May seem like a dumb question, but I'm new to FPs in general....

If I buy from a local retailer, who maybe doesnt turn stock often, than say, a manufacturer, do inks go off or lose their color?

The assumption would be that they might be in storage in a darker place than, say, a store window, but they might sit on a shelf in a store location for some time before someone buys them......

So, if stored "normally", out of direct light, and in reasonable temperatures, do inks maintain there colors, vibrancy, flow. etc?

Do different types of inks(different formulations, different companies, maybe..) "last" longer than others?

I know evaporation can be an issue, so maybe someone can explain that as well to me....

But, other than that, any thoughts?

D

Direct sunlight, even through a store window hitting a shelf inside the store, can fade many FP inks.

Some inks change color when exposed to air for a few days (in a pen, for example) while they are still liquid. This is why I stopped carrying Rohrer & Klingner Magenta in a pen to work all week. That's too bad, because it's a good markup color.

If ink is tightly sealed in a bottle and stored out of sunlight, it will stay factory fresh or almost factory fresh for many years.

It depends on the ink.
Some inks are really susceptible to storage conditons. (Perhaps the best example of this is iron gall inks, because the iron in the ink can oxidize with exposure to the air---which is how it is supposed to work on the paper.)
Some inks are really stable if stored properly. (For example, I regularly use Skrip ink thats 20+ years old.)

As far as evaporation, again, some inks handle this better than others.
As the bulk of the water is lost from the ink, the concentration of materials in solution increases. If enough water is removed, this can result in changes in pH, viscocity, color, or substances reaching their saturation level, with the end result being precipitation of solid materials from the ink. Most of this is not good for your FP.

I have two bottles of ink, Parker Quink Black and Quink Blue, that sat in a desk for 15 years before I got interested in fountain pens and my mom gave them to me.

When I was 4 or 5 my mom gave my dad a Waterman Phileas, he used it a lot till someone stole it and he had those two bottles of ink. Since they were mostly full he never threw them out and they just sat there till I found my mother's 40 year old fountain pen from when she was in high school.

That was a long way of saying that those bottles of ink sat unused in the dark for 15 years and are as bright and vibrant as ever. Just a note though, Parker Quink Black dries fast but it is a lighter shade when it dries. I checked this against another bottle, and they both behaved the same.

I have heard of people using very old bottles of Parker Superchrome (originally suggested for the Parker 51's) and them still being okay.

I think the main point is to keep them out of sunlight and in a cool dark place, preferably with no exposure to light.

-Zac

Exactly, UV radiation is the bigger problem, I would say even bigger than exposure to air. I have German inks that are as bright to my eye as the day I got them but date to before the Wall came down, they have W. Germany molded in the bottom of the bottle. Caped tightly and out of the reach of the sun are the keys.