Where Do You Draw the Line? Price per Milliliter Threshold for Ink Purchases

[2ouvenir]

I've been browsing online for fountain pen inks, and I've come across some that are priced at over 1.5 USD per milliliter (think BUNGUBOX in the US), and that doesn't even include shipping and duties. While there may be ways to obtain that particular ink at a lower cost domestically, I'm not looking to delve into that here.

 

I'm curious: at what price per milliliter do you guys personally consider an ink to be overpriced, to the point where you would hesitate or refuse to make the purchase? Is there a specific threshold you have in mind, or does it depend on factors like brand reputation, unique color properties, or limited edition availability? 

 

What's the most expensive ink (in terms of price per ml) you've purchased? For me, it's those small 15 ml Pilot Iroshizuku bottles (I purchased them at 1.27 CAD/ml). I opted for them because I didn't want to invest in the full 50 ml bottles for colors I knew I wouldn't finish within a reasonable amount of time. Oh, and just to clarify, let's not include samples in this discussion!

[antares1966]

Getting up around $0.50 USD/ml is where I need to be getting something “special” out of an ink, either a shade I really can’t find elsewhere or particularly attractive sheen/shading.  Iroshizuku tends to sell at about that price point and I consider that my “higher end” everyday ink.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Milliliters?  Makes my head spin, though I did once translate to ounces.

 

I used to buy Montblanc Limited Editions (but stopped when the price rose) and I have a few bottles of Iroshizuku.

 

But I'm not buying any more ink.  Not after this year's box of 10 Monteverde blue inks, and an older InkVent calendar.  Both deeply discounted.  So no more inks.

 

(Unless they're practically free at yard sales, and this has happened.)

[inkstainedruth]

Probably the most I ever spent for a (new) bottle of ink was about $40 US for a bottle of MB Jimi Hendrix.  I think it's a 50 ml bottle, so, (if I've done the math right, anyway) that's roughly 80¢ US/ml.

Trying to remember what I paid for a couple of large bottles of vintage ink (an 8 oz. bottle of vintage Quink Permanent Violet, and a roughly 2/3 full bottle of vintage Skrip Peacock, since it's been a few years on those (of course, I'd have to also factor in the cost of buying smaller bottles to decant those into...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[arcfide]

I'll spend a lot of money on a bottle of ink, but only if it has something that I really want. I tend to like the trad inks, and that means they also tend to be more affordable. 

 

However, at the moment, I have so many inks and I'm settling in so well to the pens and inks that I like that the need to explore is much less great for me. A really cool special edition ink that is purely for the collection might entice me, but otherwise I'm simply much less likely to buy more expensive inks, rather than any hard cut-off point. 

 

For example, if Herbin released an ink that was an exact duplication of the exact formula of Victor Hugo's "special black ink," and it was quite expensive, I'd still probably pick some up for the sheer historical value of it and the fun of swatching and testing its qualities. However, I'm not at all enticed by shimmer, sheen, or shading in high maintenance inks. I did purchase pretty much all of Platinum's ink line because I enjoy them so much as a product line, especially the iron galls. 

[PithyProlix]

There is more than enough great, relatively really-high-value ink to explore to satisfy my large ink curiosity/thirst/addiction. Amazingly valued, quality Chinese ink, e. g. PenBBS, Poezie, & Ostrich, afforded by proxy buying services if needed, is a huge world in itself. Mixing the ink you already have opens up virtually limitless possibilities. There are tribes near me who make their own clothes, typically beautifully colored, with traditional expertise in creating natural dyes and I hope to use those dyes to create ink myself in the not-too-distant future. 

 

I have a self-imposed $0.50/ml limit, with shipping factored into the value equation, that helps keep my purchasing in check. I suspect that, one day, Hakase Sepia will be the one exception to that limit. 

[DrPlush]

After looking at some of the inks that I remember thinking really hard about, it seems I get very hesitant after AUD$1.25/ml (USD $0.85+). At that point, I’m only buying if it’s a solid brand with a good reputation that I’ve been happy with previously. And when I’ve paid more (I think I’ve topped out at AUD$1.65-ish/ml, USD$1.10+, including Bungubox and Kobe inks), it’s tended to be a combination of a good brand + a unique property + something else that makes me feel a connection to that particular ink.

 

But I don’t have any of this price/ml stuff in mind when I buy, usually (unless it’s a particularly tiny bottle). I tend to switch inks a lot so it doesn’t make much difference to me if an ink is 40ml or 50ml or 600ml, really — it’s all going to last a long time. Plus, a bottle that I paid a lot for but used every drop of feels like better value than a cheap one I don’t use much of. So I tend to think in terms of how much the bottle costs. I can get Robert Oster inks for around AUD$20 and Iroshizuku inks for less than AUD$30, so I’m only going to pay AUD$30 or more if it’s really special. At AUD$40 it will be a ‘once or twice a year’ kind of ink purchase, and over that I’ll probably be buying it for some specific reason that seems reasonable to me.

 

Edit: All that said, I think I could live with paying AUD$2/ml for another bottle of my favourite unavailable ink — Iroshizuku Hoteison!

[2ouvenir]

@DrPlush Iroshizuku Hoteison seems similar to Sailor Shikiori Miruai but Shikiori inks are quite expensive in the non-Japanese market nowadays. 

[Karmachanic]

Going forward I'l be paying 0.00 for ink.

[DrPlush]

  On 4/1/2024 at 5:13 AM, 2ouvenir said:

@DrPlush Iroshizuku Hoteison seems similar to Sailor Shikiori Miruai but Shikiori inks are quite expensive in the non-Japanese market nowadays. 

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Thank you 🙂 I actually have Miruai and a couple of similar RO inks — and it’s true that they’re all similar and they’re all nice inks but I feel they’re just not quite right. Robert Oster Grun-Schwarz is the closest, I think, in that it has a velvety finish (Miruai sheens instead), and I do use it often. But, anyway, thank you for the suggestion!

[XYZZY]

I think of it more in terms of price per time of enjoyment.  A 50ml bottle will last over a year and cost less than dinners for which I pay much more for an hour or two of enjoyment.

 

It makes little sense to me to compare the smaller bottles.  They should have worse $/ml.  But there can be other reasons to buy them:  I have a full set of IRO 15ml bottles, and I would never have done that if buying the 50ml.

 

If you really need low $/ml then Pilot sells their basic inks ink 350ml bottles for a great price.  Those are excellent inks, too, not merely cheap.  Try a 30ml bottle of the blue black if you're not sure you want to commit to the 350.  I think Pelikan has some inks that come in 1L bottles for a good price, but I haven't used those inks.

[XYZZY]

  On 4/1/2024 at 4:12 AM, DrPlush said:

a bottle that I paid a lot for but used every drop of feels like better value than a cheap one I don’t use much of.

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This is an excellent point!  In that regard, for me, Sailor Souboku is my cheapest ink because I can actually measure it in terms of bottles used and not just bottles hiding in a drawer.

[senzen]

I thought it was terrible for Sailor to stop offering the 50ml bottles of Souten, only to then offer 20ml bottles for $20 in the US; luckily they later dropped to about $11. Graf von Faber Castell ink at about $35 is also too high, even though they are 75ml bottles. I ignore Montblanc inks and any brand that only offers tiny bottles.

[arcfide]

  On 4/1/2024 at 9:58 PM, senzen said:

I thought it was terrible for Sailor to stop offering the 50ml bottles of Souten, only to then offer 20ml bottles for $20 in the US; luckily they later dropped to about $11. Graf von Faber Castell ink at about $35 is also too high, even though they are 75ml bottles. I ignore Montblanc inks and any brand that only offers tiny bottles.

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It's interesting for me, but the small bottles come with an additional "usability cost" for me that makes me less apt to buy ink in a small bottle at the same $/ml than a big bottle. I think it's the small, hard to fill from bottles of Sailor that at least in part make me less apt to get more of them. I have I think two of these small 20ml bottles (740 and one Shikiori) which have inks that I really like in them, but I find that I don't enjoy using the inks precisely because of the bottles that they come in. I don't know why that makes me so annoyed, but it does. On the other hand, I've used up full bottles from Platinum, Pelikan, Montblanc, and Waterman at least in part because of their bottle design. The bottles of Sailor that I've used up needed the encouragement of their ink syringe kit and refillable cartridges for me to really get into them. 

[XYZZY]

  On 4/1/2024 at 10:09 PM, arcfide said:

 

It's interesting for me, but the small bottles come with an additional "usability cost" for me that makes me less apt to buy ink in a small bottle at the same $/ml than a big bottle. I think it's the small, hard to fill from bottles of Sailor that at least in part make me less apt to get more of them. I have I think two of these small 20ml bottles (740 and one Shikiori) which have inks that I really like in them, but I find that I don't enjoy using the inks precisely because of the bottles that they come in. I don't know why that makes me so annoyed, but it does. On the other hand, I've used up full bottles from Platinum, Pelikan, Montblanc, and Waterman at least in part because of their bottle design. The bottles of Sailor that I've used up needed the encouragement of their ink syringe kit and refillable cartridges for me to really get into them. 

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I recently bought a few 80ml bottles of Diamine because I hate the tiny opening on their 30ml bottles.  Otherwise 30ml would've been plenty.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, the old cosmetic jars that Sailor sold ink in are horrible because the opening is TOO wide, they make for a super shallow jar that's hard to get all the ink from.

[PithyProlix]

  On 4/1/2024 at 4:06 PM, XYZZY said:

This is an excellent point!  In that regard, for me, Sailor Souboku is my cheapest ink because I can actually measure it in terms of bottles used and not just bottles hiding in a drawer.

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I have to agree even though the bargain hunter in me does not practice this and is, thus, irrational. Price per ml (or whatever unit volume) really only makes sense for the volume of ink actually used. We can't know that at purchase time. But, if we pay a low price for ink, it is less money lost on what is not used.

 

Looking at my ink collection, I see no obvious correlation between cost per ml and how much an ink gets used. Actually the lower cost inks - say, PenBBS, Diamine, L'Artisan Pastellier (really inexpensive if you buy direct, btw) - tend to be used more than the expensive ones (not because I hesitate to use the more expensive ones). That said, cheaper inks are disproportionately represented in my collection. 

 

Note that there is some value of having a variety of ink at my disposal. And I find some 'fun' value in exploring ink for which there are few, if any, images or reviews online, which is the case with much of the Chinese ink I buy. I don't similarly explore with the more expensive brands. 

[2ouvenir]

  On 4/1/2024 at 9:58 PM, senzen said:

I thought it was terrible for Sailor to stop offering the 50ml bottles of Souten, only to then offer 20ml bottles for $20 in the US; luckily they later dropped to about $11. 

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$11?!? where? Every retailer I've seen sell these 20ml bottles from 14.75 USD (e.g. at Buchan's Stationery - Canadian retailer, I used Google as of the current time for CAD/USD conversion) to 25 USD (e.g. at Yoseka Stationery - wow they are being very greedy with pricing lately - so much for thinking US retailers are cheaper than Canada).

[RJS]

At this point I have a fairly huge collection of inks, and feel less inclined than before to buy full bottles of any "expensive" ink. E.g. anything over 50 cents a ml seems unjust. That's already 5x the cost of Diamine at that point. Almost the only way to justify seems to owning be a fancy and unique new bottle 😅 That isn't meant to be the point. 
 

For me, 50 cents/ml calls for some pretty special and unusual ink qualities. An ink like Souboku varies a lot from anything Diamine offer, for example. 
 

I dislike tiny bottles (15/20ml), because they're often still expensive (>5x Diamine pricing) and the bottles are usually not well designed, meaning it doesn't take much use before you either have to start decanting it to fill or using it in pens that can by syringe filled. 2oz/60ml seems the ideal volume, even if that'll never be completely used up unless we really like the ink.

[senzen]

  On 4/2/2024 at 6:26 AM, 2ouvenir said:

$11?!? where? Every retailer I've seen sell these 20ml bottles from 14.75 USD (e.g. at Buchan's Stationery - Canadian retailer, I used Google as of the current time for CAD/USD conversion) to 25 USD (e.g. at Yoseka Stationery - wow they are being very greedy with pricing lately - so much for thinking US retailers are cheaper than Canada).

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Amazon.com, they fluctuate.

[Beechwood]

I  like Montblanc inks but I thought £21/USD26 was quite expensive when I went to a new MB Boutique on Monday, that is just about the limit, for me especially since I have some unopened bottles of Blue Hour and others,

 

Must admit, I like the MB shoe bottle, that must be worth some money even when empty,