Uk Akkerman Sample Ink Buy

[fionafish]

Hello pen and ink lovers.

I have been wanting to try the Akkerman inks, but have been put off by not knowing which one to choose, the bottle size if I get it wrong and the postage cost. So I have come up with a cunning plan if some people will join me.

I would buy 30 bottles, to keep cost of postage as reasonable as is possible. http://www.vulpennen.nl/nl/merken/akkerman/inkt-and-vullingen/p-1/AkkInkt000.html

When the bottles arrive I will split the bottles into 30 5ml samples and then I will send everyone one sample of each colour plus one empty super cool looking bottle.

Costs will be

bottle of ink £14.27
postage from Netherlands ?
syringe and vials for ink split £7
packing and postage from me to you £5

The costs will be refined in a little as time goes on. I am waiting to hear postage from Akkerman, then I can add that cost. I will be surprised if postage from the Netherlands puts it over £30 per person, but I could be wrong in that.

Please let me know any thoughts you have.

To join please send me a PM with your email address. Due to the financial risk I will post the name of anyone inconsiderate enough to say they will take part who then does not send payment when requested.

I must reiterate, to join send me a PM asking to join, but only if you are going to be committed to paying your share.

Kind Regards

Fiona

Edited for spelling error (twice)

Edited July 13, 2013 by fionafish

[alc3261]

Good idea!!

[fionafish]

Good morning,

 

I have received correspondence from Paul Rutte this morning, letting me be certain that the costs per person will not exceed £30 in total. It should be £27 per person (my spread sheet shows £26.95 per person) but a little safety margin is wise.

 

Now people can join with confidence knowing that maximum cost per person is not going to exceed £30.

 

Please contact me with any queries that you may have.

 

Regards

Fiona

[RuiFromUK]

Hi Fiona,

 

Brilliant idea, I am in.

 

Even though I have not received the 3 bottles of ink that I have ordered I am more than happy to join as it would be quite expensive for me to buy all of them and so far I have only heard good things about them.

 

When ready please drop me a pm with the details of where shall I post the cheque of around £30.

 

Kind regards,

 

Rui

[betsypreston]

How would this work for a US participant?

 

How would we send payment?

[fionafish]

Good evening all,

 

For people from USA, you are more than welcome to join. Looking at postage costs it would add around £12 bringing the cost to $63.50 if you are willing to pay that sign up as requested above.

 

For payment of money, I would ideally like bank transfer, but other methods could be worked out including check or Paypal as needed. I would need money to clear before sending your package.

 

There are 31 inks, but we would only be getting 30 of them. We will vote as an end group on which one ink not to buy. This makes most sense to keep shipping costs down from Akkerman.

 

Fiona

[English John]

I'm in for this please

Cheers

John

[Inkysloth]

Count me in! Will dm later today.

[StrawberryJam]

I'm in, signed up today.

 

(We need more people to make this happen! Fiona says we only have 8 people signed up right now, and we need at least 30 to do the buy. So sign up if you haven't already!)

[kkshadow]

Just sent pm. Another in from the U.S.

[CapeClear]

PM sent

[alc3261]

We could have 15 bottles between 15 (or any number), we just wouldn't be able to get all the colours?

[fionafish]

Good morning,

 

We could, the price would not be as low as half due to some of the costs not halving but it is a possibility. More people are joining in a trickle. Keep in mind that this is the holiday season, and not everyone is on here very regularly.

 

One useful thing is keeping this thread alive so as many people see it as possible, another is telling people about the buy. It does not matter how we find people to join us, as long as when they join us they commit and pay when asked.

 

Fiona

[alc3261]

Agreed that there is "no rush" so we can wait for people to join in!

[CapeClear]

Honestly I don't mind waiting a bit to get more people on board. At least then we can try as many as possible.

[fionafish]

Good evening all,

 

We are making progress, we now only have 17 slots to fill!

 

I keep staring at the colour chart wondering which colour I least want. It is so hard to do! I hope everyone else is getting excited.

 

Fiona

[CapeClear]

It's hard to decide alright. Most of all I'm looking forward to Shocking Blue, Voorhout Violet, Simplisties Violet and Hopjesbruin.

[Inkysloth]

Thinking about the total price, it almost seems like it'd be worth actually going to the Netherlands in person.

30 bottles of ink at E16.50 = E495 (approx £430), leaving £370 to get you to & from the Netherlands and pay for the sample bottles & postage from you to everyone else! Although 900 sample bottles is a lot of sample bottles...

 

I've had a thunk.

 

This would require trust, but to save on having to decant *all* of the samples, each person in the group could be sent one full bottle of ink and 29 sample bottles - then each of us decants that ink into the sample bottles and posts them out to everyone else, and keeps that bottle with their 5ml in. It spreads the work out more evenly, though I've not done the sums on how it would change the bulk postage cost.

 

Edited to add:

 

Actually, that would add considerably to the postage. I'd forgotten that would be 29 x postage from you, and then 29 x 29 postage from us to everyone else, which although spreading the cost & effort between us all, increases the postage A LOT. Ah well.

Edited July 25, 2013 by Inkysloth

[alc3261]

Good evening all,

 

We are making progress, we now only have 17 slots to fill!

 

I keep staring at the colour chart wondering which colour I least want. It is so hard to do! I hope everyone else is getting excited.

 

Fiona

Well.....I already have 3 bottles so I hope one of those gets left out!!!

[fionafish]

Thinking about the total price, it almost seems like it'd be worth actually going to the Netherlands in person.

 

30 bottles of ink at E16.50 = E495 (approx £430), leaving £370 to get you to & from the Netherlands and pay for the sample bottles & postage from you to everyone else! Although 900 sample bottles is a lot of sample bottles...

 

That is a lovely idea, and although I do like the idea of going to the Netherlands, I don't think I could do it for less than £26 which is the cost of them posting to me. The budget may sound a lot, but I have costed the materials and packing, and that is where most of the money will have to go. Some things might end up a little cheaper- if I can get better deals- but that can not be certain and it is easier for me to say I don't need the full amount of money than to say I need more. If I am a little out in the figures I get to return some money to each of you.

 

Fiona