Why the F*ck are Printer Cartridges so Expensive?

Now, admittedly, I never use our printer at home, so I haven't even looked at printer in cartridges since college.  So, yesterday, my wife asked me to pick up ink cartridges on the way home from work.  First off, I have no idea how we ran through previous ones we had, but that's really neither nor there.  My wife is a nice, talented, creative person, so she is helping one of her coworkers with wedding shower invitations and volunteered to print them out.

I stop at Dunder Mifflin Staples on the way home and I honestly don't remember the last time I set foot inside a Staples.  I could be a recluse as long as I had internet access and a credit card, because, really, what can't you buy from Amazon?  So, I wander around for a few minutes before finding ink cartridges, then have to look through a stupid little book like I am buying spark plugs at the auto store.  They have the black cartridge (is that racist?  Should it be African American cartridge?) sold individually, but not the color one, so I have to get this "Value Combo Pack."  Let me tell you something about this "Value Combo Pack:" it loosely translates to "You Better Take Out a Second Mortgage Pack."  52 f*cking dollars for printer cartridges.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  I also get photo paper!  Thank God, because I run through photo paper like nobody's business.  F*ck you, Canon photo paper.

This chick better reimburse us for these printer cartridges or else it's coming off the wedding gift.  No f*cking joke.  You're going to get a card, a smaller check, and a copy of this Staples receipt.

In any event, I go to Google to figure out why printer cartridges are so God damned expensive, when my day is made by the auto complete searches:

This one is more run of the mill, but I could not answer any of those questions.  I am guessing manhole covers are round so you can roll them to a truck or something rather than having to carry them because they are crazy-heavy.  I can't even begin to guess what that last questions means.

This was the one that got me:

"Why are smart people usually ugly" as an auto search.  So, worldwide, that is the most common search after "why are?"  Good lord.  That's fantastic, but it doesn't get printer cartridges off the hook for costing more than caviar.

-Big Ran