It was just about this time, last year, that I posted on buying remanufactured ink jet cartridges for our old, but-still-running-well, printer. I bought a 3-pack for about $10 dollars per cartridge. (This post.) We have had a very good experience with these cartridges. They lasted about as long as full-priced ones from Office Depot (currently selling for $53.99 each at OD), and the problems have been minor and may have been the fault of the printer and not the cartridge. The issue we had was an ink smear on a couple of pages, and like I said, this may have been the fault of the very old printer (from c. late 1990s). Otherwise, the remanufactured cartridges worked as well for us as the HP brand.
In the comments of that initial post, it was mentioned that HP printers have had a "dynamic security feature" for the last 10 years or so. This "feature" renders no-name brand cartridges ineffective in more recent HP printers. However, older HP printers are some of the most durable printers made, continuing to work for decades (ours is a prime example -- about 20 years old, and going strong). I occasionally see HP printers at thrift stores. So, if someone is needing a printer for basic home use and only wants to spend a few dollars, buying a used HP at Goodwill or the like could be very affordable, especially when combined with remanufactured ink cartridges. It would be advantageous to check HP's website for info on a model sold second-hand, to see if that model had the "dynamic security feature." Here's a link to HP's site which indicates the models with the feature that prevents the use of remanufactured cartridges. At the bottom of that page, there is information on removing the security feature for printers which are listed.
I bring this all us because this week I had to order another batch of cartridges. Amazon was out of the 3-pack, so I bought a 2-pack for $18.74, including tax. That's less than $10 per cartridge. They're due to arrive in a week, so I'll let you know of any issues. If this batch works as well as the last, then the savings will be over $40 per cartridge. I think that's pretty good.
