About 5 - 7 years ago, HP (and every other brand) cartridges were rather large in comparison to their contemporaries. The cost per ml (milliliter) of ink it held was in the $0.50 - $0.80 range. These days ink cost per for new cartridges is close to or at $3.00 per milliliter in some new models.

The ink volume in inkjet cartridges has changed gradually at over time, but in the last few years, rather dramatically. Cartridge size has been shrinking in general year to year from all printer manufacturers. The retail price however, has not decreased at the same rate. We have seen a general shrinking in the size of black HP cartridges, from 42ml to 28ml to 25ml to 19ml to 11ml to 10ml to now 5 ml of ink in each cartridge (a few models contain a little more ink).

True, now some cartridge models currently contain a little more ink and are known as "high capacity" but the general smaller ink volume trend is clear. The price has not decreased equally to the reduction of ink so you end up paying 2 - 4 times more per printed sheet of paper.

So why do printer makers continue to decrease the ink volume? It may be due in part to competition from aftermarket suppliers (remanufacturing companies).

In the beginning, printer makers ignored recycled cartridges, but they have now become a real threat to OEM profits. To combat this, millions of dollars are spent on promoting their OEM products through a variety of channels including magazines, TV, Internet and radio. This may explain the Staples "easy button" commercials showing printers needing ink along with a myriad of other commercials along the same lines. We are guessing this might also explain why remanufactured cartridges are no longer being sold at large retail stores like Staples?

The massive amount of advertising by HP has earned them greater market share each year for the last 2 years. It seams likely that these expenditures may have also contributed to the increased retail price of their OEM cartridges.

Engineering and patent defense costs are increasing each year to produce, protect and/or attack individual company interests. The industry's technology has become so complex that lawyers have become a necessity for the preservation of patents and the defense of resellers and remanufacturing rights. This will always raise the cost of doing business, so this could account for a portion of the price increases as well.

Printer makers also spend more and more money making and releasing more printers each year. This is for two reasons; first is to take up as much retail shelf space as possible, effectively pushing out other brands. Secondly, each of the printers are slightly different and often use different cartridges so again, retail price must absorb all of the costs associated with bringing a new product to market.

Once a printer is available for sale, it will have a shorter life cycle than previous printers and the cartridges that the printer uses will go to fewer and fewer machines. This means that a smaller and smaller number of sales of each model must pay for the increasing cost of creating and promoting each new model. The price goes up.

For companies that refill cartridges, engineering and set up costs of the remanufacturing process for each model of cartridge is defrayed by the number of units sold as well. With the rapid release of new cartridges, the revenue generated from each new model shrinks and shrinks. This effects the cost of bringing the remanufactured product to market just like the OEM.

This also makes it more difficult for remanufacturing companies who used to only have to master a dozen or so cartridges total, now need to learn a half dozen new cartridges per year. Each cartridge will require its own process, testing, shipping clip, taping, sealing, box, ink and problem solving. This raises the cost of remanufacturing, which in turn raises the cost of re sellers, that in turn raises the price to the end user.

HP (and others) has been strategically shrinking the volume of the ink and the retail price for their cartridges to try to narrow the price gap between OEM and remanufactured cartridges. This is an effective tool to discourage the recycling of their cartridge because it reduces profit potential for remanufacturing the cartridge. If little or no money can be made recycling a specific model of cartridge, it simply cannot or will not be done and printer makers know this.

Another big piece of the puzzle is the price point of OEM cartridges that make remanufactured cartridges less of a value. This is an effective tool OEM companies use when a cartridge is first released. Empty cartridges are not available initially so the supply cost of the empty cartridges is rather high because demand exceeds supply. Later on, when empty cartridges become more readily available, the price begins to drop as empty cartridge supply meets or exceeds demand. Coincidentally, newly released OEM cartridges go down in price over time (slightly).

This OEM business model continues to evolve with all manufacturers manipulating cartridge ink volume and technology to ensure profits while attacking competitors.

Despite the cat and mouse game which continues to grow in complexity, roughly 25% of people now use remanufactured and compatible printer supplies and that number is expected to grow for many years to come.