New Inks: Elixir Colorist Collection

[RSVP]

[W]hatever pens I have had from MB (149, 146 and a few rollerballs), the pricepoint at which they come at, is not equivalent to the quality provided. I would say that MB 149 is a good 350 euros pen, but certainly not a 550+ Euros pen. They feel cheap in hand.

Pens from Pelikan, a fellow European makers feel more solid and are cheaper too.

 

For me MB feel better quality (maybe except the piston).

 

Pilot--Namiki are nice but the plating on pens like Falcon is brassy. Thinking of it, also for Pelikan.

[Mew]

 

For me MB feel better quality (maybe except the piston).

 

Pilot--Namiki are nice but the plating on pens like Falcon is brassy. Thinking of it, also for Pelikan.

You mean the material of the pen (for MB in comparison to Pelikan)?

 

Regarding Falcon - perhaps not fair to compare a <$150 pen to MB? Only pen I see from pilot in MB 149 range is the custom urushi, which is made from ebonite and lacquered.

[meiers]

My favourite inks:

1. Montblanc blue-black

2. BRG (racing green)

3. MB royal blue.

 

The bottles they come in are functional, too.

 

The elixir inks will wait until I can try them out in a boutique. Perhaps I will be impressed. Perhaps not.

[meiers]

I am not interested in watches, or scarves.

 

In my opinion (and only opinion not a generalised statement), whatever pens I have had from MB (149, 146 and a few rollerballs), the pricepoint at which they come at, is not equivalent to the quality provided. I would say that MB 149 is a good 350 euros pen, but certainly not a 550+ Euros pen. They feel cheap in hand.

Pens from Pelikan, a fellow European makers feel more solid and are cheaper too. Not to mention that general quality of their piston is better than MB. Their nibs might be inconsistent, but MB isn't an exception to that as well. I read through the entire MB nib replacement thread which had stories similar to Pelikan nibs, inconsistent.

If I am getting something which feels cheap in hand for 550, why shouldn't I take something that costs 200 euros less and feels better in hand?

 

Over and above both these European brands, I prefer Namiki.

MB has 7000 euros skeleton models, which is almost equivalent to the price of a Namiki Maki-e Emperor. The work on emperor is much more intricate, detailed, and more handwork and hours are put into making one Maki-e pen. Aside from the limited edition emperors, the regular issue emperors take 3 months to make with only 4 pieces per batch. Can you say that the same amount of hard work and hours have been put into making one skeleton model of MB?

 

Sure, both are different types of pens, but they cost almost the same. A normal human being would look at maximum returns (not in form of money, but in form of hard work done on his pen) for the same amount of money. I can buy both, but my money at all of the price points would go to a different brand and not MB.

 

I have tried to keep it as polite as possible to not start any flame wars. Hope that is receiprocated.

 

Edit: for some reason the forum cannot display the euro sign, so I had to edit the message to add 'euros' instead of the sign for the currency.

Thanks.

I am a Montblanc pen enthusiast and I appreciate your point of view. The 149 is the king of pens in my universe.

[thygreyt]

Going back to the inks:

 

To those who have/will buy them, please share photos and impressions! The colors do sound intriguing!

[meiers]

I am willing to be impressed. Seeing is believing.

[niksch]

My favourite inks:

1. Montblanc blue-black

2. BRG (racing green)

3. MB royal blue.

 

The bottles they come in are functional, too.

 

The elixir inks will wait until I can try them out in a boutique. Perhaps I will be impressed. Perhaps not.

 

1. The old MB Blue-Black

2. BRG (racing green)

3. MB Bordeaux

[Uncial]

Yes, please do post some pictures, I'm interested in seeing them.

[Michael R.]

 

Got it 5 min ago :-)

 

More later ...

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[invisuu]

Looking forward to it, Michael. Please post some pictures

[nibtip]

I am sure 70$ is a lot for dyed water. But with 50ml of ink i (based on tests with 5 medium nibbed pens) can fill up about 1000 A5 pages. 0.07$ per page with the most expensive ink. No comment.

N.B. i do not use Montblanc inks.

 

[Uncial]

Page for page it's cheaper than printer ink!

[Chrissy]

Page for page it's cheaper than printer ink!

 

Indeed. In fact most things are cheaper than printer ink.

[invisuu]

Including diamonds. Probably.

[Ghost Plane]

For comparison purposes, my groceries for the coming week totaled $65 USD. Including meat. Granted I’m single, but still...

[bubba818]

I wonder if someone in the company thought of the pricing analogous to how they price their perfume/cologne. After all, premium perfume brands can get away with the cost of the actual scent at around 1% of the retail price.

[Ghost Plane]

I wonder if someone in the company thought of the pricing analogous to how they price their perfume/cologne. After all, premium perfume brands can get away with the cost of the actual scent at around 1% of the retail price.

There’s a HUGE difference in the quantity used daily, though. Unless the pricing people are the same idiots who still think big nibs are for signatures...

[niksch]

There’s a HUGE difference in the quantity used daily, though. Unless the pricing people are the same idiots who still think big nibs are for signatures...

 

I hear you, but most users aren't like us, so they don't use as much ink. They use stock EF, F & M nibs, and assuming that they write half of what you do, they consume about 1/8th, maybe a 1/16th.

[Chrissy]

Even if I used 03B nibs in all of my pens and wrote with them 24/7, I reckon there would still be ink left in my bottles after I've shuffled off my mortal coil.

 

Note: I don't have an 03B nib, but my Sheaffer Legacy stub gets through a fair amount of ink...

[Kalessin]

If the manufacturers wanted to sell more ink, they'd promote big fat nibs that use double or triple the volume that a fine or medium nib will use... right? right??

 

Actually, I think what they have discovered is that ink has a nice big margin and is fairly easy to manufacture, and that new young users want to spend very little on pens, and want to spend a lot on fancy ink colors.