I have just noted that Swisher Pens now offers Noodler's Russian and British Empire inks. (No affiliation.) Therefore, these seem to be no longer a Pendemonium exclusive in the US. I note this because Pendemonium is out of stock of most of them. Swisher's price is also lower for single bottles, $16.95 instead of $18.50.

I wonder if these inks will now be available at other retailers as well.

Hmmm, an interesting change!

It appears the $16.95 is now only for two bottle orders - no discount showing for single bottle..

Yes, the price was changed to the same one Pendemonium was charging. But Pendemonium does not have them in stock.

Well at least now one can purchase them. Pendemonium is usually out of stock with all the Noodler's inks. Not sure how one makes any money this way, but....

No problem! I just grabbed a bottle of 'Socrates' and a small Rhodia notebook. Thanks for the heads up!!

Another anomaly: Swisher pictures UK inks in both 3oz and 4.5oz sizes, but prices only the 3oz sizes. I imagine they are still working on the website entries.

The prices listed now are 18.50 for one bottle and 16.50 for two. For most other inks Swisher requires a 6-bottle order to get a reduction, but in this instance they have adopted the same price as Pendemonium has.

Obviously there must have been some falling out between the folks at Pendemonium and Nathan Tardiff since Pendemonium has very few Noodler's inks in stock.

In the past I have purchased ink and other items from both Swisher and Pendemonium and have found both to be efficient and very customer friendly. But at the moment Swisher seems to have much the better stock of Noodler's inks. If Pengodess or Eternally Noodling wish to comment I would be interested, but I suspect they do not.

...and I received an email today that my order has shipped! Fast!

Not so.

I actually inquired about this a little while ago, and received my answer straight from the ink man himself. I was greatly relieved. There has been no falling out with any companies. Technically, anyone can carry the colors if they are willing to shoulder the minimum order and other requirements. Also, the makeup of these inks requires a little more time for the procurement of some components. It doesn't mean that Pendemonium is going to quit carrying them because they are out of stock at the moment. Pendemonium is a little smaller and things might happen a little slower, but they ( and Swishers, too) are still a great company with whom to conduct business.





This, I have to admit, has also caught my eye. However, there is another site somewhere that showed a 3-oz bottle of Heart of Darkness. Now, I like getting HoD in the big bottles, I use a lot of it. However, I wouldn't mind being able to buy one smaller, 3-oz bottle for a friend I'm trying to convert, heh. At a pen show this past summer, I believe, there was a picture posted that showed Nathan's table sporting a HUGE bottle of HoD (quart size?) and I was wishing I could have just bought one of those, heh. They aren't available to the public, though. Mostly, I believe this is a matter of economics, and what we - the pen community as a whole - ask for overall in what we want. The 4-1/2-oz bottles with the free eyedropper pens are very popular. The UK and Russian inks, though, may not be supportive of those larger quantities. That is just speculation on my part.

OK, so it's not a falling out. But, then, it is obvious that Pendemonium does not have an exclusive franchise on the Russian and UK inks which their webpage still (as of yesterday) states. If "anyone can carry the colors" why did Pendemonium, at least for the last couple of years list them as "exclusives?" As of now, alomost no Noodler's inks are actually in stock at Pendemonium. That 's too bad, because I am a contented customer.

I agree that both Swisher and Pendemonium are excellent retailers. Nevertheless, something has happened.

We *did* have the US exclusive on the Russian and UK inks .... until this past weekend when we discovered they were on Swisher's site, too! No problem there, Chuck and I are friends and it's fine that he also carries these. I didn't get any advance notice on this change from Nathan. It's on our web guru's list of things to do to remove the exclusive note on these two series of inks. Should be done any moment now. I have NOT had a falling out with Nathan, at least not one that I am aware of!

Regards to all, Sam

Glad to hear there's no falling out -- here's to lots more business for both of you.

I'm suspecting that with the decline of availability of the Russian market, the US market possibly needed to expand.

My personal favorite of the Russian inks is Kuprin, which I always have in something.

Pendemonium fulfills some very basic needs for my pen-related habits, and I'm forever haunting their site. They run out of things periodically, but they always get more in, and I'm always happy when I order from them.

Sam,

Good to hear. I'd also like to hear that you're not out of everything in your catalogue as your website seems to indicate. Most of your items have "temporarily out of stock" on them. I hope it's just an update thing...

Thanks,

S

Hi Steve - I wish it was as simple as not having the site up to date, but it IS up to date and it's rare that we go more than 24 hours without an update of some sort or another. Trust me, if I had inks that had come in, those temporarily out of stock notes would go away immediately!

Sam

Ok, good to hear. But there are quite a few items out of stock on the web site, not just ink. It worries me!

Also, any idea when we'll see Violet Vote in stock? I can't wait to get some.

Stevo