How do printer companies get away with marking up toner by 800%? Who is actually buying it at that price?
How do printer companies get away with marking up toner by 800%? Who is actually buying it at that price?
How do printer companies get away with marking up toner by 800%? Who is actually buying it at that price?
because its a free market and they can sell it at $1000 if they want. there are plenty of rich idiots out there.
why do you hate freedom?
>Who is actually buying it at that price?
You would shit yourself if you knew the prices the Military paid for stuff.
QRD?
The Military will pay like 5k for a cheap shit, outdated desktop PCs. 50k+ for outdated server blades, switches etc etc. They basically pay triple for anything and everything
The top brass sure as hell pockets hefty commissions from the contractors.
Probably, when people say Military Grade what they really mean is 10+ year outdated junk that's been jacked up 10x over the retail price.
This is because if they don't use their budget, it'll get cut. Same shit happens with companies as well. If you give your IT department a budget and then underspend by 30%, they'll cut the budget next by 30%. Might as well max that fricker out.
But they don't actually need the money though?
Why isn't this behavior punished?
They don't NEED to spend all of the budget, but why wouldn't they? If someone gave you a company card with 50k on it and said if you don't spend it all, you'll only get 30K next time, you'll max that fricker out.
>Why isn't this behavior punished?
Why would it be? It's a drop in the bucket for a company, and nobody actually tracks government spending.
>you'll max that fricker out
it's not even your money and you're not benefiting from it in any meaningful way unless your company is so mismanaged they are cutting your budget so you can no longer afford upkeep for whatever your bullshit job is supposed to be making or producing
oh yeah these are only problems created by companies that don't create anything of value and only engage in rent seeking behavior
You run an IT department for a major company/college. You get a budget to spend for the year. Let's say you don't need 60% of it because everything just works. You start creating reasons to need the other 60%. Why do you care when it's not your money? That's how everyone looks at it. If they're going to give it to you, you're going to spend it. Can even get a top of the line "work" laptop/phone out of it. Did you need it? Nope, but it's needed now because there's budget left over.
>you're not benefiting from it
You've clearly never seen a shop order a box of gerbers or speakers and hand them out to all their guys. If they have money to spend they'll spend it on whatever they possible can.
>oh yeah these are only problems created by companies that don't create anything of value and only engage in rent seeking behavior
Isn't that like 90% of the modern economy and 100% of the tech industry?
Why aren't you selling the US government overpriced goods, Anon?
Because they only buy from companies owned by their friends, family and the industry lobbyists they have on speed dial
>Because they only buy from companies owned by their friends
No, Anon. You just bid on the contract. Contracts go to the lowest bidder.
Look at this shit. They know the exact quantity and part numbers they want. It's literally free money.
if it was that easy then why isn't there a whole cottage industry of nobodies undercutting each other hoping to be the one to win government contracts where they can flip used trash for more than it's worth?
>if it was that easy then why isn't there a whole cottage industry of nobodies undercutting each other
Nobody wants to deal with small contracts. They want the multibillion dollar ones. How much do you think I should ask for?
Think I can get away with $20k? Too low? Too high?
that other anon made it seem like you could charge them 10x over MSRP and pocket the rest, so I'd go with that.
>No, Anon. You just bid on the contract. Contracts go to the lowest bidder.
Nah, contract bidders with minority ownership get preference so you have to set up a shell company ran by blacks to see through to get contracts
There is a whole cottage industry of shell companies owned by minorities that exist just to proxy government contracts and take their cut off the top
>minorities getting free money again
How come we haven't burned all this shit to the ground is beyond me. Probably has to do with the fact that men have been individualized and isolated to pathological levels and that's by design: the only interaction they ever have something to fear is one between men.
I wish we could bring back male camaraderie again... You know, those where not even pussy can get in between? Nowadays it feels like every men will sell out for an ounce of female attention or petty pennies from Shekelberg. No sense of building community, which is far more valuable.
All this Zeitgeist has screwed with the whole IT sector at every level. I miss the days when computers were for nerds and mid to high IQ only.
So what happens if I decide to stop paying taxes to protest this kind of egregiously wasteful spending of my money?
you go to jail?
Why should I go to prison when I'm morally and ethically in the right?
Because you can't get a jury of your peers to agree with you.
>stop paying taxes
How exactly do you plan to do that when it's all done automatically? You homosexuals always screech "DUDE JUST STOP PAYING TACKS" and when asked "How?" you never have anything to say.
>it's all done automatically
look at this W2 slave
Is there an option for a fair priced printer? It's like all of them are shit and charge obscene amounts for the cartridges.
>He buys HP
There's your first mistake.
Why are there open source 3d printers but no open source 2d printers?
there's already open source 2D printer drivers, it's called CUPS and IPP driverless network printing.
these are just open source drivers, the firmware on printers remains proprietary
patents
there are no "no name" white label printers for a reason
the whole printing industry is an oligopoly
>Who is actually buying it at that price?
companies that subscribe and see it as a business cost, the employee who orders it doesnt feel like they are getting ripped off because its not their money.
You're a home user, they don't care about you.
They charge 120 bucks for a toner cart because they know small businesses will stomach the cost as part of their operating expenses, you don't want to know how overpriced everything is when dealing with B2B companies, it explains so much, like why government contracts balloon out of control and why laying down 10 feet of asphalt costs $30 million.
Who is actually buying it at that price?
Government offices.
They have to print to paper by law, so we're paying those prices.
start your own printer company, then
Most people are incredibly bad at managing money, even in a professional setting. Same reason GPUs cost so much now.
in (current year) we should be able to affordably print out our own books by this point
you can, the paper costs more than the toner if you decide to DIY your own books
and how much would one book cost in total?
how many pages is your book?
a ream of paper is $5-6
we can affordably 3d print a gun but can't print the pages of a book
>Who is actually buying it at that price?
My parents. They need to print maybe once or twice a year, for that they buy a printer and the cartridges and do it all over again next year when its all broken or only the cartridge part when it's dried out.
buy them a $100 laser printer, i literally only use it to do my taxes and could have just went to the library to print for free but it definitely doesn't dry out if you use it annually.
You're equally moronic for letting that go on and not just getting them a laser printer. I bought a Samsung M2026W in September 2018, which I use for printing shipping labels and the odd document. I'm still using the toner cartridge that came with it, which was stated as being a sample with less capacity than a regular one. Never once have I had a single issue with it, needed to clean it, unclog it or anything else.
so long as they keep adding the government Machine Identification Codes they can do whatever they want
>work throwing out Epson WF-C579R series
>works fine its just "they won't supply cartridges anymore" (they do make them but the bureaucratic supplier my company used won't sell them)
>buy Chinese chipless cartridges for £20
>flash chipless mod firmware from online
jobs a gooden
You can literally get old printers for extremely cheap or free, old brothers you can hook up to an ink tank or just buy an Epson with built in ink tank on ebay for not much
don't buy HP at all, they are the worst by a country mile
Inkjets you need to print regularly or the heads will dry up, although you can get away with not printing if it has a built in ink tank or can do an ink flush like Brother in maintenance mode
Laser is the gold standard so if you can get one for cheap or free then do that and buy the refill cartridges
I also have a Brother laser I bought back in uni that I got for £120 new on Amazon, never needed to replace the cartridges once, does colour, duplex, ethernet with web interface
You can leave a laser unused for months at a time and then power it on and it will print correctly first time, no need to clean heads
I make my own toner with charcoal and squid ink. Works great.