What do you do with ink samples you don't like?

[Peony Blush]

I purchased two bottled ink sample sets recently, and most of what I received I don't like. I have a 15ml bottle of Iroshizuku asa-gao, and a 15ml bottle of Iroshizuku shin-kai that I'm not crazy about and I don't see myself using them long term. I also have seven, 2ml and one, 1ml samples that are just not my thing. I posted on my neighborhood Facebook page, but I haven't had any takers yet.

[A Smug Dill]

Take them to your local Pelikan Hubs event, and let others swatch, sample, or take home as they wish.

 

…

 

I must say I shuddered at the sight, and even the thought, of folks generously sharing their retail bottles of ink by putting them at the, um, de facto ink swatching central at Pelikan Hubs last night, to let everyone and anyway stick dip pens, q-tips, glass stirring rods, pipettes, and whatever else into those bottles… and apparently with the intention of collecting their bottles at the end of the event to take home, after the infinite risk of the ink therein having been contaminated, adulterated, consummated, so that (I personally think) the inks cannot be trusted any more. I donated a bottle of my surplus ink to that table, but I most certainly would not expect and did not and do not want to take the remainder of it home afterwards.

[inkstainedruth]

@Peony Blush -- If you have a local pen club near you, you could also take stuff like samples there.  I know that in our local club (Pittsburgh, PA) there is always a box of stuff that the guy who runs the mailing list brings -- samples AND bottles -- that people don't want and the odds are good that someone else might.

Trying to remember if there is a table of stuff that's "fair game" at the Ohio Pen Show, and that's coming up soon (in about a month) -- and IIRC, Columbus is just a couple of hours away from Akron.  But that might be another option.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth