[Christ]

Printers use the razor blade strategy - They take a pay cut on the printer itself, knowing that you'll have to buy ink and other supplies for it, which are normally severely over priced.

As of the advent of refilling ink cartridges, and recycled cartridges, etc, prices have balanced out quite a bit though, so the cartridges and printer both tend to represent a standard mark-up from invested/production costs.

I believe our printer/flatbed scanner/copier cost about $40, and it's a great quality piece. I also believe the ink cartridges (two of them, black/color) cost around $15 each. I'll definitely be refilling them, as my wife makes several copies of certain things for school study sheets and work sheets.

I'll buy her the color cartridges though, since color is only used for photos, and the refilled cartridges are normally less vibrant.

I guess this substantiates another re-used item - black ink cartridges.

PS - I refill with soy-based inks.