If you are looking for toner you probably understand just how quickly most businesses, libraries, schools, and other offices go through it, and how expensive it can be to restock. Toner sales are hugely profitable for their sellers, making up for slim profit margins on printers, but this competitiveness has provided the fertile soil to grow an entire aftermarket of remanufactured toner, toner refill kits, discount toner, and (unfortunately) toner scams. While this system can be expensive and even dangerous for those who tread wrongly, if you do your homework and understand some basic rules and tips you can keep your printers printing for far less than you would otherwise. Here are some details to be aware of.
Each company out there makes a huge variety of printer families; often with a number of printers in each family and a variety of cartridges that fit each printer (some color, some with more or less toner inside). Thus, when you are searching for toner for a specific printer on a marketplace like Amazon or eBay, or even on Google or other comparison sites, you should always enter the full long tail search phrase, including the make and model of the printer, and the specific cartridge number if you have it. For instance, instead of searching for Dell toner, which will return a huge number of results, you should instead search for Dell 1320c toner, as this will return a menu of the cartridges appropriate for that printer, making your search shorter and far more relevant as well.
You should also be aware of the different types of marketplaces out there. For instance, sites like Amazon and eBay will tend to have a huge variety of sellers selling individual products, usually one to several toner packs at a time. While this can be convenient if you don’t use a lot of toner and only shop once in a while, it does pose risks as a lot of the bottom barrel LaserJet toner listed is unfortunately low quality made overseas, which will also take a very long time to ship to you. If you want to make sure you are getting quality product from eBay (toner that works when you get it, ships fast, has customer service reps who speak your name, and is of decent printing quality) you will want to stop sorting by price and instead sort by the user review rankings of those who have bought the product. If the company sells junk, they will tend to either have a lot of bad reviews, or will have a storefront with very few reviews (as they will constantly be creating new accounts to sell without the user review penalties eBay and Amazon assign). Buying this low quality junk is a bad idea as it can damage your printer, waste your time and money, and also can be a headache to get a refund from (your purchase is always covered by the marketplace, but if you receive a low quality product your claim may not be recognized—you would need to have not received it or else received a pack that was outright broken.)
To avoid these hassles, consider buying from a large online retailer. Not the actual hardware manufacturer, as the homepages of HP, Samsung, Brother, Lexmark, and Dell toner etc… tend to overcharge you on your product fiercely, under the pretense that their premium prices guarantee quality product. Large well established ink and toner storefronts will often offer the same products, as well as a variety of quality third party remanufactured toner packs, for a fraction of the cost. Not only this, but these third party packs typically come with the very same customer service you would get from the OEM company due to the fierce competition between large toner retailers online. Everyone wants to guard their customer base, and do it with quality selling practices.
While it is true that third party toner packs have a much higher failure rate than the OEM stuff, it is also true that these packs can actually print more pages a pack (for a fraction of the cost) and if your pack is covered by a decent and established company, then what is the worry? These sites are also convenient for those who like to watch for sales, as a good bulk order during a sale period can easily save a grand. Fast shipping speed, combined with quality equipment and customer rewards—it isn’t surprising more and more are going with the big little guys. Run any search for ink and toner online and they are easy to find.