The Increased Cost of Freight

As hard as we have tried to avoid it, we can no longer leave our freight costs the same as they have been for the last 10 years. We have not increased our freight charges since we opened in 1998.

We know that you are aware that the cost of everything is increasing, but the largest increase by far is that of fuel. Not just any fuel, but especially the diesel fuel that moves virtually every thing within this country at one time or another. You don’t hear much about diesel, because most of us drive vehicles that burn gasoline. But the current average diesel price in the United States as of January 7, 2008 is $3.38 per gallon versus gasoline at an average of $3.11 per gallon.

The price of diesel affects all other prices. All those tractor-trailer rigs that you see on the highway are transporting groceries, clothing, auto parts, and ink, virtually everything to the stores from which you purchase them. Also when you order items on line, at some point during the trip to your home or business, a diesel-burning vehicle will transport them.

We have held off on an increase as long as we could, much longer than most of our competition. The increases are minimal. Our new shipping prices are as follows:

• Standard Shipping (5 to 7 business days), $4.95
• Expedited Shipping (2 to 4 business days), $7.95
• Second Business Day (Commercial address required), $15.95
• Overnight (Commercial address required), $18.95
  

I wish we had the answer to this dilemma. Some say bio-diesel, some say solar power, some say off shore drilling. There are many answers but none seem to be ideal or acceptable at this time. There is one thing I know, if diesel, which cost less to refine than gasoline, continues to rise in price, we will be seeing many more price increases to come with the products we purchase. As a truck driver put it, …“When bread is $10 a loaf and milk is $15 a gallon, maybe the consumer will start paying attention to the price of diesel fuel.”

CPA’s, Accountants and Bookkeepers

We know that, this time of year, you have no time to spare. That’s why I will make this brief. You spend all your time keeping an eye on your clients’ bottom line, who’s watching yours?

Do you know how much time and money you spend on your printed image? Did you know that you could save both? Picink saves time and money for firms like yours everyday. One visit to our website http://www.picink.com/ and you could be saving, too.

We have remanufactured and compatible ink and toner for almost every make and model of printer, copier, fax machine and we even have ribbons for your typewriters. You can save up to 40% over brand name products at your local office supply store. And the time you will save will surprise you.

Next time you find yourself running low on ink in the middle of those year end financial statements, don’t spend any time worrying who to send down to the store, go to http://www.picink.com/ . With free shipping for orders over $29, and next day service available, why waste the time (not to mention fuel)?

Why not also take advantage of our net 30 terms? When you get a moment, (maybe in May) just go to Credit Application and send it to us.
Breathe easier this tax season by letting us take care one thing off your list.

Get the Most “Mileage” Out of Your Ink

With fuel topping $3.00 per gallon in most areas now, I am very concerned about the fuel mileage of my aging car. I try to keep it tuned up, I avoid swift acceleration, I even wash it more often. What I really need to do is make sure I am getting the most out of my printer ink. Based on an average priced inkjet cartridge, ink is actually $13,627.48 a gallon! Also, the smarter we print, the greener we are. In addition, we may end up saving trees.

Here are some easy ways we can all save on our printing costs:

Printing off the internet uses a vast amount of ink, but it doesn’t have to. With a little preparation, you can print only the information that you need. Before you print, instead of clicking on the printer icon in the toolbar, make it a habit to go to File-Print Preview. This will show you everything that will print. Print set up will also give you the option to print background graphics or not, un-checking this box will save you ink as well. Finally, if you highlight only what you wish to print, and right click, you can save to clipboard and then paste in word or notepad, again allowing you to print only what you need.

You can also change your printer settings to print in draft mode for most of your documents. If you choose File-Print-Properties you will have the option of choosing most of your printer settings from this menu. I use this setting for most of my printing.

Don’t turn off your printer every night. Every time you turn on your printer, it goes through a charging cycle that uses ink. This adds up over time.

Finally, be careful about the cleaning cycle. Reserve it for those times when your print quality has deteriorated. It is not necessary to run your cleaning cycle on a regular basis.

If you follow the above tips, you should get the greatest mileage out of your printer ink.
If you have certain tips to save money on in, please join this blog. We need everyone’s input.

Surplus For Good - A “Priceless” Idea

Take a moment, look around the office (that supply closet) or home. Do you have any surplus printer or copier supplies? Did you replace any equipment recently and have ink or toner products left over from the old equipment?

You can receive a tax deduction for the full cost of those surplus supplies and help us build a Memorial for disabled veterans at the same time.

Here’s the offer. Pack up the un-opened, surplus supplies. Send your name, company name (if applicable), telephone number and email address in the package. Upon receipt we’ll send you by email a tax donation certificate from “American Veterans Disabled For Life Memorial” www.AVDLM.com The U.S. Congress approved this national memorial to be built in Washington D.C. with the passage of Public Law 106-348. Visit the website to learn more.

It’s estimated that more than 75 million in unused surplus imaging supplies is simply lying around offices and may end up one day, after expiration, in the landfill.

You get a great deduction and the Foundation receives the cash this surplus generates.

It’s a win-win proposal and our disabled veterans will finally see that America truly appreciates their sacrifices.

We’re happy to be part of this effort. So let’s clean house and get the Memorial built.
By the way, let your friends, business associates and the community know about the Memorial and the “Priceless Idea”. Can you image how much of this stuff could be in your community?

SEND SUPPLIES TO:
PIC Warehouse
3890 Tamiami Trail
Port Charlotte, FL
Attn: Surplus 4 AVDLM
Include information for your tax certificate in the package.
Please do not send paper products, or items that are used or defective.
If in doubt write to us by email: alex at picink.com

Send this information to your friends!

Another Priceless HTT by PICINK

Here’s a “Hot Tax Tip” (HTT) for the end of the year.

Everyone knows that you can reduce your tax liability by making a major purchase and taking advantage of the Section 179 deduction. This deduction is limited to the smaller of either the amount of taxable income (or profit) the company has made in a year or $125,000. If your major purchase does not qualify for the Section 179 treatment, you will be forced to capitalize this expense over a period of years.

It’s not always necessary to make a major purchase to save tax dollars. A business or individual in business can stock up on those ordinary and necessary items before December 31st. Now is the time to purchase your printer supplies as well as pens, filing supplies, etc. Not only can you reduce your tax burden, but also the prices of all consumer goods seem to be rising and you just may save some money on the purchase itself. As oil prices increase the cost of plastics and product transportation will rise and there you go... the cycle continues. You are going to need this stuff, anyway. Why not buy when it is to your best advantage to do so?

Black Friday? Cyber Monday? Getting the best printer value for your money this year!

There are a lot of deals out there this year. 18 printer deals listed on Black Friday.info alone. One of which is for a free printer with purchase of laptop. Good deal, huh? Not too good to be true, of course, but a good deal none the less. You wouldn’t think that a free printer would be too expensive, would you? Well just ask an owner of a Dell printer. The only place you can buy ink for a Dell printer is directly from Dell. No competition, no shopping around, and no compatibles are available.

I’m sure you have noticed that the price of printers has dropped considerably. At first glance, this would seem to be similar to other electronic products. After all, DVD players were very expensive when they first came out, now they are quite reasonable. When most “gadgets” are on the market long enough, the novelty wears off and the price is lowered. Simple supply and demand takes effect. Unfortunately, the pricing structure of printers is designed differently. The industry plans to make their money not from the printer sale, but from the ink and toner sales. Most manufacturers are counting on the fact that you will buy the name brand ink and toner. As a matter of fact, if you attempt to use a compatible product, or generic brand of ink, your printer may send you an error message that warns you that the ink may not produce the same quality printing as the OEM, or brand name. Some manufacturers have a built in feature that stops your printer from working altogether, if you use a compatible product. You then have to fool your printer into accepting the compatible ink or toner. Most people won’t take the time, even though it could well save them hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the life of the printer. (Depending on how much they print, of course) The manufacturer is counting on that. It is their sole goal to make more money from the unit you purchased or received for FREE!

Another trap is having an inkjet color printer that only requires two cartridges; one black and one tri-color. Although this seems like a good idea, less numbers to remember, less ink to buy, it will cost you money in the long run. If you run out of one of the colors in your tri-color cartridge, you must replace the entire cartridge, wasting the better part of the other two colors.

Everyone looks at the price and features of a printer, almost no one stops to figure out true cost. The largest part of this cost is the ink. The easiest way to figure this is to divide the price of the ink by the yield per cartridge. This will give you the per-page cost for each printer. It is only after you compare printers with this “apples to apples” approach, can you truly discover which printer is a bargain, and which printers only look like one. To compare printing costs just click here: Inkjet Cartridges & Toner Supplies

Lastly, there have been certain changes in the industry that will have a future effect on your printing costs. Probably the most dramatic example of this is the recent lawsuits brought by the Seiko Epson Company. Other manufacturers are watching Epson closely and the eventual outcome of this litigation will very likely affect the prices of ink and toner for all brands in the future. Using patent laws, Epson is blocking the importing of all compatible cartridges.

Epson requested and was granted a general exclusion order from the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC). This order effectively prevents the importation of Epson compatible products from any source, and it doesn’t matter if the products are in actual violation of the patents or not. Now I’m all in favor of protecting intellectual property, but this certainly sounds like a monopoly. If the major manufacturers put out a new ink cartridge every time they release a new model printer, then protect that cartridge with a patent because they have changed the location of one nozzle, soon the only place to buy ink for your Epson is Epson. Hmmm now where have I heard that before?

Welcome to PICINK information Blog

We would like to welcome all of our customers to our new information blog. Please continue to check this link for information about our products, specials, sales and more. Please feel free to add your comments. We learn alot from you. If you have questions, please post them here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Future blog entries will include information on the differences between OEM, compatible and remanufactured cartridges. If you have a topic you would like us to address, please let us know.

Sincerely,
Shirley Roosevelt
Priceless Inkjet Cartridge Company