Cost Of Bottled Ink

[Barkingpig]

Look @ the Sailor bottles from the last few years:

 

1. normal round bottle (with plastic insert in it) holds 50ml, usually not first choice of many users

 

2. a "taller" some call it "vase" shaped bottle, also 50 ml, used primarily for the Sailor limited edition inks, many sold @ Japanese Pen Shops, quite desired by users & collectors

 

3. the new square bottle for Four Seasons & Shikiori inks, holds 20 ml (the former round bottles held 50 ml)

 

4. the new square bottle, holding 50 ml

 

This one Company, has offered inks in four different bottles, during the last two years & ink is priced differently in each bottle size, the former 50 ml, round bottles used for 4 Seasons line was under $20.00 & now the new square, 20 ml bottle is almost the same price. It would appear the Company DOES take the "bottle" into consideration when pricing their ink.

 

I find choice of ink to be subjective, I will pay more for some colors that other users wouldn't want @ any price, (Ms Inkstained Ruth comes to mind with her dislike of orange & the murky greens, BOTH among MY favored choices!) BECAUSE the choice for ink purchase is subjective for many of us, I am sure bottle shape & design also play into those decisions AND I feel sure the ink companies are aware of that & choose their bottles & packaging, accordingly.

 

If a user regularly stores his bottle of ink, IN the box, IN a drawer, or closed space, the bottle design wouldn't matter as much to them as long as it was functional for filling pens with ease, as the contents decrease. I appreciate the bottle's design & store my bottles visible to ME, in a glass front cabinet, so I might be more willing to pay more for ink, in an interesting bottle.

 

At the end of the day, I believe "most" Manufactures use a very old theory for pricing, "what the market will bear." Many Sellers do same, they hold firm to the MSRP, when pricing their ink & others discount the MSRP to a lower level to stimulate their sales revenue. We are very fortunate to have so many choices available for ink, but also are fortunate to have choices for purchase, based on either cost, shipping or service, whether value added or implied.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Barkingpig

[invisuu]

Well, in some cases (such as the Akkerman bottles) the bottles are worth any increase in price because they're very functional. In other cases, though, the bottles are really more like perfume bottles, and designed to add to the perceived value of "luxury". Yes, those bottles probably cost more -- but I don't know if the markup reflects the *actual* cost of the bottles or the "perceived" cost/value.

And honestly, I don't really save empty ink bottles. I did buy an empty MB "shoe" box (modern style) last fall in an antiques mall in Ohio -- but it cost a buck, plus sales tax. Are the contents of the bottle of MB Lavender Purple I bought a couple of years ago worth $22.43 US (the current cost to replace that bottle when I finish it, assuming $1.07 for the bottle cost? Dunno....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Id say most of the cost is actually the bottle, the ink is worth probably a tiny fraction for the manufacturer. You got the bottle so cheap because that vendor probably sold the ink with samples, meaning he already sold the ink for multiple of what its MSRP was anyway. Selling the empty botte was just a cherry on the top.

 

As far as I know, manufacturers have to order an absurd amount of empty bottles when they want new ones to make it economical. This means bottles are usually the bulk of the upfront cost, but something tells me a solution that is mostly water is pretty inexpensive. Beer, for example, is worth just cents - what you pay for is the can, packaging, etc.

[Noihvo]

Aand I seem to be a bit behind on the current European political situation. The ink is of course made in the Czech Republic, and nowhere else.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Noihvo

[dcwaites]

The Koh-i-noor Document Blue is one of my go-to Permanently Permanent inks (not to be confused with Parker Quink Ephemerally Permanent Blue)

[bob_hayden]

Thanks. I have both Koh-I-Noor document inks as well as a memory of entering info on those inks into my spreadsheet. It must have leaked out.

[Rav_LandE]

Bob, I agree with you about the table issues. I'm sure there is a way to do it, but I don't know how.

 

And yes, the gold price was sort of a comparison because sometimes, it feels like gold might be cheaper.

 

To get the information into a spreadsheet, such as excel.

 

Copy the table and paste into notepad.

Start excel and import the data as a tab delimited file.

 

You should end up with something like this...

[kerk1v]

 

 

Prices are in quantity of one bottle. The Hero 23x ink is cheapest. At the time I gathered that data you could get it for that price from a number of sellers, but last time I looked it was down to only a couple, and those had low feedback ratings. But remember eBay will help if you have a problem;-)

 

Parker ink from India has a low price per bottle. So does Thornton, and Thornton can be much cheaper if you buy the colors that have quantity pricing. Looking at price per unit volume, the Camlin and Noodler's inks, and the Hero 232 blue-black, are in the $3 range, in part due to being packed in large bottles. In the $4 range we have Glare inks from India and the large bottles of Diamine. By $5 per 30 ml you are getting into name brand territory with Sheaffer, Parker (from India), and Private Reserve.

 

Many of these prices are way over the top. Parker Quink 62 ml bottle will cost around 7 €, Rohrer & Klingner can be had for as low as 5€ here in Europe, Pelikan standard 4001 goes for around 6€, Lamy for around 10, the small diamines around 4€.... Ebay, it seems is not a particularly good nor cheap source for fountain pen inks.

 

All the prices above are either from local brick and mortar shops, or reputable european online retailers.

[JollyCynic]

Many of these prices are way over the top. Parker Quink 62 ml bottle will cost around 7 €, Rohrer & Klingner can be had for as low as 5€ here in Europe, Pelikan standard 4001 goes for around 6€, Lamy for around 10, the small diamines around 4€.... Ebay, it seems is not a particularly good nor cheap source for fountain pen inks.

 

All the prices above are either from local brick and mortar shops, or reputable european online retailers.

 

I assumed that this was just due to the price of shipping, tariffs, and market differences in the States, but you're right. A quick check on eBay shows that the cheapest Diamine 80ml here in the UK is about £7 shipped (USD $9 currently), but if I get it from a London stationer it's £6.50 (USD $8.40ish), but they're normally out of stock on everything. (They basically have one bottle of each colour, and if they've sold it you have to wait for their monthly shipment. And I must remember to ask to test an ink they recommend and not just buy too much of a purple I hate when the purple I want isn't in.) If I get it online from a well regarded UK online merchant, it's about £5.90 (USD $7.60), nearly a buck and a half cheaper. So possibly auction sites aren't the best place to check for bargains on ink.

 

On the other hand, I never realised how good I had it with cheap Diamine here. It comes out to USD $2.85 per 30ml in 80ml bottles. BRB ... Ordering some purple I do like ...

[kerk1v]

 

I assumed that this was just due to the price of shipping, tariffs, and market differences in the States, but you're right. [...]

 

Prices vary wildly. For instance, De Atramentis inks are cheaper at a dutch online retailer than directly on their site. Ebay is generally quite expensive, but I've also moved away from selling and also partially buying stuff on Ebay, because they have continuously increased their listing fees and sales comissions, plus the bite PayPal will be taking out of it, so I guess the people selling stuff there probably have no other choice than charge what they are charging. Probably the chinese on Ebay.com have a different pricing structure, how else could they sell some Hero brand pens for a quid each.

 

After all, we're a small market niche, and the fact that the perception of this niche more often than not one of a luxury market also causes some sellers to lose all sense of decency, some to believe that an old and beaten up mass-manufactured pen from the 60ies or 70ies is "vintage", completely overlooking the fact that the value of whatever you want to sell is the price someone is willing to pay for it. (Capitalism and free market 101, guys!)

[Corona688]

I came to the conclusion that, given a formulation from Pilot and wholesale prices on dye, it's possible to make entire liters of ink for $20-$40.

 

Just like food, the majority of the cost is packing and shipping.