Or are you shopping for a new printer? In either case you should be looking at toner prices before you check out the printers. Printers last a long time. You get a good return on your investment as far as longevity goes. But ink is surprisingly expensive. In fact, you should just picture a good chunk of your printer cost containing those ink cartridges. While printers stay, ink cartridges come and go quickly and finding the cheapest source of cheap, long lasting toner will save you much more in the long run than grabbing a discounted printer with extremely expensive ink costs that drain you over time.
This principle can be easily demonstrated using an analogy from the video game world. For the longest time after releasing a new console (like an XBOX or PlayStation) the company is actually losing money on each sale. It costs them more to make the hardware than they charge to sell it. But do these companies worry? Absolutely not. A console needs games to play and games are extremely cheap to make, and create a draining long-term expense as everyone who buys into the console keeps stocking it with new titles month after month.
The same goes for printers. A good printer is not that much. A hundred dollars is expensive. But after this initial hardware expenditure, you start running into low ink signals and replace ink signals. Your text gets lighter and lighter with alarming speed and turning your settings to best quality only helps for so long. Eventually you will be flat out of ink (although it is always a good idea to milk all the ink out of your cartridges that you can before you replace it—this cuts down on waste and keeps your money working for you longer).
Then you have to buy more ink and you will be tempted to buy a lot more ink. This is where things are hard. Toner packs are very expensive and genuine ink cartridges are as well. For instance, Okidata toner for model c8600 runs $40 each and Okidata C5500 toner runs $45 for a single refill. Who was expecting that when they plugged in that printer the first time?
It is always best to do some real research and try to figure out how much a month your printer will cost you in ink or toner. Or, if that is too much work (and it probably is) go check out a consumer report or look for information on the printer websites. If someone has a terribly bad or terribly good experience with ink and toner costs they will be much more likely to report those issues or non-issues on line. If you check a printer and it has a lot of negative reviews you know it is not what you want. Consumer report pages or product comparison sites will probably state the same except in clearer, more contrasting terms.
You should also be prepared to do some investigation of off-brand or recycled ink and toner cartridges. Whereas name brand (HP or Epson) manufactured cartridges are guaranteed to be quality and priced the same, off brand products may not live up to those standards—but they will be cheap. These products may be made with shoddy material, improper connection to your printer, and often they have diminished ink supply. But you can save two thirds of the cost. It may be advisable to try out a few of these cartridges before you invest in a larger supply—and you should definitely check the review of the company and the specific product. If the review is written in broken English, they may be stacking their own numbers and that is probably a scam. If the reviews are generally positive except for the shipping time, then you know that is simply a foreign product that works well but will take some time to cross the ocean.
Recycled or refilled ink cartridges may be another handy solution for you to look into. These are cartridges that have been used before and then recycled at a school or some other location. They are sent back to the manufacturer, carefully cleaned and repaired, and then sold again at a discount. They follow the same standards as normal ink cartridges and are better for the environment at that. It is a great way to do the right thing, and save some money, and you should definitely be sure to return your own ink canisters to your local school or library—so that they can be returned to make some money for a good cause.