You're right.
A lot of manufacturers do make little money on the printer, and plenty of money on the ink.
If you buy a new printer for the new ink cartridge, check the fill. Usually the cartridges it comes with new printers are full sized… but only filled 10% full! So the “expensive” replacement cartridges might be cheaper per drop of ink than a new printer. Somewhere in the fine print it will tell you if that new printer has near-empty cartridges when you buy it.
Raccoon,
If you only spent $16 on ink in all that time, you’ve done really well.
My very first printer, a Canon, also only lasted about 2 years.
At $50 or $60, I don’t think they make these things to last too long.
I reckon there’s not much difference between those 3 printers you’re looking at.
I’d go with the one with the cheapest ink.
Hi Joshk,
I have heard that before about the ink in new printers, but so far I have had a fairly good run with ink lasting.
I may have just been lucky. Usually it’s the black that finishes before the colors.
I had a Brother DCP 7065DN B/W laser printer for a couple of years and it works great, the toner ink is super cheap on ebay, not sure if the Color version is refillable…
Get the Epson L250
External ink may be messy when refill but with care it should be fine.
Crack and hacks are available online so aftermarket ink could be used.
With that being said I live in Malaysia and its easy for me to get both original ink and fakes and they both cost pretty cheap.
My office used one of these and a fresh refill of all ink the tank lasted us up to 2 years of almost every day printing photo reference
I never liked cartridges as they cheat consumer too much. With this you can refill fake inks and the hack can recalibrate the color of different ink.
But only use fakes if all you ever need is just visuals on paper. If you’re printing color accurate photo paper and such do stick back to original.
A few hacks have been suggested here. They are great for your own use, but don’t set your mother up with a hack :zipper_mouth_face:
Every ink printer under $100 is more ore less for dispose.
If you want less dried heads you have to buy business models. They print for less then a cent per text page.
Epson EcoTank got lately god reviews
Because I print 1 page in two months I got a 180€ SOHO monochrome laser printer.
hacks were great but I’ve never had problem with other people who are unaware of the hack being an issue once I set them up right.
But again it varies printer to printer so I wouldn’t comment much
From what I read, the Brother printer hack is pretty simple.
You just add a piece of non-clear tape to the printer cartridge window, and the printer thinks the cartridge is full so that you can use ALL of the ink.
Do you need color ink?
I never actually print color ink, as it is actually cheaper to go in store and print in color photos/documents.
If you don’t need color ink, just get a laser printer. They may be a bit more expensive upfront, but they are completely worth the price.
With it, you can get a price of under 0,02$ per page, and even lower if you print more.
Yes, I need color ink.
And I need an All-in-One to copy documents.
I have been using the MX922 for 2 or 3 years. Most happy with it. Very reliable, never jams. Ink carts are super cheap on amazon. Been using these for most of those years with no problems: see here (direct non-affiliate link)
Good luck
Well, I got the Brother MFC-J480DW from the local Staples for $50 plus tax.
I need to open it up and check the manual to see what ink to use.
(Although I already have an idea.)
Thanks for all the advice everyone. 
I found a better hack for Brother printers that doesn't involve tape:
https://itstillworks.com/reset-brother-ink-cartridges-4740636.html
My Brother MJC J430W from Staples has lasted me a long time with occasional use . Google the ink for it and a lot of good after market inks come up . I have used the cheapest I could find at the moment and all have been fine. Good luck.
This might be helpful
I ordered some ink off of eBay.
The Brother ink costs about double that of the Canon ink for the old printer.
It's still reasonable, but I hope it lasts longer.
I can't believe this...
The Canon I was considering is now $32 on eBay.
That's a tremendous deal if you want that popular model.
EDIT: Nevermind.
It looks like a scam.
I hope you didnt order this last one as is 99,9% a scam. Only 6 feedbacks as a seller and the last one was more than a year ago…The price is simply to good to be true.