Note to self and helpful hint to others...

[pvcliff]

Don't print your Christmas letter before printing eBay labels. BIG SIGH.

I just replaced ink cartridge on Friday and of course immediately ordered two new ones. I had no clue that a few test copies of my Christmas letter, a couple drafts to read on paper rather than on the screen, then a few more to get it properly situated on the Christmas paper, then about 20 good copies would only get me half way through the front side of my letters. Now I have a stack of letters missing their backsides and no more ink to print labels for the half dozen sales I made on my two accounts this weekend. I am very organized and try to be proactive (already made a note on my calendar for next Thanksgiving about ink), but had no inkling that ink got used up that fast!  I print a letter every year and this has never happened. They must be doing to the ink cartridges what they do to grocery items, price stays the same but ice cream is no longer a real half gallon. It's always something!

[castlemagicmemories]

Sorry that happened with your ink supply, hopefully you can get new ink quickly!

I love the idea of a Christmas letter.  

And I love your siggie.  I can relate to that.

[18704d]

5 months ago I switched to a laser printer.

For a little over 20 years, all I had was inkjets.. and I kept a spare black ink cartridge too.  For emergencies.

Still, about 5 months ago, I had to print a label,

the printer didn't print.. all grey..

so I put in the new black cartridge.  Same thing.

Did all the stuff in the Help of the printer.  Clean the jets,etc.  Alcohol swabs.  YouTube.  etc

Nothing.

So.

I went on a big website, and .. although knowing I couldn't afford the cost of one of those fancy laser printers... I searched for one anyway.

I found a Brother laser printer for 100 dollars.  Free shipping.
The specs said the 40 dollar cartridge should last for 1500 pages, I think

far more than each of my 20 dollar ink cartridges give me a 300 pages each.

The printer got delivered, I found the cartridge I bought was redundant, because the 100 dollar package included the cartridge.  (so I have a spare)

It works perfect.  TOTAL peace of mind which is important when you have to depend on it for eBay sales.

Lynn

[Anonymous]

Some tips:

Check your settings - specifying black & white takes less ink than color, even if all your text is already black

Check the ink supply at least once a week - I can do this by opening the printer settings on my computer. It shows me the level of every cartridge. I can also check it on the printer itself.

Look into a thermal printer for eBay shipping labels. No ink required, just labels.

[18704d]

Mine is a Brother HL-2340DW

and now I see that website has it for 84.95 and free shipping.

Wow

Lynn

[red_supermandog]

I immediately started noticing how fast ink being used up in my printers also. I decided to try several different kinds of printers, as I was into the buy, sell, trade business for a time. The same thing was happening to all I tried out. It didn't matter what brand I tried. Then I decided to crack open some of the used ink cartridges. Want to know what I found inside?
A chunk of dense foam, like in a magic marker. It's just another way this country is being taken over
by scammers. Only these are large corporations getting in on the act. From the looks of the cartridge, a person thinks, 'wow, that's a fair amount of ink'. But, that's not at all whats inside. Mostly dense foam. Very little ink.
What to do?
Try greed on for size for a bit. Trust me, It's very ugly. Most people anymore, don't seem to mind. I am only 57 yrs old and I remember just my Dad's generation when the majority of people in this country were good, honest people. A lot of things were still done with a hand shake, (not a contract!).
Boy, has things changed. And I'm thinking, should I have dedicated a large portion of my life defending our way of life? We won't be on top for very much longer. (my two cents)

[silly-shoes]

I use a sharpie fine tip...they are $1.07 at my local dollar store.

[escuintla]

Laserjet is the thing to go. 

I found out years ago that I had to buy whatever ink every 6 months or so, and the ink wasn't that cheap to buy.

I's been 6 years since I bought a brand new HP Laser Jet Pro 200 Color M276nw.  In 6 years I've changed the toner 5 times, and I have printed lots and lots of pages for my other business and they are most in color. 

I forgot. I've spent like $180 in toner. 

[ed8108]

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@red_supermandog wrote:
 I am only 57 yrs old and I remember just my Dad's generation when the majority of people in this country were good, honest people. A lot of things were still done with a hand shake, (not a contract!).
Boy, has things changed. And I'm thinking, should I have dedicated a large portion of my life defending our way of life? We won't be on top for very much longer. (my two cents)

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America desperately needs to get back to promoting integrity and basic values which seem to so often be missing from today. 

Honor,Courage,Commitment