I have an Epson 2880 and need to purchase inks to make about 100 13x19 prints. I believe the ink cartridges for the 2880 are 13ml and cost $11.46 thru Atlex.
It looks like I could buy a new Epson 3880 ($819.00 after $300.00 rebate) or Epson 4900 ($1395.00 after $400.00 rebate) and the extra ink (3880 80ml or 4900 200ml) would almost give me a new printer with the capacity to make larger prints if necessary.
The 80ml ink cartridges for the 3880 are $53.39 and for the 200ml cartridges are $86.95.
Am I figuring this right?
Anyone have and thoughts or suggestions one way or another?
Not enough info provided to be sure of the math. Are you wanting to compare the cost of buying enough ink (for the 2880) to do 100 prints vs the cost of buying a new printer that comes with one set of ink cart's? BTW: a fair portion of those new printer carts will be used up just priming the new printer.
You may know this, but the 4900 comes with "starter" ink cartridges of 80 ML. When I first assembled the 4900 some of the starter ink was used in priming but not a great deal.
Looking at my ink usage (3800, but much the same for any K3 printer) you will need about 350ml of ink to do your 100 prints. Bear in mind that this will not be equal quantities of all inks. Based just on the cost of ink, the difference between the 2880 and the 4900 is only about $200. For the 3880 it's probably not much more than $100.
Not easy to justify in purely financial terms, but if you want to print bigger, or if you don't want the hassle of replacing small carts all the time, go for a bigger one!
Think about a CIS unit from a quality supplier for starters, or refillable carts and good quality 3rd party inks.
You will have to have the ink / paper profiled but the costs will be a lot lot less.
At a pinch you could buy refillable carts and large capacity OEM carts from the same inkset (K3) and decant the inks.
OR.....go with the 3880 idea...keep the machine in mint condition...and sell it on afterwards. Resale price plus ink savings could see you in profit so to speak!!
