Ink Giveaway

[Carguy]

So, I have been trying to declutter a bit and I have 30+ bottles of ink that I would like to giveaway to someone. The drawback is that these are all bottles that I bought new, used and experimented with and then put away. They were all bought around 2007-2012. I don’t know if ink ever expires, but they have been kept in good condition in my home so I think they should be good to use. All are Diamine inks, with a couple that are newer bottles of Colorverse.

 

Any suggestions on HOW I should give these away? I intend to pay for postage to the recipient(s) but I honestly don’t want to be tasked with mailing to 5-10 different people. Finally, I’d like them to go to someone who is either starting out in our hobby or who can’t afford to buy a bunch of ink. Hopefully, those conditions won’t be too hard to achieve.

 

i would welcome ANY thoughts on how to best achieve this.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

 

 

[Misfit]

You could make your conditions known up front that you want to help new people, or people on a strict budget. 
 

I’m not sure if anyone wants 30 bottles of ink all at once. Odds are there is someone though. 

[Carguy]

7 hours ago, Misfit said:

You could make your conditions known up front that you want to help new people, or people on a strict budget. 
 

I’m not sure if anyone wants 30 bottles of ink all at once. Odds are there is someone though. 

That’s what I am struggling with…..SENDING 31 bottles of ink LOL

[inkstainedruth]

Do you have a local pen club by you?  You could take some (if not all) of the bottles there for whoever wants them.  The guy that runs the mailing list for my local club keeps a box that he brings each month for people to take what interests them (a lot of time it's samples, but sometimes I think there are bottles of ink as well).  
Which of course reminds me, that I want to bring a box I have no use for with me to tomorrow night's meeting -- when I ordered the NOS Sheaffer Star Wars Pop R2-D2 pen recently, the package was put inside a Conklin box to help protect it when it was mailed, but I have no use for it now.  (It's a pretty nice box, so I figure someone in the club might want it, sooner or later.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Carguy]

1 hour ago, inkstainedruth said:

Do you have a local pen club by you?  You could take some (if not all) of the bottles there for whoever wants them.  The guy that runs the mailing list for my local club keeps a box that he brings each month for people to take what interests them (a lot of time it's samples, but sometimes I think there are bottles of ink as well).  
Which of course reminds me, that I want to bring a box I have no use for with me to tomorrow night's meeting -- when I ordered the NOS Sheaffer Star Wars Pop R2-D2 pen recently, the package was put inside a Conklin box to help protect it when it was mailed, but I have no use for it now.  (It's a pretty nice box, so I figure someone in the club might want it, sooner or later.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I WISH we had a local pen club but we don’t, sadly.

[AmericanMonk]

I'm following this thread because I'm in the same boat. I have plenty of inks that I'd love to sell but the cost of shipping ruins any chance at profit.

 

Something that I have considered in the past is to split my unwanted inks into 4-5mL samples and offer them up for free for anyone who cares to pay for the shipping. If there is a desire/call for that kind of service then I wouldn't mind buying some bulk vials and ziplocs and I'd be happy to store other peoples' unwanted used sample vials and ink. I wouldn't necessarily limit the shipping to newbies but I would limit one sample of each ink per address.

 

There are plenty of inks that I'd be content to have just 4-5mL for myself and divvy up the rest (I'm looking at you, 50mL shimmer inks); inks that take too long to dry for this left-handed writer (most of my Noodlers, including the two Black Swans, Apache Sunset, Kiowa Pecan, Navy, Blue-Black, Baltimore Canyon); inks that are experimental/novelty in nature (again, Noodlers: Rome Burning, Summer Tanager, Tolstoy, Rachmaninoff); and inks that are perfectly good except I have others in the same category which I prefer (Monteverde Ocean Noir, Robert Oster Blue Water Ice, Diamine's two Brexits, Imperial Purple, Havasu Turquoise, Marine, and Majestic Blue, Parker Quink Black, and Lamy's Turquoise). Lots of good stuff that I'd hate to see go to waste (or in some cases, I'd hate to see other people waste money on full bottles). This is not an exhaustive list.

 

@alc3261 (or any other knowledgeable mod or member): Is there anything like this already happening? Would enough people be interested in this, either as donors or as recipients? Has this been tried before?

[slr31]

I would love to try out some ink, but I insist I pay for the shipping.

[A Smug Dill]

On 2/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, AmericanMonk said:

I have plenty of inks that I'd love to sell but the cost of shipping ruins any chance at profit.

 

There's a big logical difference between making a (non-nil) profit, and just recouping costs so as not to wear any losses financially, in spite of having decided in the first instance to buy more than you can (or want to) personally use (or consume, or give away).

 

I cannot think why anyone would want you to (have a chance at) profit from selling inks, if you're not trading as a business and/or have something rare that they cannot now just order from a retailer. After all, arguably it's better to let commercial retailers take any profit so that they remain in business and continue to serve the hobbyist community, even if one does not begrudge others profiting from one's out-of-pocket consumer spending.

[lascosas]

If someone has a bunch of unusual inks and wants to sell them at about 40% of retail, you can send me a message.  I have aquired a couple hundred inks that way.  Why do I want so many ink bottles?  Compulsion. 

[Sailor Kenshin]

I never even think of SELLING inks I no longer want.  I've always just given them away.  

 

@Carguy, someone will want your inks, I'm sure.  You may even consider splitting them into two 'piles' and going for flat rate postage.

 

Good luck with this very generous offer.

[SLinkster]

On 2/17/2024 at 8:01 PM, slr31 said:

I would love to try out some ink, but I insist I pay for the shipping.

Do you go to the Austin pen club meetings? I'd do some ink swaps, with a little advance notice. I wont' make the March meeting but I'll be there in April.

[slr31]

21 hours ago, SLinkster said:

Do you go to the Austin pen club meetings? I'd do some ink swaps, with a little advance notice. I wont' make the March meeting but I'll be there in April.

Thank you for this info. I will find out about this meeting and hopefully will get to meet you in April.

[AmericanMonk]

 

On 2/18/2024 at 12:32 AM, A Smug Dill said:

There's a big logical difference between making a (non-nil) profit, and just recouping costs so as not to wear any losses financially, in spite of having decided in the first instance to buy more than you can (or want to) personally use (or consume, or give away)...

 

In the context of my original message, the spirit of my use of the word 'profit' is intended to mean, "I haven't found a way to get rid of my unwanted inks so that the amount for which I sell it is higher than the cost of selling it." Between OP's generosity and my expressed willingness to buy vials and divvy up samples of my own unwanted supply for free, I was hoping to be granted enough poetic license to place my use of 'profit' into a context of garage sale terminology rather than, say, a corporation's accounting department. Nobody expects a garage sale to keep one out of the red, and neither do I expect my potential sales on the used market (or gifting) to recoup my financial losses.

 

Do you have any direct thoughts on my original questions? or was your reply meant to be a direct answer to them?

[A Smug Dill]

On 2/22/2024 at 9:12 AM, AmericanMonk said:

Do you have any direct thoughts on my original questions? or was your reply meant to be a direct answer to them?

 

My answer addressed what I quoted, which I thought most warranted a reply and/or discussion out of your post, not the least because that was how you started and premised the content (as why you would be interested in alternative ways to dispose of your unwanted ink).

 

On 2/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, AmericanMonk said:

Is there anything like this already happening?

 

This very forum subsection is full of examples of ink samples giveaways — as opposed to ink bottle giveaways, which is what the OP of this thread is intending — and such, that had already happened. Here are a few of mine, which does not account for all of the >250 ink samples I've given away. Then there was also this initiative, which was a different way of redistributing surplus or unwanted ink.

 

Whether they align with the distribution model(s) and psychological drivers you have in mind is up to you to review and confirm. I personally don't agree with any of the aspects/details separately highlighted below, in the way I formulate my own initiatives:

 

On 2/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, AmericanMonk said:

… split my unwanted inks into 4-5mL samples and offer them up for free for anyone who cares to pay for the shipping. If there is a desire/call for that kind of service…

On 2/13/2024 at 10:36 AM, AmericanMonk said:

in some cases, I'd hate to see other people waste money on full bottles

 

but the why, or my direct thoughts, on each of those would be a separate discussion.

 

Also, if your question was asked and intended strictly in the present continuous sense, then it's up to you to look further, and I'm not knowledgeable enough to be aware of any such non-commercial “service” being offered, especially if the access channel is not on FPN.

 

Edited February 24 by A Smug Dill
Fixed link to surplus pass-around initiative

[mke]

On 2/18/2024 at 2:32 PM, A Smug Dill said:

I cannot think why anyone would want you to (have a chance at) profit from selling inks

 

Does that apply to "selling pens" too? 😁

[RedPie]

On 2/20/2024 at 12:24 PM, Sailor Kenshin said:

I never even think of SELLING inks I no longer want.  I've always just given them away.

Way to go! Exactly what I would do....👏

[AmandaW]

17 minutes ago, RedPie said:

Way to go! Exactly what I would do....👏

Me too. I've given away pens and inks without thinking of anything coming in return, but unexpected it often does. Swings and roundabouts.

 

Australia had a pass around box for a while that one could put whole bottles, samples, pen parts and pens into and send it onto the next person who wanted it. @A Smug Dill started it. Fizzled out after a few years, probably cos it got too heavy. I got some treats from it, and made sure I sent it on with more than I kept. Pretty sure everyone did... no one wanted to look greedy.

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, mke said:

Does that apply to "selling pens" too? 😁

 

Yes, the same conditional clause, which you omitted when you quoted me, applies to selling pens too:

On 2/18/2024 at 4:32 PM, A Smug Dill said:

I cannot think why anyone would want you to (have a chance at) profit from selling inks, if you're not trading as a business and/or have something rare that they cannot now just order from a retailer.

 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

Fizzled out after a few years, probably cos it got too heavy.

 

I can think of a few reasons why it wasn't self-sustaining in the long term, but I don't think the weight (and consequentially incremental postal charges) of the parcel was that relevant a factor.

[RedPie]

3 hours ago, AmandaW said:

Australia had a pass around box for a while that one could put whole bottles, samples, pen parts and pens into and send it onto the next person who wanted it

That is very nice. Good idea to give away what you don't want any more and others would love to have!