Refillable Epson carts

[Fenrir Enterprises]

MIS' refillable spongeless carts seem awfully expensive (and the base price does not even include the auto-reset chips). Many companies on eBay and eBay stores sell similar carts for far, far less. Because I suspect most of the refillable carts are all actually from the same supplier - have any of you bought empty refillable carts off of eBay that work well? I'd prefer to hear from people who have had direct, long-term experience rather than 'I just bought it a few days ago and so far it's working fine', since that's what happened with my HP - I was happy with MIS' refill kit, it was only when I went into the first large print run (100 pages) that the printhead was destroyed by the aftermarket ink. My biggest concern is leakage - if getting sponge carts is better, I'll go with those. I'm thinking about getting a getting a C88 or similar (the C3810v from Wal-Mart is cheaper than the C88 but takes the same carts...).

The same question goes for ink, though I suspect the cheaper ink on eBay is likely to be of lower quality.

 

[websnail]

Just for completeness I've already hinted at this but I have the same cartridges from MIS and Gemini Colours... They are ok for refilling but I don't personally recommend them from CIS construction due to the way they were designed.. but you're asking about refilling so not a problem.

Gemini do them for about half the price (well they did for me) and I was able to source auto-reset chips from 9to6.ie... The operation seems a little hinky at the best of times but I have installed their chips in 3 D88 (UK equivalent of the C88) and they've worked fine.. The only hiccup I've seen is that they do occassionally require a power off/on to get it to reset although that's reasonably rare and only required after a long print run IIRC.

Cost wise the chips are 2.50 Euros rather than $5 each so quite a saving.

 

[Fenrir Enterprises]

I'm in the US, so Gemini is not the best solution for me (calling them is not really an option either).

I found this seller on eBay whose prices are half that of MIS (Epson carts + ink kit includes 2x as much ink for half the price)

http://stores.ebay.com/InkJetCarts

They have a 100% feedback rating, but I don't take that as a guarantee that things are good - most ebay transactions get a positive feedback if the buyer recieved the item, if it breaks later on down the road, there's no way to go back and change it to negative. However, my e-mail contact with them has been very good, and they supplied much better directions for HP refill kits (including stabilizing the air pressure to make sure the printhead doesn't run dry).

I still have to decide whether to get the new printhead for the 1100D and try the refill kits from this seller, or to get rid of the printer and buy a C88 or equivalent. It's cheaper to get the black printhead for the HP, but if another one breaks, then it's definitely not worth the cost.