I found that isellpens.com has a great selection of ink, however, the minimum shipping charge is $10!!! So, if I only want to buy a ten dollar bottle of ink, it's going to cost twenty. Now, normally I would either find another, cheaper place to buy ink or I would simply load up my tab so the $10 shipping fee wouldn't seem to high. But, I can't do either of those two options because 1, I don't know any cheaper place to buy ink and 2, I don't have loads of money to spend on "toys" like extra ink and pens.

Any help? What online store would you go to buy just on bottle?

Thanks in advance

Check with Pam of Oscar Braun. They sell some inks and may have what you want. Also, James at Pear Tree Pens is good. I think their shipping is lower than Todd's of isellpens. I haven't liked Todd's high shipping & handling cost either but have bought from him.

I buy my ink from Swisher Pens.

I enjoy Pear tree pens, plus if you add an ink sampler (which is not that expensive (it is acutally cheap (yay for embedded parentheses (tired of it yet? I am (I am sleep deprived. That is why this is happening).)))) the shipping is not bad in comparison.

-Nkk

Swisher is great, but I buy most of my inks from www.pendemonium.com .
Ken.

I just cannot tolerate Pendemonium's website. It is too much trouble to get through, and I have no patience for it.

I like Swisher too......................


.................Stani

Depending on the ink desired, check with Speerbob (PM him or check his ebay store, I believe http://stores.ebay.com/speerbob/) or try http://www.penherostore.com/ and search for the word ink. I had recent good experiences with both and the shipping and ink costs seemed pretty reasonable.

*Swisher* They charge $5.25 for up to $25 and don't think any extra for shipping beyond their costs.

The last time I ordered ink I checked several different websites. I chose Swisher, because they have the lowest shipping costs of the four sites I looked at.

I alternate among various folks: Pear Tree, Swisher, Pendemonium and isellpens. Occasionally it is because of stock, prices or that I am buying another item. It doesn't hurt to get on newsletters and catch early sales. And this month James is offering a terrific sale on inks at Pear Tree.

Really? It isn't the best organization and layout in the world, but I'd much rather wander around Pendemonium than deal with the ridiculous mess of JavaScript at Swisher Pens.

My big issue with Pendemonium is they seem to be out of stock of 2/3 of their merchandise all the time. However, their service is fantastic.

Hey, I think Pendemonium has one of the best websites. De gustibus ....

In no particular order . . .

Pear Tree Pens
Swisher
Pendemonium
ISellPens
Oscar Braun
A Pen Lover's Paradise
PenHero
Fountain Pen Hospital

I've done business with all of them . . . more than once, and have been very happy with them.

I too have a gripe about shipping charges, have said so before, and almost caused a riot! My beef is this: I have tried recently to re-order the ink samples from Pear Tree, having been told, due to my previous dispute, that their international charges had been amended in order to take into account that you may not want to pay for international tracking on $4.50s worth of ink samples!
Alas, when I went throught the order process three days ago, I discovered to my disappointment that the minimum shipping charges still remained at over $28!!!
The biggest complaints I received last time was that I had posted a complaint before contacting James directly. So, I immediately PMed James to ask if perhaps if he could explain why the charges remain so high, but have received no reply as yet.
I also tried to place an order of over $100 for pens several months ago at isellpens, but the shipping charges were over 100% more than the order, so I didn't proceed with the order, as I felt I could get better value for monry in the UK or on e-bay if necessary!

To buy ink in the UK, look no further than our very own Martin (and Anna) at The Writing Desk. They charge a standard £2.00 for shipping, plus £0.30 for each extra bottle, which is very reasonable. They have a terrific range of brands, most of which you would never be able to get in a b & m store here.

The thing about ink is, it's heavy, and the bottles must be extremely well-packed to survive their journey to you. So, it's probably never going to be cost-effective to order supplies from the U.S. unless you tack it on to an order for a nice pen.

I like Pendemonium and ISellPens for my inks. Both have the inks I prefer, and both pack the inks well for the journey, be it near or far. I have ordered inks from Swishers, for a few exclusives, but they don't pack the ink well and I've had a couple of bottles that leaked on their way to me.

For anything other than the Diamine Inks I cannot agree more. However going direct to Diamine for their inks is very good value ( http://www.diamineinks.co.uk/ ). In the UK anything over £10 is free postage. International rates seem quite reasonable, but I can't really comment .

Regards

Richard.

Firstly, thanks, Col, for the recommendation .

Secondly, Richard, with our October special on Diamine, our prices are lower.

See you all on Sunday,

Martin

Missed that...
I do hope to see you Sunday. Traffic, back problems & God willing.

Regards

Richard.

I have enjoyed using Colorado Pen Direct. I've ordered a few things from them and they were back-ordered, but they rush delivered for me at no charge because it took so long (only a week). They were friendly and I think the prices were pretty good.

I've bought quite a number of Noodler's inks from greenman508 (eBay).

Admittedly, the $A was stronger then... and I bought several bottles at a time in order to defray the high costs of getting stuff to Australia.

Still, I got a marginally better deal than I'd have got locally (Canberra, Australia) plus a much better range (incl the 4.5oz eyedropper bottles).

I can't stand either Pendemonium OR Swisher. I keep thinking about placing an order with one of them and then get so frustrated with the website. I WOULD order from Pendemonium, but I've never once hit the website when they have all the inks I want to order in stock at once.

I go for Pear Tree Pens. Great website, great service, and you can throw in the ink sampler for cheap.

A "great" place to buy ink would be local...alas such a place does not exist!
Perhaps an inadvertent benefit of high shipping costs: it's required me to
be very thoughtful about the inks I buy. Not many impulse buys in that arena
for me because I must rely on online purchases.

That said, I've purchased inks from first, the place that has the ink I wanted.
If more than once place had it (which often is so not the case!), I bought from
the site with the cheapest shipping.

This weekend I have taken advantage of Pear Tree Pen's ink-related sale
to venture into Diamine Inks for the first time. (Thanks, James!!)
Can't wait to get those new inks.

I have bought Noodler's ink from:
Swisher Pens
ISellPens
Pendimonium
and on eBay greenman508 - when he offers 'free shipping' which he
does on occasion. Otherwise Swisher's shipping has been the best price.
Well, except for Pear Tree w/the sale!

Just weighing in with my own habits...
Cheers,
Julie

That's my feeling on ink from anywhere- I try my best to buy in a store.

Kurt

I would have to say Pear Tree and Pendemonium have some of the best selections around. I've also purchased ink on eBay from MelPens. You pretty much have to buy at least 3 bottles at a time and the shipping is expensive, but if you buy enough bottles, it makes them very inexpensive.

SHAMELESS PLUG!

Now, for vintage ink, I just head over to my website: VintageInks.com (or more accurately, down to my basement)!

hi guys. i was checking out this guys, "The inked nib" and their prices look great!!!... ink and pens!!

http://www.inkednib.com/products.asp?cat=13

actually, a lot of it is out of stock... bummer!!

I've had really good results with Pear Tree Pens. I'm in the US and James has always been great.

There are many good retailers, and I'm sure they would work too. But since Pear Tree does so well, I really have not have much motivation to look around.

Brent

I've been using Pear Tree and ISellPens. Both are great. Good pricing and very helpful when you have questions.

It depends on what kind of ink you want. If you can use Quink, Skrip, or a few other large brands, look for it on Amazon. Then find the company that drop-ships from Amazon and go to that company's web site. You can sometimes get a good deal, a new customer discount, and free shipping.

Paddler
(the card-carrying tightwad)