Starting a Home Business Buying and Selling Recycled Inkjet Cartridges
Starting a Home Business Buying and Selling Recycled Inkjet Cartridges
Most, if not all, businesses use printers and ink cartridges in their day-to-day operations. This is why the desktop printing market is a multi-billion dollar global industry. Wouldn't it be great to have even just a sliver of that lucrative business? Nowadays, this is possible by becoming a trader of recycled inkjet cartridges. What's even better is that you can do this business at home!
The printer cartridge recycling business is part of what is called the aftermarket for printer cartridges. A printer's ink cartridge is essentially the cash cow of the major printer manufacturers like HP, Epson, Brother, Lexmark, and Canon, just to name a few. It is estimated that over 2 billion units of printer cartridges are sold worldwide on an annual basis. The printer consumables aftermarket is just as big and economically viable.
The Business of Recycled Ink Cartridges
Most printer manufacturers will encourage end users to send their used cartridges back to them, mostly through mail. However, such recycling programs do not usually provide any monetary benefits for the occasional package of recycled inkjet cartridges that they may receive from consumers. It is more likely that manufacturers would deal instead with bulk recyclers.
These bulk recyclers are the ones that purchase cartridges directly from consumers or through market-based channels and partners that have direct contact with end users. To illustrate the relationship, a printer vendor may put up a drop box at their store for used cartridges, or perhaps offer a rebate promotion for buyers of new printer ink cartridges who will turn in their old cartridges upon purchase. These collection channels then earn substantial rewards from the turnover of recycled cartridges to bulk recyclers and sometimes to the manufacturers of printer consumables themselves.
There is another segment of the printer aftermarket that has a need for recycled printer cartridges. These are the ink refillers and the so-called ink cartridge re manufacturers. In previous years, the alternative printer consumables offered by these businesses were sub-standard and cannot compete with original printer cartridges. Their technology has since improved tremendously such that the demand for their low-cost, good-quality printer cartridges has increased multi-fold; thus driving up the buying price for used printer cartridges on a global scale.
From Mere Consumer to Business Operator
As a consumer, you can earn a few dollars by returning empty cartridges to a vendor with a cash-back offer for cartridge recyclers. However, you already know by now that there's more money involved here than what is made available to mere consumers.
The object now therefore is to increase the volume of cartridges that can be exchanged for cash in order to make the business a viable one. At first, you may get away with simply asking friends and neighbors to just give you their used ink cartridges. Eventually, however, your operations would entail that you put up enough capital to enable you to offer rewards to your end-user sources for recycled cartridges. In this sense, even if you are home-based, you need to evolve into a full-fledged cartridge recycling or collection office.
This is especially true when you start dealing with companies. Whether big or small, these businesses will be your biggest sources for used ink cartridges in the long run. Write to these companies and establish goodwill early on, since this will help in maintaining your business even when prices for cartridges become volatile.
Keep in mind that you may need to negotiate for good prices from your bulk buyers in order to maintain an operating margin profitable enough for you and enticing enough for your sources of recycled cartridges. This juggling act can be frustrating at times, but don't just give up easily. With determination and hard work, buying and selling of recycled inkjet cartridges can be a very good business.
It will take some time before the desktop printer will be replaced by a better printing technology. Before that time comes, you should get on board and take the opportunity into printer cartridge recycling. You too can make your mark as a businessperson, help the environment and earn a decent income for yourself and your family.
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