Which Ink Lines Are Overpriced?

[PAKMAN]

All ink should cost about $7 a bottle. Anything over that is too much. That said, thankfully all ink isn't $7 a bottle or I'd have 810 bottles instead of 81 overpriced bottles of ink! 

[ParramattaPaul]

11 minutes ago, PAKMAN said:

All ink should cost about $7 a bottle. Anything over that is too much. That said, thankfully all ink isn't $7 a bottle or I'd have 810 bottles instead of 81 overpriced bottles of ink! 

I think your statement needs to specify a quantity. $7 for 1L is a true bargain; $7 for 10ml isn't.

[bunnspecial]

34 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

I think your statement needs to specify a quantity. $7 for 1L is a true bargain; $7 for 10ml isn't.

 

Along those same lines, I was initially excited when I looked at the Lamy Crystal inks since they were like $15 a bottle compared to $25 give or take for other premium inks.

 

That $15 isn't such a great price when you consider that it's a 30mL bottle, though. Still, though, I actually kind of like it for a change since it's still half the price of 30mL Montblanc bottles and it makes acquiring the entire line of ink a somewhat more affordable proposition.

 

I'm mixed on 30mL bottles. On one hand, for a special purpose ink, 30mL is plenty to play with, fill several pens, and actually use it as a day-to-day ink for a while. On the other hand, if you use it day in and day out, 30mL isn't that much ink. I primarily use piston fillers, and most of mine hold 1.5-2.5mL of ink. That's not a ton of fills from a 30mL bottle.

 

I have a love-hate relationship with the little Diamine 30mL bottles. They're cheap enough that they're basically "big samples". On the other hand, though, I'm pretty sure they couldn't have found a smaller necked bottle, and the bottle is basically only good for syringing/pipetting ink into another container or sticking a converter down in it. I'm not sure if any of my pens, even my skinny little Montblanc 14s and 24s or my Soennecken 100, will fit in the neck.

[ParramattaPaul]

15 minutes ago, bunnspecial said:

have a love-hate relationship with the little Diamine 30mL bottles.

Where the Diamine 30 ml bottle sizing shines for me is for travel.  They are small enough that I'm not taking a years supply on a one month holiday. Their size and plastic structure means that I can pack a few of them in a plastic bag in my checked bags, and not worry about them getting broken or leaking.  The necks are small, but I haven't had any problems filling pens through the nib from them.

 

The only glass containers I want to pack when I travel is a bottle or two of wine as gifts for friends.

[ethernautrix]

Here's a screenshot. Did a search on "Dupont ink."

 

Nice bottle.

 

But my favorite black ink is Noodler's Bulletproof Black. So....

[PithyProlix]

23 minutes ago, ethernautrix said:

Here's a screenshot. Did a search on "Dupont ink."

 

Nice bottle.

 

But my favorite black ink is Noodler's Bulletproof Black. So....

 

Looks to be $220 for 5 bottles, right? That would be $44 per bottle, I believe 70 ml per bottle. That would be about $0.63 per ml. In the ballpark of Sailor Jentle and less than Sailor Shikiori & Ink Studio. Really high but not insane.

[RJS]

It's the same price (or lower) than the overpriced Pilot, Sailor and Caran d'Ache ink in the UK, but 50% over the Montblanc threshold for acceptable pricing (in my mind).

[Aether]

Okay.  If you didn't have to pay for shipping, what would you all think is a reasonable price for a standard ink?

[RJS]

18 minutes ago, Aether said:

Okay.  If you didn't have to pay for shipping, what would you all think is a reasonable price for a standard ink?

Perhaps £8/$11 for 60ml/2oz. Most bottles aren't great to fill from when they're nearly empty, so a couple of quid extra for a sensible bottle would be fine. Ditto for inks from one-man-band companies, I understand a couple of quid extra being added on. 

[sgphototn]

41 minutes ago, Aether said:

Okay.  If you didn't have to pay for shipping, what would you all think is a reasonable price for a standard ink?

I buy KWZ IG inks for about $15.00  for a 60 ml bottle with free shipping. For me that's reasonable. If those inks were $60.00 a bottle, I wouldn't buy them even though I could afford to.

 

If people want to spend $60.00 a bottle for 60 ml (or less) for ink, that's on them.

 

'Reasonable price' is a subjective phrase, thank goodness. Whatever a buyer will pay for their own reasons in a free trade between buyer and seller is not my concern nor should it be. 

 

[Karmachanic]

9 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

The only glass containers I want to pack when I travel is a bottle or two of wine as gifts for friends.

 

30ml Nalgene bottle. Your choice of inks

[Bristol24]

The saying, "you get what you pay for" is generally true but not always.  In purchasing a car or a fountain pen, there are the physical, objective qualities that can be seen and experienced.  If the workmanship and performance exceed expectations for the price paid, it is considered a bargain...a good deal.  If, however the workmanship and quality prove to be lacking for the higher price paid, then one could say it was overpriced.  Inks, however, are far more subjective.  Would 60ml of Parker Quink Blue Black in a cut crystal bottle be overpriced at $50?  Packaging and market placement have a profound impact on perceived value and there are no doubt some manufacturers that might snicker a little on the way to the bank.  A non-fountain pen example:  As a couple that sails extensively, we are always interested in finding cleaning products that work.  We were introduced to a product that would clean the grunge off of dock fenders like magic.  It cost $30 a gallon at the marine supply store.  We bit the bullet and bought a gallon which we discovered was not going to last very long as we found more and more uses for the product. The next time we were at Home Depot we ventured over to the cleaning supplies and there was the same product for $9.95!  The bottle looked the same and the product smelled the same but there wasn't a picture of a sailboat on the bottle.  Dock fender grunge being stubbornly hard to remove, we didn't want to short change ourselves so I called the company to ask what the difference was between their marne product and their standard product.  The answer:  None except the graphics on the bottle.

 

Cliff

 

 

 

 

[Uncial]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ink jet ink. That stuff is more expensive than gold by weight.

[RJS]

10 minutes ago, Uncial said:

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ink jet ink. That stuff is more expensive than gold by weight.

Someone did...

 

I absolutely agree the stuff is ridiculously priced. I only ever buy the knock-off ink refills, which work just as well for a fraction of the price. 

[ParramattaPaul]

13 hours ago, ethernautrix said:

Here's a screenshot. Did a search on "Dupont ink."

 

Nice bottle.

 

But my favorite black ink is Noodler's Bulletproof Black. So....

I wonder if the cap on the bottle is Sterling Silver as is this obviously Diamine bottle from Onoto. Sterling Silver Cap Bottled Ink | Luxury, Handcrafted, British Fountain Pens | Onoto 

[RJS]

No chance is the Dupont bottle coming with a sterling silver cap for £30....

[samasry]

25 years ago, before mp3 and streaming audio took over, the Audiophile community used to have oxygen-free copper wiring that cost 10x the normal wiring and the next step was pure Silver wiring that used to cost 100x the normal wiring.

 

At least those people claimed or thought they were hearing subtle sounds that the normal wiring supposedly squashes during transmission.

 

Saner people used to demonstrate that  you can use a metal dry cleaning  hanger, specially for the signal path between the power  Amplifier and speaker and  get a signal as good as the signal you get from pure silver speaker wiring;  of course to no avail.

 

The funny part of this tale from silver past, is that if you open  a speaker that costs several thousands, the internal wiring of those speakers are made of the cheapest possible wiring, in many cases not even copper let alone sans oxygen.

 

To each his/her own

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

1 hour ago, RJS said:

Someone did...

 

I absolutely agree the stuff is ridiculously priced. I only ever buy the knock-off ink refills, which work just as well for a fraction of the price. 

I will NEVER EVER own an inkjet printer again (and I had already decided that before watching this video)

 

41 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

I wonder if the cap on the bottle is Sterling Silver as is this obviously Diamine bottle from Onoto. Sterling Silver Cap Bottled Ink | Luxury, Handcrafted, British Fountain Pens | Onoto 

...welcome to the "more money than brains club" the club president is Jay Leno (by his own admission...)

Please make sure to renew your membership regularly and do not forget to include your membership number on your cheque

 

[ParramattaPaul]

2 hours ago, RJS said:

No chance is the Dupont bottle coming with a sterling silver cap for £30....

That's true.  However, the bottle pictured was listed at $220 (one assumes USD).

[ParramattaPaul]

1 hour ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

I will NEVER EVER own an inkjet printer again (and I had already decided that before watching this video)

 

...welcome to the "more money than brains club" the club president is Jay Leno (by his own admission...)

Please make sure to renew your membership regularly and do not forget to include your membership number on your cheque

 

Not a member, won't be a member, ever.  I do all my shopping in the Canary Islands (cheap, cheap, cheap).