Digital BW, The Print

Simon,

Why can't you get lyson inks that easily? As far as I know, they are freely
available in the UK through a number of resellers, unless you want bulk in
which case there are restrictions but Marrutt can do it. Lyson is after all
a UK company!

As for MIS inks... what's wrong with PermaJet's rebranding them? [eh he he
he] They're 'freely available' in limited areas on the highstreet too.

What about Jet-Tec? They do dye and pigment 'copy' inks and carts etc... and
exist with several other brands in the 'cheap copy' market that do appear in
the 'office supply' shops in the highstreet.

...well other than than that ALL of these options include at least two extra
levels of mark-up to allow the distributor and retailer to get their cut. In
the case of a non-specialist retailer there will almost always be an extra
distributor in the chain. e.g. PJ's pricing appears to indicate a mark up
that allows for resale to places as far afield as Australia whilst still
allowing everyone a tasty slice of the pie. Hence, what starts life as a
reasonably priced product becomes... make your own mind up ;)

So to want quality competition that has as much penetration as Epson / HP /
Canon brand actually requires a massively cheap product that still has all
the necessary packaging etc etc. (and you would be surprised just how much
their pricing is biased by the RRP of the product they are copying...
markups will be BETTER for a retailer on the 'cheap copy' in some / many
cases!?).

Of course, if I was to mention an alternative UK resource for inks, then
maybe I would suggest a click on the link below...

Best,
Nij

Nigel Rheam
MWORDS Limited   www.mwords.co.uk   Digital Fine Art





> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon Whitehead [mailto:s.whitehead@...]
> Sent: 24 May 2002 21:43
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] OEM Ink Pricing & Econ 101
>
>
> Surely the best way to hold down the prices of consumables is by
> competition
> and, as far as I can see, this site pursues that approach rather well.
>
> Now, I am in the UK and 3rd party 'quality' inks are not available on the
> high street.  We can't get Lyson or MIS all that easily and when
> we do find
> them we are charged, at the very least, pound for dollar.  So,
> the best way
> to knock down the Epson prices might be to try to get the quality
> inks into
> the high street so that the competition is both real and visible.
>
> Then we would see the difference - I think.
> --
> Simon Whitehead
> s.whitehead@...