The practice of charging more for the media than the device is not uncommon. Example: Polaroid.

And, of course, razor blades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor_and_blades_business_model

I spent 6 months working at a certain razor company. I got a small discount on blades, but the razors (with 1 blade) were just about free. (4 years later - I've finished off my stash!)

Don't forget the more modern varients: PC/Internet and Cell-Phone/Calls

Yea thats true, but if buying a polaroid camera and getting say 10 pictures with it included was cheaper than buying 10 of the media seperately it would be a bit crazy, and thats exactly what I've seen with some printers recently.

disposable cameras.

Uh. Right. Because the refills for disposable cameras are so much more expensive than the actual camera.

If they sold refills at all, then the camera wouldn't be disposable, so unless this was some sort of joke...

Disposable cameras are 'recycled' i.e. refilled. They even announce this on the box.

And a single dvd can cost $30. I've seen DVD players for less.

If only they came with a free sample dvd.

That's generally untrue only because the printer usually comes with a reduced capacity cartridge. Also, generic ink is pretty damn cheap.

Epson, at least, uses a formulation that leads to most generic inks causing irreparable clogs. I dunno how they do it, but I've seen it happen in two Epson printers--worked fine for a few months, switch off to a non-Epson ink (of different brands in each case) and within a week the printer doesn't work. No printing, at all, just makes noise and moves its little bastard head around doing nothing. When researching the topic, I found that design professionals (who print a lot, and use the big non-cartridge ink systems) recommend never using Epson inks to start with, and always using the generic brand you plan to use for the life of the printer...which apparently makes this problem go away.

Of course, after five dead inkjet printers (HP, Epson, Lexmark, HP, Epson) I finally got pissed off enough to refuse to buy another one. Ever. I bought a networked Konica Minolta color laser for about $800 six years ago, or so, and it's served me well ever since, and cost less than another five inkjet printers and their outlandish ink prices. I've only had to replace one toner cartridge (black) in that time, and I expect to get another few years out of the printer. It also has Postscript support, so I don't have to think about drivers (which is irrelevant to some folks, but I never want to spend an afternoon fighting with printers again...and a networked Postscript printer is the only way to guarantee that I don't have to).

When my dad started talking about buying a new inkjet after his third HP started banding badly (and new cartridges, and cleaning, didn't fix it) I bought him a $200 laser printer. Best $200 ever. I buy him a new toner cartridge every year for Christmas...it's held up great for three or four years now.

Indeed.

I recently bought an HP D2400 printer at Big Lots for $30. The color/black cartridges come out to around $40. Go figure.