Sailor Doyou

[bobje]

If I’m not mistaken you’re writing about a consumer surplus issue with Sailor inks. People are willing to pay more for them, and Sailor is raising price to meet the surplus demand. I get it, but it’s still a bit painful for loyal customers. That said, tokiwa matsu is one of those colors worth the new price.

[A Smug Dill]

Happy New Year, @Bobje.

Actually, I'm talking about (or even advocating) not using "the good old days" and/or pricing (or opportunities) bygone as a frame of reference, against which to form one's opinion about what it takes to fulfil one's material needs and wants in the here and now. I mean, we all do it — and I'm personally far from being "above" it or immune to it — but I think it's rationally and ultimately pointless to do so.

Strong feelings of pain or affront that the individual chooses to feel about price increases (in line with inflation to "the cost of living", or otherwise) and missed opportunities in the market are self-inflicted punishment; nobody else — including the parties who made the authoritative decisions to increase prices or "kill" opportunities — cares about the individual consumer's personal feelings^†, and nobody else is out there to "get", "abuse", "insult" or "troll" the prospective/repeat/"loyal" customer.

 

Changes initiated by Sailor Pen Co. Ltd. could well be a response to supply and demand in the market, but I don't think that ought to worry oneself as a consumer either. Focus on today, what you need now, what you can get from whom and where, what you can afford. "In the ideal world" in one's mind doesn't matter, unless one wants to invest time, effort, resources and funds as a market disruptor, or a committed and vested "change agent" fighting for a greater cause that is worth all the cost to oneself.

@Mech-for-i's use of the metaphorical expression of "thorn" is unmistakable as indicative of framing something as injurious or at least hazardous impediment; but the need/want of more ink (that satisfies one's functional and qualitative criteria, whatever they are, for fitness-for-purpose) that is to be satisfied by new purchases hence is in either the present or in the future, not the past. A bowl of wonton noodle soup — which is comfort food for me with deep psychological roots — costs more now than it did six months ago, and much more than it did six years ago; but I cannot reasonably expect to pay yesteryear's prices to satisfy my needs tomorrow, no matter how strongly I may (as in choose to) feel that the world around me "should" stay as it was if my feelings about a particular thing (and personal circumstances) haven't discernibly changed in the meantime. It's doubly annoying to feel "left behind" by price rises that outpace increases in one's household income, and being powerless to oppose or reverse changes that were made without consultation with or consideration of oneself, but again that's one's negative emotional response that the other side doesn't care about^†, and isn't looking to exploit for strategic or tactical advantage. There is no premeditated assault on oneself, and no deliberate undermining of one's rights and entitlements; and nobody else takes into consideration what one could have done yesteryear when "better" consumer choices could have been made by oneself.

It doesn't matter whether one chooses to stock up when the price is low, affordable and/or agreeable; the decision can always turn out to be less than optimal in retrospect. I still have the boxed set of every season of The Sopranos on DVD, which I bought years ago but still haven't watched yet. As of last week, I could buy the same thing for a significantly lower ticket price than what I originally paid, never mind the double-whammy that today's dollar isn't worth as much.

So why fret that new bottles of Sailor doyou ink is priced as they are now, on the basis that one could have stocked up earlier and/or expect Sailor wouldn't change its retail packaging and pricing? Any consequential angst is misguided, in my opinion. If anything, judge one's need/want of that ink against that of Sailor tokiwamatsu, yonaga, kiwaguro inks and that of Diamine, Waterman, Montblanc and KWZ Ink (etc.) inks for satisfying one's requirements today and tomorrow at market pricing today, and not what could have been in some alternative universe more "friendly" to one's personal preferences and desires.

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^† My view is that when corporate, unhuman (as opposed to inhumane) entities "care" about the feelings, sentiments and emotional responses of individual prospective or repeat customers, it's usually in order to influence, steer, exploit or trick those individuals. Keeping people happy without expecting some advantage or reward, in the immediate, medium- or long-term, in return just isn't how for-profit enterprise works.