anyway).

You should also check the packaging and cartridge carefully for any misprints or imperfections, especially if you got the ink at a significant discount.

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