Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz

[Intensity]

A limited edition means that they make a certain number and then no more, or perhaps only produce this product for a limited time range. The term has no defined number associated with it. The Lamy LE inks could well still be limited while made in larger quantity. There was immediate shortage of those inks (such as Petrol) as soon as they hit the market. Some markets never even saw it in bottles, only in cartridges.

 

This is off-topic in terms of the ink review in this thread. I was just making a tongue-in-cheek comment about another German ink maker who could take a note from Pelikan and find a better middle ground.

[tamiya]

Otoh there are some who get jibbed when a previous LE Colour Of The Year gets reissued as an ongoing unlimited product...

 

... glaring at BOTH Lamy and Edelstein...

[Honeybadgers]

Anyone who loves a limited product and is grumpy when it's suddenly not limited (assuming there isn't a corresponding price drop) isn't an actual fan, they're a mindless collector.

 

Lamy are idiots because they don't make enough when the demand is there. See the mega fail of dark lilac and petrol. Or they price themselves out of demand, see the blue 2000. Company run by a bunch of corporate lizard people.

 

Pelikan just says that they're gonna make a color available for a year, and then "we'll see"

 

I was initially kind of not into this ink but after a little time I really, really fell in love with it and bought three bottles just in case it stopped being offered. It fit nicely into their color line and was really one of the best browns ever. No reason not to stick it in the general lineup when edelstein didn't really offer any browns at all.

 

Honestly, playing on FOMO is the realm of awful corporate nonsense, and that kind of "we're gonna make a super limited run of something that there's a known huge demand for, especially when we have the resources to make all we need, just to artificially inflate demand a little more" is just poisonous consumerism. It's disrespectful to us as customers when the variables are that known and they do it anyways. Nintendo are famous for pulling this (bleep).

Edited December 11, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[A Smug Dill]

Anyone who loves a limited product and is grumpy when it's suddenly not limited (assuming there isn't a corresponding price drop) isn't an actual fan, they're a mindless collector.

Collectors pony up a significant amount of spending that keeps the industry churning out products.

[Intensity]

I don't think so in this case. Most of the items that are collector editions end up in private and small business hands for resale at high prices. Look at Lamy Petrol. Most retailers could not overprice it by much--if at all-and sold out quickly. Now to get some of that ink you have to go on classifieds boards or somewhere like eBay where most of it is sold by random private individuals at high prices (or some very small businesses). Almost none of that extra money is going to the "industry". Same deal with LE pens: they get bought up for resale at higher value. This happens a lot for other hobbies too--people enter preorders or buy quickly at low price when possible and then re-sell at much higher prices to fill their own pockets. Fountain pens is not my only hobby, and I am all-too-well-aware of people who make profit on reselling limited things for profit, only buying to resell because they know the demand will be there, and there won't be enough of the product. Again, that money is not going back to the manufacturer.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Intensity

[katerchen]

Somewhat related : not sure how scarce these have become since discontinued, but Massdrop has a liquidation sale of their stock:

https://warehouse.drop.com/collections/writing/products/pelikan-m200-smoky-quartz-special-edition-set-91261

 

Only broad left, but nothing to sneer at when it's only $75 for the box set.

 

Which you then can pad out with $25 worth of stuff to get free shipping. Or pad to $200 to get $50 off.

 

The more you spend, the more you save! Brilliant.

 

-k

[DilettanteG]

Great review, though it seems to have pushed a bottle of this ink into my cart.

[inkstainedruth]

Interestingly, I was just using the ink this morning, in my older M400 Brown Tortoise with the springy and wet F nib. I had forgotten just how much shading Smoky Quartz gives.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Honeybadgers]

I don't think so in this case. Most of the items that are collector editions end up in private and small business hands for resale at high prices. Look at Lamy Petrol. Most retailers could not overprice it by much--if at all-and sold out quickly. Now to get some of that ink you have to go on classifieds boards or somewhere like eBay where most of it is sold by random private individuals at high prices (or some very small businesses). Almost none of that extra money is going to the "industry". Same deal with LE pens: they get bought up for resale at higher value. This happens a lot for other hobbies too--people enter preorders or buy quickly at low price when possible and then re-sell at much higher prices to fill their own pockets. Fountain pens is not my only hobby, and I am all-too-well-aware of people who make profit on reselling limited things for profit, only buying to resell because they know the demand will be there, and there won't be enough of the product. Again, that money is not going back to the manufacturer.

 

The company doesn't make money via the scalpers, but they get notoriety due to the FOMO. and that's how they make money. They guarantee the hype goes through the roof and that they sell out immediately and that drives more people to the brand's other offerings. It works. It's just so unbelievably scummy.

 

That's why Supreme can sell you a literal BRICK. Or Tiffany can sell a $1000 tin can.

[Honeybadgers]

Collectors pony up a significant amount of spending that keeps the industry churning out products.

 

making a limited run of something because resources aren't there or demand may not be high enough or capability to mass produce is all perfectly legitimate. The classic pens LB5 was a perfect example. They had very expensive, precise materials, a high price, unknown demand, and thus, couldn't make a thousand or two of the pens on business speculation. It was a huge hit, but they had no way of knowing.

 

A blue lamy 2000? You know that's gonna sell like gangbusters. So they just hike the price well beyond the realm of reasonable. Just because.

 

a LE ink in a good, usable color? (seeing as they also did charged green and bronze, both of which were very niche and not very dramatic or everyday usable, it was obvious they likely needed to limit that production run but the pre-sale clamor for petrol and dark lilac was huge) They easily could keep production up, but they went the FOMO tactic. Which is toxic and anticonsumer.

[inkstainedruth]

Well I bought a Dark Lilac Safari because it was purple. Not because it was "rare". The following year's Petrol? You couldn't pay me enough to take it off your hands.

I'm sorry I didn't buy a 3rd bottle of the Dark Lilac ink when I had the chance, but I'm not going to pay the exorbitant amount people are charging for it. Petrol? Again, not remotely interested.

As for getting back on topic, I thought I had read/heard that Smoky Quartz was going to be put into Edelstein's regular lineup. Am I wrong in that?

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Intensity]

Sadly I've had to pay more for every one of my Petrol bottles--two of them from a local authorized Lamy vendor too, and not a small shop. They just charged $35 for it, because they knew they could. Just bought a third bottle from another source as more back-up. Even though I overpaid, I would still be happy to see Petrol return at $12 a bottle, because I think it's an ink other people should enjoy freely, and for general peace of mind if I do want even more some years from now. Dark Lilac suffered even bigger buying craze, so I was never able to test it. Purple is generally not my kind of color (except for more special ones like Sailor Kobe #57), so I've made peace with that omission.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Went looking in my Jewelry box, full of noble jewels.

Dithered between Topaz and my two bottles of Smoky Quartz.

 

Then took a second look at the selection of browns from a man who don't like brown and has many more then me. Cd'A Grand Canyon got the call until shoved off stage by old MB Sepia.

That was my first 'brown'......back when Racing Green was the most hated ink in the world because most didn't understand shading, or murky much less murky shading. MB inks were hated by everyone who said, buy the bottle and dump the ink. And I had a car with metal flake racing green, my MX-5.....but who needed ugly green?

Noobies will believe anything.

 

(((With in months of Racing Green being discontinued, it suddeny with no warning became the most beloved ink in the world. Inky alchemists strove and failed to make a substitute. Folks could send their kid to a year of Yale for a bottle.)

 

Meanwhile, I bought the MB shoe bottle to toss the ink...why not try brown something I'd of course never had used................and found the Sepia-brown too nice to toss.

 

Even bought a second bottle later on Ebay. I was so 'noobie' it took me a while to find out sepia wasn't "brown". MB Sepia will do the brown trick though.

 

It reminds me of Herbin Lie de Thé Ink, an ink I'm out of so can't really compare outside of memory.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I bought a live auction pen lot, that included a 400nn, that did not have a stubbed semi-flex nib. It had that American Bump Under type tipping..........I have four other pens from other German/Austrian brands from the '60's in semi-flex with and a tear drop tipping, like the 400nn's KF.

Normally a K nib has tipping on the top of the nib, outside of the Geha School KF pen, and this one.

Soft ride, some line variation, but more minor than with a stubbed semi-flex nib.

 

Got to use up the old ink sooner or later, but with out looking at a fine collection of browns, would have used an ink I liked so much, I bought a second bottle...Smoky Quartz.