Tulsa's link to half price ink

Just about everyone with a computer has experienced the frustration of trying to replace the printer cartridge, or youâ€™ve been stunned by how expensive they are. <br><br>News on 6 consumer reporter

Thursday, January 29th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Just about everyone with a computer has experienced the frustration of trying to replace the printer cartridge, or youâ€™ve been stunned by how expensive they are.

News on 6 consumer reporter Rick Wells has found a new business in town that can solve both problems in one step.

Oh no! It's another idea I could have had and didn't, refilling computer printer cartridges.

Julie Anderson: "Everybody likes to save money on ink." Pretty simple, refill cartridges save people money. That's Heather Little's objective, she works at Our Friends Child Care in Sapulpa, she's got a laser cartridge she's gonna leave with 'em, she says the saving's pretty good. Wells: "What would a new one cost?" Little: "About $130. They gave me a price of $79, about $50, $60." Not bad.

Not a bad business, Jane Anderson was a stay at home mom, selling pampered chef stuff and Jane Porter was an executive at WilTel, and was well, "downsized." Friends for ten years now they're business partners. Porter: "We provide a lot of expertise that we're able to help them with."

They've been open since mid-October, before that they were in Australia learning the business from the founder. And they got to meet the locals. Porter: "That's kind of what is native on kangaroo island rather than the big gray ones."

The re-filling process is pretty involved; they take the empty cartridges, clean em up check em out and refill them. Porter: "Slowly putting the ink in through the print head." Most cartridges can be re-filled like this 3 or 4 times. They have about 100 bottles of ink; every printer seems to need a particular kind. Wells: "That cartridge new would cost?" Anderson: "$31 to $35 and we refill it for $15.50, for half that."

They have a good supply of new ones if you need one. But, "we wanna be your link to half price ink."

Cartridge World is located at 41st and Yale in Tulsa and in April will open a new store in Broken Arrow.