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04-15-2013, 05:13 AM
manthing manthing is offline
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i have the Konica Minolta Magicolor 5440DL laser printer and need to replace the black toner cartridge.
the manual states i should not use refilled toner cartridges (or unapproved toner cartridges).

high capacity original toner cartridges are quite expensive - about £140 including VAT (UK's version of GST).
high capacity refilled toner cartridges are a bit cheaper - about £90 including VAT.

so, my 1st question to you is if it is ok to use the refilled toner cartridge?
toner cartridge is toner cartridge isn't it?

another route is to clean the existing toner cartridge and then buy the toner and fill the cartridge myself.
the toner by itself is only about £40 including VAT.

my 2nd question, how difficult and messy is it to clean the toner cartridge?

any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.
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  #2  
04-15-2013, 09:36 AM
NJRoadfan NJRoadfan is offline
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Yikes, OEM toner is expensive in the UK. We use re-manufactured cartridges where I work without any problems. I also use them at home in my color laser. When you can get all four color toner carts for less then one OEM cart, its a no brainer. The biggest problem I have found is sometimes the drums aren't as long lasting as the OEM ones, but those are few and far between these days.
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  #3  
04-15-2013, 10:03 AM
manthing manthing is offline
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thanks, NJRoadfan.

indeed, for some things, UK is not competitively priced.

we pay about 2.5 times as much for our petrol compared to US!
of which, the UK government takes between 40% to over 60% in taxes!

VAT is 20%!

so when you add VAT to the purchase of the toner and then add transport for postage, which uses petrol, which itself has VAT added, you can see how the costs start to add up.

on mainland europe, one could cross borders and pickup a bargain.
but on an island like UK?
well, we're stuck aren't we?!

the reason for these indirect taxes is that the UK public simply do not want to pay direct taxes like income tax.
to support our "nanny state" income tax would probably go over 50% and any political party who suggested that would not get a vote.
hence we have more and more indirect taxes.

UK taxation, public expenditure etc are a topic for another thread.
lets just agree that it is too high and makes me cry!
ha ha
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  #4  
04-15-2013, 10:09 AM
NJRoadfan NJRoadfan is offline
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Actually its common knowledge that printer manufacturers mark up consumables overseas. HP is notorious for this, to the point that they region code their ink cartridges and give them different part numbers depending on the market. They will often price their goods with the same numerical price, but in a local currency. So a 10USD cartridge in the US, will sell for 10GBP or 10EUR locally... a nice markup for US based HP.
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  #5  
04-20-2013, 02:06 AM
manthing manthing is offline
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following up: i found a refurbished high capacity toner cartridge on "fleabay" for £40 (inclusive of VAT and postage). i ran a few test pages, text and images, to check the quality of the toner. on the whole, it is good enough quality for my needs.

so, for what i paid, it seems a reasonable bargain.

i did find instructions on how to add toner to the cartridge if i wanted to do it myself.
i may pursue this path for the colour toner cartridges if the refill toner kit is much cheaper than the refurbished unit though it will be a bit of a hassle to empty the waste drum.
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  #6  
04-21-2013, 04:52 PM
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kpmedia kpmedia is offline
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I started buying generic toner a couple of years ago, and it's been fine. Like NJ says, manufacturers are overpriced.
There used to not be any generic Minolta toner, but now there is.

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