Most Expensive, Least Expensive, Most Used Ink...

[pmitc34947]

I came across a blog article about a guy who owns 17 orange inks, but decided to plunk down some serious cash for a bottle of Montblanc Mahatma Ghandi ink. I wondered what are the most expensive inks people have come across. For my own part, the scented Montblanc seem to be the most expensive at $85 for a 50 mL bottle. A few months back I remember seeing a Montblanc Mahatma Ghandi limited edition ink selling for ~ $179. Tonight, I see a Montblanc Daniel Dafoe green is on sale for $150.

 

What is the most expensive ink you have seen on sale or that you own?

 

In my own collection of inks...

 

My cheapest inks are AT Cross Blue and Green, which I bought at their Providence showroom. $16.00 / 67/2 ml bottle.

 

PW Akkerman SBRE Brown, came from Vaness at $32.00 / 60 ml bottle would be the most expsive, though I know I paid over $60.00 for 30 mL of Montblanc JFK Navy Blue which came from a seller in Malaysia. The shipping was a significant part of this purchase.

Edited January 21, 2020 by pmitc34947

[silverlifter]

There is a bottle of Penman Sapphire on ebay at the moment for 250 USD...

[jmccarty3]

Ink prices are like all other prices. They follow the Law of Supply and Idiots.

 

(I speak from experience.)

[Parker51]

The most expensive ink I have is not in a bottle. It is in cartridges that are no longer made and are for a pen that only accepts those cartridges. They are for the Cartier Vendome. As no convertor was ever made for this pen, it is useless without the cartridges. As I don't have the pen, yet, I have not yet used this ink and measured how much ink is in a cartridge to determine a per ml cost. And as it is a part of a system, I likely should include the cost of the pen in my calculations.

 

In regard to Penman ink, I do have a bottle of it. I traded the last bottle I decided to part with for a nice pen. I don't know if I will keep this bottle, trade it or sell it.

 

My cheapest ink is new old stock ink bought in quantity that was made for a Company that had it's owner die and which the new owner has sourced all her new inks from someone else. I was told to poor it down the drain by the new owner of the ink brand.

 

Thus, per the new owner of the ink brand the ink is worth nothing. And so it is my cheapest ink as it has a value of $0.00, per her. I however find that it writes quite well and so effectively am writing, based on her logic with $0.00 cost ink.

Edited January 21, 2020 by Parker51

[pmitc34947]

 

Edited January 21, 2020 by pmitc34947

[aurore]

The most expensive I have seen listed (over and over, still not sold) was MB Gandhi for 160. The cheapest is 70c locally made 50ml Royal Blue - a heavy bleeder and featherer on copy paper, a bit dull but still a decent school ink. Cheapest excellent inks I know are R&K - in Europe for appx. 10c/ml, best value very expensive inks - some of Kobe Nagasawa (that is what I own, along with Sailor Yonaga, which is even more expensive, but unlike Nagasawa I will not buy a new bottle once it's gone).

Edited January 21, 2020 by aurore

[inkstainedruth]

Hmmm. Are you talking price per ml, or cost of the bottle overall, pmitc34947? Because overall, the most I ever spent on a bottle of ink was an 8 oz. bottle of vintage Quink Permanent Violet on eBay a few years ago, at $50 (don't remember if shipping was included). Then of course I had to buy smaller bottles to decant the ink into, because the bottle didn't come with the nozzle to use the bottle for inkwells or smaller bottles. I think that I calculated the ink to be about $6.22 US/oz [~29-1/2 ml].

If you're talking cost of the contents, probably the most expensive was my first bottle of MB Beatles Psychedelic Purple LE, at $41 for 50 ml (which was actually a little less than I'd seen it for at FPH in NYC. Plus tax of course....

Not sure of what would be my least expensive ink. I don't tend to keep records for that the way I do for my pen inventory, because I consider ink to be a "consumable". Even if I were to have a bottle of PPS (which I don't), I'd likely use it and not hoard it.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I said "first bottle" for the MB Beatles ink, because I picked up a backup bottle on sale at FPH last month, and it was (only) $35....

Edited January 21, 2020 by inkstainedruth

[pmitc34947]

I wrote the original post late at night. I was drowsy and as such not at all specfic. Whatever ink you have purchaed or seen, bottled or cartridges on eBay, auction sites, in stores or elsewhere. Just keep it to the most expensive.

[torstar]

Penman out-of-manufacturing bottles easily. I have seen $125 for colours nobody really wanted.

 

I guess i have 2-3 bottles of sapphire sitting around at 4 locations, haven't used it in awhile, probably need some water to get them working again.

 

Most used is Noodler's Blue, not even a contest among the 80 or so flavours I own.

[katerchen]

*my* most expensive ink is a couple of bottles of Caran D'Ache. Simply having those bottles on my desk gives me joy.

 

Cheapest/most used : 1 Liter bottles of each 4001 Royal Blue and Black.

 

-k

[torstar]

A few times I have been shocked by the price rung up on the register, but I have not reacted and enjoyed the inks.

[nibtip]

Most expensive, maybe some Sailor Bungubox inks that i've since gave away.

Less expensive, Pilot Blue Black 350ml which happens to be also MY best and most boring ink in the world.

Most used: i Change ink almost everyday and use 3 to 5 pens. Mostly total anarchy. I like it like that.

[Kalessin]

The $250 bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire has been sitting on fleaBay for a very long time.

Most full, unopened bottles of it go for between $100 and $150. Partial bottles can be much less expensive.

 

Easily my most expensive have been bottles of PPS that I've paid $100 for.

 

My least expensive were bottles of Quink that I picked up for $3 each in the 1990s when it went on sale at a local art supply store.

 

My most used these days is Namiki Blue (same ink as Pilot Blue). Very well behaved, and always in a Pelikan M600 with a BB nib that goes through ink fills fairly quickly.

[BaronWulfraed]

Inflation affects this somewhat...

 

In 2005, a Levenger 6-pack of ink sold for $40, $6.66 per bottle.

 

The same 6-pack now sells for $80, or $13.32 per bottle (which may still be on the cheaper side of prices, compared to $30 for a (set) of Colorverse -- though between the large and small bottle, the total ink volume may be noticeably larger)

[A Smug Dill]

Least expensive bottle of ink I owned was a 50ml shoe-shaped bottle of Montblanc ruby red ink. I think I picked it up for the clearance price of $1 (or possibly even less than that, with applicable discounts at the time) from David Jones in Australia some twenty years ago.

 

Most used ink? That depends on whether we're talking total volume consumed, or number of different instances in which I have used an ink. If it's the latter, it would be either Platinum Carbon Black or Sailor souboku pigment ink. In terms of total volume consumed (including flushed down the drain), these days it's probably my old bottle of Cross blue ink that I don't care much for, I just use it for testing new pens and I don't bother with preserving what's left after each session.

[inkstainedruth]

The $250 bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire has been sitting on fleaBay for a very long time.

Most full, unopened bottles of it go for between $100 and $150. Partial bottles can be much less expensive.

 

A couple of years ago I took (dragged) The Philistine darling husband to the Triangle Pen Show. One of the vendors (I think it was Mario Campo) had a bottle of PPS for sale and my husband asked me if I wanted it. And I thought about it and decided that I couldn't justify the price (I made up for the sacrifice with a couple of Parker 51s, instead ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[zaddick]

People always forget about the Montblanc Golden Elixir ink from several years ago that was 3,900 Euros for a very small bottle. Limited to 100 bottles.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/318892-montblanc-golden-elixir/

[A Smug Dill]

People always forget about ...

 

There's a difference between forgetting and never having come across. I've never come across that ink in all my reading — perhaps, in part, due to it being Montblanc and I have very little interest in that brand personally — so I couldn't possibly forget it when considering what is the most expensive ink of which I knew.

 

I don't even know what's the most expensive ink that I have. Do we base that on RRP (or MSRP), or just our personal cost of acquisition? Per bottle, or per millilitre? It's probably one of those 50ml bottles of Sailor Jentle Shikisai (now part of the Sailor Shikiori line that is available only in 20ml bottles) I ordered from an Australian retailer without any discount from its ticket price (after the "Australia tax" has been applied). In retrospect, I shouldn't have done that, and in my self-hatred I might just pour a 50ml bottle of Sailor yamadori down the drain one day to assuage that sickening feeling.

Edited January 23, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[chromantic]

Inflation affects this somewhat...

 

In 2005, a Levenger 6-pack of ink sold for $40, $6.66 per bottle.

 

The same 6-pack now sells for $80, or $13.32 per bottle (which may still be on the cheaper side of prices, compared to $30 for a (set) of Colorverse -- though between the large and small bottle, the total ink volume may be noticeably larger)

Haha, I bought one of those 6-packs last year, around $75 incl. s/h iirc. Since I bought it just to get the almost full bottle of Pinkly and wasn't too interested in the others, that might qualify as my most expensive bottle. Next would be the BB L'amant - it was only $42 (for the 50 ml bottle) but then I bought 2 back-ups.

[torstar]

Least expensive bottle of ink I owned was a 50ml shoe-shaped bottle of Montblanc ruby red ink. I think I picked it up for the clearance price of $1 (or possibly even less than that, with applicable discounts at the time) from David Jones in Australia some twenty years ago.

 

Most used ink? That depends on whether we're talking total volume consumed, or number of different instances in which I have used an ink. If it's the latter, it would be either Platinum Carbon Black or Sailor souboku pigment ink. In terms of total volume consumed (including flushed down the drain), these days it's probably my old bottle of Cross blue ink that I don't care much for, I just use it for testing new pens and I don't bother with preserving what's left after each session.

 

I've owned a few MB reds (before competition made them improve drastically over the last decade) that were basically Cherry Kool-Aid, couldn't even give them away to enthusiasts

Edited January 23, 2020 by torstar