Opuntia Stricta - Penbbs Ink No. 96

[lgsoltek]

Re: shipping: As my Jewish Presbyterian mother would have said, "I've seen worse." I ordered three inks from each web site. On uuorder.com, it worked out to $21.98 per bottle, shipped to the US by EMS. On OderAny.com it was only $8.82 per bottle with "standard shipping," whatever that might be. It will be interesting to see what arrives and when.

21.98 USD per bottle?!! But that's six or seven times their original price!

[haruka337]

This color incites only a "meh" out of me. Otherwise, nice review.

[jmccarty3]

21.98 USD per bottle?!! But that's six or seven times their original price!

 

 

I'm sure the cost of getting these inks from China to the US is much greater than the cost of the inks themselves. That's the way things are. We'll have to see what the quality is like. These are still a bargain compared to Hieronymus, which has the highest shipping charges I've ever seen, Louis Vuitton, Sailor LEs, etc.

[fountainpagan]

21.98 USD per bottle?!! But that's six or seven times their original price!

 

Well, I made a simulation. For France it is $6,16 for the bottle, and $28,52 for shipping.

[visvamitra]

I've ordered 4 inks on Taobao. It was difficult - I needed to use google translate and it took me almost an hour. I gave them my credit card number and I hope it wasn't mistake. I've chosen "standard" shiipping and I've pait 19,87 $ for 4 inks with shipment. I'll let you know if and when they arrive and if my credit account is still mine after the operation

[lgsoltek]

Bobje opened a thread on buying from Taobao and invited me to chime in. Maybe you guys can also tell us about your experience with Taobao there.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/306953-for-chinese-pens-ebay-taobao-alipay/

[tritrek]

Have you ever thought of publishing your reviews in a book? It would sell out rather quickly...

I really don't want to hurt anyone else's feelings but your reviews are by far the best, I mean if you're first, the next is like... the fourth. There is tremendous work, enthusiasm, and VALUE in this, not only nostalgic value for us, pen-crazies but real money value, in all the time and ink invested. I think it should be published in a nice book.
If I remember correctly, there was one book with ink samples that is impossible to obtain... so you would fill quite a gap.

[lapis]

Wow, that's even less than half-price. I sure hope you get that soon!

[jmccarty3]

I have some unfortunate news to report. While monitoring my credit card statement, I discovered a more than $400US charge from a Chinese web site, obviously fraudulent.

 

I had not provided my credit card information to either uuorder.com or OfferAny.com. I asked for and received a PayPal invoice from uuorder.com and paid it. This is the company with the higher shipping fees.

 

OfferAny wanted either a credit card or cash via Western Union. During the elaborate sign-up process with Western Union, I was required to enter my credit card information, so I'm wondering if the hackers got my info from them. My credit card company refused the charge from Western Union--maybe they know something about the vendor or WU that we don't. When the charge didn't go through, I emailed OfferAny a request for a PayPal invoice, but never heard anything more from them. It's obviously impossible to determine exactly who got my card info, but when it happens on the same day that you're trying to do business with two Chinese sites, you have to be a bit suspicious. I've already canceled my credit card, and will have to provide the new account number to several legitimate businesses that have the old one on file. At least I'll have my new card tomorrow or the day after.

[jmccarty3]

This afternoon, I received a PayPal invoice from OfferAny.com. Against my better judgment, I went ahead and paid it, because (1) it was only 20 some-odd dollars, and (2) the title ink of this thread was included in the order.

 

We shall see.

[ethernautrix]

I like this shade of green - very nice. I'm not tempted to risk my credit card number, though. Good luck, jmccarty3!

[jmccarty3]

Now, after all this drama, I received an email today saying that the Opuntia Stricta green is not available, and asking me to choose another color!

 

My opinion is that these OfferAny folks are not ready for prime time and should be avoided. If Vanness or Anderson Pen can find a way to import these inks reliably, I'll consider them again.

[chingdamosaic]

This seems like a nice one, thank you for the thorough review!

 

I remember reading quite a lot of articles reporting Penbbs inks' unstable quality(some brown ink turned to grass green after one year in the original bottle...crazy!!) and poor packaging(almost 1/10 of inks broke or spilled during the shipment), but that was like over 3 years ago.

Now the above problems seem already solved, and I'd love to try some of these interesting colors;)

 

P.S. So far I've tried a sample of AVG(no. 132) and 陌上花開(no. 140). The performance is meh but I quite enjoy the colors.

[amberleadavis]

Great find, Vis!

[jmccarty3]

My second choice was not available either, so I just sent them a list of which colors would be an acceptable substitute. At least they are communicating with me by email, but otherwise I can't recommend dealing with these Chinese web sites.

[jmccarty3]

Without any communication or explanation, my PayPal payment to OfferAny was refunded, so I will not be getting any of those inks.

 

OTOH, yesterday I received the three penbbs inks I ordered through uuorder, and they look very nice.

[lgsoltek]

I just found out this ink is no longer in production.