third party ink for epson 3880

Hugowolf wrote:

Robert, I understand your position, but the relative cost of ink compared to other things does matter. When I sell a print of my work, OEM ink costs are less than 1% of consumables. Paper costs are about 3%. When I look to cutting costs, ink isn’t high on the list. My time is.

If I ran any 13 inch or smaller printers, I would probably feel differently about this, because the marginal cost of inks would be much higher. At around the 17 inch format, with 80 ml and 120 ml cartridges, the question is much murkier. With the 700 ml cartridges for my larger printer, it really isn’t worthwhile giving third party inks much consideration. My volume isn’t high enough, even working on four times the expiration date.

I am in no way knocking third party inks. I don’t know if I have ever expressed an opinion either way on this forum, at least on inks. I am just pointing out that some of the differences aren’t just based on fear. Although not often well expressed, I would imagine that many of the pro and con OEM/third party ink opinions expressed on this forum are based on very different experiences and usage models.

I am sure for many home users, the 80 ml cartridges of the Epson 3880 are going to last a long, long time – and remember, a ColorMunki Photo, the least expensive profile device worth mentioning, is around $450, the price of a full set of OEM 80 ml cartridges. It is one of the often cited considerations given to the ‘should I buy’ queries on the forum – the difference in price between a 13 inch printer and a 17 or 24 inch printer, is often nearly negated by the amount of ink that comes with the larger printers.

And again, I am not knocking third party ink usage in any way shape of form, but the question isn’t as simple as looking at the percentage difference in ink cost per unit volume. For some users, third party inks are worth considering, for others they are not.

I don’t understand any of the automobile analogies that have been expressed in this or any other thread. They all seem nonsensical to me. This is generally a good forum, lets hope it doesn’t get stuck in the OEM/third party, Red River/fine art paper, Canon/Nikon pie throwing seen elsewhere.

Brian A