Start Your Own Inkjet Refilling Business
By: Barry Shultz
Ever wondered how you can get on the bandwagon and start your own inkjet refilling business? Many people have but when it comes right down to it they where to start. I have been asked this question so many times that my response is memorized. But I'm not going to give you my typical response here, I'll go one step better. I'm going to explain how to do it in a nutshell and send you in the right direction to get you started.
You can start doing this part time and if you want you can expand it into a full time business. My main remanufactured vendor started about 3 years ago refilling inkjet cartridges on their kitchen table. Today they are one of the largest remanufactured inkjet cartridge vendors in the US. Now that's growth! The popularity of remanufactured inkjets is increasing due to the stubborn cartridge manufacturers who refuse to drop their prices. It's expected to grow by exponential rates in the years to follow.
I can go on and on about the potential of this business but there are some great books and courses available that I will tell you about later. I'll let them explain the details. You'll have to invest in at least one or more of them if you want to be successful. Don't worry, they are not expensive and I have bought every one of them.
You wont need any special equipment at first beyond what you may already have. You will need some packaging material such as small boxes and print head sealing tape.
The first thing you will need is the empty cartridges. There are a number of ways to get them. If you have a web site you can advertise there that you purchase empty inkjet cartridges. Offer a buck or two for each and pay for the shipping. Before long you will have more cartridges than you know what to do with. Believe me, I know because I did just that and I had to stop because they were coming in too fast. I couldn't get anything else done. Heck, you can easily become a cartridge broker. Some refillers are paying up to $6.00 each for certain empties.
You can also start a cartridge drive at your local school. They are always looking for some way to make money for their clubs, sports, and organizations.
Another good place on the net to find empties is empties.com. http://www.empties.com This is an empty cartridge auction site and anyone can bid.
Use your imagination. Large corporations are always recycling and they love to help out with environmental concerns. Locate one in your area and you could probably get tons of them for free.
Once you have a good supply of cartridges start refilling some different types to get up to speed. You can test them in your friends printers; you probably know many people with different printers. If you're serious you can buy test printers very cheaply on eBay or other online auctions. Know anybody that works at Staples, Office Max, Best Buy? They have all the new printers on display.
You shouldn't need to test every one you refill. But you will need to test your refilling procedures to make sure you are doing it right. When you are convinced they are refilled properly then you don't have to test every one of them. Now if you want the best refilled cartridges you will want to eventually get a test printer for each type of cartridge that you refill.
Here is a tip. If you refill the cartridges that are in the most demand you will be so busy you won't have time to sleep. Most of those will be Lexmark cartridges. Why? Because Lexmark is buying back their cartridges and there aren't many floating around for the refillers to refill. Cartridges like 12A1970, 10N0016, 10N0026, 15G0055, 15G0065, 17G0050, 17G0060, 18L0032 and 18L0042. HPC6578, C6656, C6657, C6658, C8727 and C8728. You'll want to concentrate on cartridges that have built in print heads because the other "tank" types are sold so inexpensively that you wont make a profit by selling them.
Make sure you code your cartridges some how. You are probably going to get some duds back and you'll want to be able to identify them as yours. People will sometimes send us back cartridges that we didn't sell them. We know because they are coded. Don't let this happen to you.
This article is getting longer than I wanted so if you have read this far you are probably itching to get started. You'll need some education first. The BEST source is Matt Eve's guide "Inkjet Cartridge Refilling". I have a link to his site from my web site at http://atlascopy.com . Look in the left column under Inkjet Refill Business.
There are two other guides that I can recommend, distributed by Asay Publishing. "Inkjet Guide for Entrepreneurs" and "Inkjet Cartridge Book". You can find them here: http://www.asaypub.com/bookstore/author.cfm?authorid=7
About the Author
Barry Shultz is the author of Atlascopy News, and President of Atlascopy, Inc. Atlascopy specialized in affordable alternatives to the high cost of printer supplies. Sign up for the Atlascopy Newsletter and get 10% coupons every week in your email. http://atlascopy.com/signup_new.htm Go to Atlascopy to save a bundle on your printer and refilling supplies. http://atlascopy.com
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