What ink(s) are you waiting for in the mail?

[NumberSix]

5 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

I keep looking at the Van Dieman inks but it's hard to judge the actual colors from a printed color card, not an actual writing sample (or even a swab).  So I'm looking forward to see what you think of them.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I had one sample before, quite some time back, that was a very dark blue black. The name was something like Midnight Seas, but it escapes me at the moment. I remember quite liking it, and I’ve intended to try some of their other colors.

[A Smug Dill]

Just now, NumberSix said:

that was a very dark blue black. The name was something like Midnight Seas,

 

Blackened Seas? It isn't that dark.

[NumberSix]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Blackened Seas? It isn't that dark.

 

That name sounds right. Maybe I am remembering the color wrong. It was one of those free samples that Pen Chalet throws in. LOL. Anyway, I remember liking it. 

 

We shall see on the others. 

[Bikerchick]

Note to self: do not visit any pen store website when you've had one too many glasses of wine.

 

So, I'm waiting on these inks to arrive gawd knows when: 

 

Sailor Blue (already have a bottle but of this one, I definitely want a backup)

Sailor Blue Black

Diamine Golden Brown (already have a bottle but running low and I love the shading on this ink)

Pennonia Balaton-kék

Noodler's Eel Blue

Noodler's Blue

Diamine ASA Blue

Diamine Kensington Blue

Diamine Mediterranean Blue

Sailor Shikiori Souten

Anyone want to venture a wild guess as to what my favorite color ink is? 

Edited September 17, 2021 by Bikerchick
forgot one

[Just J]

1 hour ago, Bikerchick said:

...a wild guess as to what my favorite color ink is? 

 

As long as it ain't pank, it's okay by me!  😉

 

[essayfaire]

On 9/17/2021 at 3:29 PM, Just J said:

As long as it ain't pank, it's okay by me!  😉

 

I was actually given a sample of "Pink Glitz", and to my surprise found that I did discover some uses for it.  Same with one called "Wild Orchid".  Not that I would buy either.

[Steeltown32]

I was waiting for my first order from Cultpens. Over 30 ink bottles and a few converters for my FC Loom. After waiting and watching the tracking I was glad to see it had arrived in Canada and cleared customs. 

The following day, the tracking said it was returning to sender. I contacted Cultpens and they did not have a clear answer but that they were issuing me a refund. Has anyone had this happen before?

On a plus, since my order did not arrive, I treated myself to my first gold nib. The Pilot Vanishing Point [M].

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, Steeltown32 said:

I was waiting for my first order from Cultpens. Over 30 ink bottles and …‹snip›… the tracking said it was returning to sender. …‹snip›…  Has anyone had this happen before?

 

Not on the two occasions when I ordered ≥30 bottles of ink at once from Cult Pens. (Or ever, with any of my twenty or so orders with Cult Pens.) But then,

• I'm in Australia, not Canada; and
• both of those orders took place before Cult Pens ‘migrated’ in March 2021 to using Global-E for order fulfilment.

1 hour ago, Steeltown32 said:

I contacted Cultpens and they did not have a clear answer

 

I doubt the customer service team at Cult Pens has too much visibility into that kind of detail any more, now that order fulfilment (at least for international orders) is taken care of by Global-E.

[I-am-not-really-here]

On 9/16/2021 at 9:12 AM, Bikerchick said:

I bought myself a pen for my upcoming birthday just last night and found myself looking at other pens today. Before the new one has even arrived.

Shoot, looking hardly counts.  Steady now, hit that buy button before rationality settles back in.  Works for ink too!

[A Smug Dill]

On 9/17/2021 at 2:12 AM, Bikerchick said:

I bought myself a pen for my upcoming birthday just last night and found myself looking at other pens today. Before the new one has even arrived.  I'm terrible.

 

I've done that many, many times. (How could one not, when some orders for what you'd expect to be readily available pen models placed with you-know-who takes several months to get fulfilled?) That's why I had to swear off buying pens and inks altogether for at least a year. It's hard; some of what I ordered from AliExpress have since arrived, and dang, now that I've seen the actual items, I wish I'd ordered a unit of every available colourway when it was discounted (and will most likely be discounted again to similar pricing levels, assuming they don't run out of stock in the meantime).

[mizgeorge]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

...

some of what I ordered from AliExpress have since arrived, and dang, now that I've seen the actual items, I wish I'd ordered a unit of every available colourway when it was discounted (and will most likely be discounted again to similar pricing levels, assuming they don't run out of stock in the meantime).

OK, you can't say that without telling what!!

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, mizgeorge said:

OK, you can't say that without telling what!!

 

I got two HongDian N1 pens (in dark red and turquoise) when AliExpress was running a Summer Sale campaign in August. I already knew which seller, after taking into account delivery charges and all that, was selling it the cheapest; one of those pens had been in a shopping cart for a little while as a reminder. It offered a temporary price drop for the Summer Sale; and the items also contributed to a $3 discount for every $30's worth of eligible items (across multiple sellers if need be) ordered at once.

 

Usually an eye-catching orange would be exactly my sort of colour (I love my Pelikan M600 Vibrant Orange!), but in the product images the orange N1 looked too sunny yellow-leaning to me. The turquoise looked a bit light in the images, too, but I could live with that; however, when I saw the actual pen, it's somewhat (delightfully) darker. So perhaps the orange one would look richer and darker in real life as well.

 

I already have two HongDian 960 pens in the dark green and dark blue acrylic, but to be honest I haven't been as impressed (in every way) by them as I thought I would be. That's why I didn't also order the dark green and dark blue N1 pens at the same time. The main differences between the N1 and the 960 seem that the latter has a black barrel finial, and the bicolour nibs on the models are different (with the scrollwork on the 960's nib a little classier). When I saw the 960 in real life, I thought they were OK but I wasn't wowed; that kinda set a lower expectation for the N1. Yet, when I unboxed the N1, there was something about it — that I still can't quite put my finger one — which made me think, ”Oh, nice!” It's like there's just a hint of translucence that grabs one's attention, although from the product images it seems the same (or extremely similar) dark red, dark green and dark blue acrylics are used for both models. Now I really want to have the two dark green and two dark blue pens in those models to compare against each other side by side.

 

…

 

Sorry, everybody, I know I'm talking about pens without obligatory mention of inks in this post, in a discussion thread about inks and not pens. Ordering inks on AliExpress just doesn't seem worth doing any more, when either the (now more reasonable than the previous, “How can they send all that internationally for pennies?”) delivery charges kill what would be a good price, or the delivery cost is built into the item price (so there are no real savings to be realised by buying multiple bottles of the same or different colours at once) making it uncompetitive with European inks.

 

That's why I'm waiting on three bottles of Pennonia inks (after @mizgeorge showcased them!) instead of three PenBBS inks. Both would involve taking a bit of a leap of faith, but the PenBBS inks would cost me more. Originally I'd hoped that Van Dieman's Ink would be the brand to capture most of my spend on new-to-me ink colours in 2021, but after buying nine bottles across three orders and not being all that impressed, I looked elsewhere. The Van Dieman's Ink bottles are reasonably cheap for a non-mainstream brand, but if I can get Pennonia for around the same price point, I may as well try more colours in the latter range.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by A Smug Dill
HongDian, not Moonman

[Bikerchick]

2 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I already have two Moonman 960

Do you mean the HongDian 960? I'm not aware of a Moonman model named the 960. 

[mauckcg]

10 hours ago, Steeltown32 said:

I was waiting for my first order from Cultpens. Over 30 ink bottles and a few converters for my FC Loom. After waiting and watching the tracking I was glad to see it had arrived in Canada and cleared customs. 

The following day, the tracking said it was returning to sender. I contacted Cultpens and they did not have a clear answer but that they were issuing me a refund. Has anyone had this happen before?

On a plus, since my order did not arrive, I treated myself to my first gold nib. The Pilot Vanishing Point [M].

US customs made me jump through some hoops for a few days for a Leonardo pen that came with an ink bottle.  Had to prove it wasn't a toxic soup or somesuch.  The blithering idiots fairly trashed the outer box cover and the pen was loose inside the box when it did show up.

[A Smug Dill]

5 minutes ago, Bikerchick said:

Do you mean the HongDian 960? I'm not aware of a Moonman model named the 960. 

 

You're right! My mistake.

[Noihvo]

[Bikerchick]

12 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

You're right! My mistake.

No worries, Dill, happens to the best of us. I was just wondering if I'd missed an interesting new Moonman

 

Not that I want to encourage you, considering your current moratorium, but here's a picture of the HongDian N1 in bright orange. I've added a few other pens for color reference, since you have the blue one too, and I'm sure you know what the red and tortoise Pelikan pens look like in real life. I don't own the orange Pelikan M600, although I'll admit I was very tempted when LCDC added it to their Summer Sales.  On the left is a Moonman M600S in "Ocean Blue Teal". 

 

 

And here it is next to the Montblanc Lucky Orange box, which I know you're familiar with too.

 

If you like it, maybe you could buy it for that *cough* friend on the West Coast?

[I-am-not-really-here]

1 hour ago, mauckcg said:

US customs made me jump through some hoops for a few days for a Leonardo pen that came with an ink bottle.  Had to prove it wasn't a toxic soup or somesuch.  The blithering idiots fairly trashed the outer box cover and the pen was loose inside the box when it did show up.

Would that have been the Toxic Substances Control Act certification by chance? Well you're not alone.  

[Steeltown32]

12 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Not on the two occasions when I ordered ≥30 bottles of ink at once from Cult Pens. (Or ever, with any of my twenty or so orders with Cult Pens.) But then,

• I'm in Australia, not Canada; and
• both of those orders took place before Cult Pens ‘migrated’ in March 2021 to using Global-E for order fulfilment.

 

I doubt the customer service team at Cult Pens has too much visibility into that kind of detail any more, now that order fulfilment (at least for international orders) is taken care of by Global-E.

Thats true. I was not too familiar with the company that took over the tracking. I hope next time I place an order with them it will work out. 

[mauckcg]

2 hours ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Would that have been the Toxic Substances Control Act certification by chance? Well you're not alone.  

I think so, it turned into a huge pain to get it done.