non-oem cartridges

[Osage]

When my 5 yr. old printer died, I suddenly found myself looking at printers and very concerned about consumable costs. Sadly, finding quality information is very difficult on the internet even with a search engine like google. Useless crap outnumbers gems 99 to 1. Partly on the basis of Tom's hardware guides I choose a Canon ip 4000 for its low consumable costs. Tom's guide lists the ip4000 coming in at three cents per page b+W and eight cents per page using color with Canon OEM ink cartridges. Further research on the net turns up various non-oem ink sellers. I note with the HP and Lexmark cartridges with the integrated printheads on the cartridge itself, savings are typically 25 to 50% for remanufactured cartridges. With the Canon Epsom type cartridge the savings over Oem ink is often in the range of
90%. I just priced Canon Oem ink at costco, a full set of the five cartridges my ip 4000 takes would cost about $45. vs the $62. list price. For non oem ink tanks consisting of a new tank, new sponge, and claimed oem equavalent ink the costs for the full set of five is just $5. The hooker is shipping is $6. Order multiple sets and the shipping stays the same. The typical vendors on ebay that seem to have prices in this range are abucusink, accstation, and wiredbeans. So the question I have in this post is----------
What users have experience with these vendors and if so can they detail their experiences with product quality and overbuying experience. I also have a question about how long one can safely store a Canon cartridge which is listed by Canon as two years. I also wonder if the six month life of the cartridge once placed in the printer is accurate so Canon user experience would be helpful to me.

Thanks

 

[smitbret]

I use Printpal for my everday printer. At about $5 a cartridge for my Epson Stylus C60, it can't be beat. I tried Printpal in my photo printer, though, it was terrible. Bad color and no detail highly unrecommended. I use Carrot Ink instead. The price is about 2/3 that of the Epson OEM cartridges, but the quality seems to be just as good if not better. Delivery is usually about 3 days and if you buy bundles, you'll pay half of OEM or better. Give 'em a shot www.carrotink.com.
-Brett