Which Ink Lines Are Overpriced?

[DrDebG]

11 minutes ago, RJS said:

Here's a good example of an ink line that's unnecessarily overpriced in Europe: Pilot Blue-Black/Blue/Black/Red. Only officially sold by Pilot in cartridge form in this continent for some odd reason, with imports currently starting at about £15 for the little bottles. In China and Japan the 30ml bottles are easily found and cost about £2 in bricks and mortar stores, and it is the go to brand for school children.

 

Edit: I presume it is because they want us to buy the fancy line, and only associate Pilot with high end ink. The Iroshizuku inks were about £7.50 when I was in Japan, and £30 retail price in the UK.

 

 

Hmmm - whenever I make it to Japan, I will need to bring along my big suitcase in order to haul back all the bottles of ink that are so much "less expensive" there.  

[bayindirh]

16 minutes ago, DrDebG said:

I have learned not to put my pens in my pockets.

 

I also don't personally carry my pens in my pocket per se, it was just a metaphor for "my EDC pen". My pen travels me in a laptop backpack, nib up. So it doesn't cause a mess. When the unfortunate event happened it was in my hand, but the pen in question was my EDC pen.

 

I was not sure about the washability of the ink in the pen, but a quick soapy scrub dissolved everything, so there was a little happy dance involved TBH

 

From now on, I'll really make sure that the ink I have in my pen is thoroughly washable. Which means my Lamy and Waterman blue consumption will considerably go up (esp. Lamy self destructs in water). 

[bunnspecial]

28 minutes ago, RJS said:

Here's a good example of an ink line that's unnecessarily overpriced in Europe: Pilot Blue-Black/Blue/Black/Red. Only officially sold by Pilot in cartridge form in this continent for some odd reason, with imports currently starting at about £15 for the little bottles. In China and Japan the 30ml bottles are easily found and cost about £2 in bricks and mortar stores, and it is the go to brand for school children.

 

Edit: I presume it is because they want us to buy the fancy line, and only associate Pilot with high end ink. The Iroshizuku inks were about £7.50 when I was in Japan, and £30 retail price in the UK.

 

Comparing ink prices around the world is always interesting.

 

In the US, putting aside things like the 1L Pelikan bottles(which are in a league of their own for low cost provided you can actually use that much ink in your lifetime), about the least expensive ink we have around is Noodler's. Most of their inks are $12.50 for a 3 oz. bottle(~90mL) that's filled absolutely to the brim. A few Noodler's inks are more expensive-one example that comes to mind is Empire Red, which is $18.50 for 3 oz, but in general that $12.50 price is fairly constant.

 

Here, inks like Iroshizoku and Edelstein are north of $20/bottle, and I understand that in Europe Edelstein inks are quite a bit less expensive and as you point out Iroshizokus are less expensive in Japan. By contrast, I've heard folks elsewhere in the world talk about Noodlers inks being almost prohibitively expensive.

[inkstainedruth]

23 minutes ago, DrDebG said:

 

 

Hmmm - whenever I make it to Japan, I will need to bring along my big suitcase in order to haul back all the bottles of ink that are so much "less expensive" there.  

A friend of my husband and mine got to go to Japan a couple of years ago to be interviewed on some Japanese TV show (he does research into various historical Japanese arts and crafts, particularly braiding).  If I had heard about him going ahead of time, instead of after the fact, I would have said "Hey can you pick me up X and/or Y pen, and A, B, and C inks if you have a chance to do any shopping and room in your luggage?  I'd happily pay you back!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[RJS]

43 minutes ago, DrDebG said:

 

Agreed - many of the "high quality" inks do very well on all types of paper.  And yes, GvFC Royal Blue (and Cobalt Blue and Hazelnut Brown) are also in my repetoire of preferred inks although they are a bit drier than my others.  

 

I have learned not to put my pens in my pockets.  When I need to carry a pen on me, I have a pen sleeve that fits around my neck.  But I too have learned to only "carry" washable inks (although even these can stain).  Most of the time I keep my pens in a pen case, or when I am at home, they are stored in my pen box.  

I don't worry about only using washable inks in my pocket pen, which is a Kaweco Al-Sport, as it seals very firmly. However I do write a journal before I sleep, sat in bed, and washable inks have twice saved me when ink has decided to blob out! 
 

I agree about Montblanc being consistently good on different paper types, but quite a few of Diamine's inks are at least as good in that regard. (The cheapest mainstream ink in the UK) When I write on copy paper I tend to use a dry writing pen with a fine nib, which is usually sufficient with any but the worst behaved inks.

[RJS]

On 7/12/2021 at 9:12 PM, inkstainedruth said:

A friend of my husband and mine got to go to Japan a couple of years ago to be interviewed on some Japanese TV show (he does research into various historical Japanese arts and crafts, particularly braiding).  If I had heard about him going ahead of time, instead of after the fact, I would have said "Hey can you pick me up X and/or Y pen, and A, B, and C inks if you have a chance to do any shopping and room in your luggage?  I'd happily pay you back!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

When Covid settles down and I get to return to Japan, I'm definitely having a stationary shopping day! I'd absolutely recommend a holiday there if you get a chance- I'm very widely travelled and Japan still remains one of my all time favourites for a brilliant vacation. The culture, the food, the scenery, the history, the weirdness... I loved it!

In the past I bought quite a lot from there online and had it shipped, but likely won't again, between freight being prohibitive and horrible new laws on tax and duty coming into force in the UK and EU that essentially ban Japanese sellers on sites like eBay, Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk etc from shipping to us. If Amazon.jp gets its act together they'll be an option for bigger orders in the future, but it won't be cheap. Currently only some items on their site will arrive in the UK trouble free I discovered, whilst many will get stung for tax, duty, fees. Their customer service is bamboozled by it all, currently.

[Karmachanic]

4 hours ago, RJS said:

whilst many will get stung for tax, duty, fees

 

What imported items available in UK shops are exept from these charges?

[Uncial]

Books, periodicals and paper?

[RJS]

A number of items on Amazon.jp come with postage that includes UK VAT (instead of domestic tax), duty, fees etc included. It's a crapshoot as to what does and doesn't, currently. The staff I spoke with weren't sure what happens if you order an item that has all inclusive shipping with an item that doesn't. They didn't even want to hazard a guess.

[Arkanabar]

Transportation tends to get cheaper over time.  I suspect the primary causative factor in enormous variations in international ink prices is government.

[SilverStoneMetallic]

I love some of the Sailor inks, but the recent move to smaller bottles that cost as much as the previously sold 50 ml bottles has me scratching my head. A few weeks ago,  I found a shop that had 50 ml bottles in stock and bought 6 of them and 8 showed up.

[RJS]

3 hours ago, Arkanabar said:

Transportation tends to get cheaper over time.  I suspect the primary causative factor in enormous variations in international ink prices is government.

Extremely unlikely in this instance. With the Japanese inks for example, the few that are officially sold outside of Asia are marketed as a luxury, and priced as such. A bottle of ink doesn't end up 4x the Japanese and Chinese price because of tax alone! The pricing is a business decision. A decision is made for every country in regards to which prices the market can tolerate. 

[A Smug Dill]

5 hours ago, SilverStoneMetallic said:

I found a shop that had 50 ml bottles in stock and bought 6 of them and 8 showed up.

 

Score! 🀄

[Karmachanic]

7 hours ago, RJS said:

With the Japanese inks for example, the few that are officially sold outside of Asia are marketed as a luxury, and priced as such. A bottle of ink doesn't end up 4x the Japanese and Chinese price because of tax alone! The pricing is a business decision. A decision is made for every country in regards to which prices the market can tolerate. 

 

I buy inks directly from Nagasawa at the Japanese market price.  Of course shipping/VAT is additional.

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

26 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

I buy inks directly from Nagasawa at the Japanese market price.  Of course shipping/VAT is additional.

Is the shipping of reasonable quality and cost?

[Karmachanic]

1 hour ago, IlikeInksandIcannotlie said:

Is the shipping of reasonable quality and cost?

 

Shipped DHL within 5 days to UK at around the same cost as the ink.

[RJS]

4 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

 

Shipped DHL within 5 days to UK at around the same cost as the ink.

How are the customs fees/duty/VAT working out for you since the rules changed this year?

[RJS]

I had a look on Nagasawa Pen Shop's website... I can see the Kobe inks, which they sell for ¥2000/£13. Couldn't spot other inks, but I didn't use a translator so I wasn't thorough. Haha. What do those bottles end up at your front door for?

[Karmachanic]

28 minutes ago, RJS said:

 What do those bottles end up at your front door for?

 

£30 +/-  Sailor Manyo at Cult is £24

[RJS]

About what I expected. I suppose just over double isn't as bad as the markup the manufacturer would give, given the opportunity.