Is ink overpriced?

[sandy101]

I bought a 30ml bottle of Visconti's Wheatfield with Crows ink for £14.40 including a 10% discount today.

 

Then I remembered I ought a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey for £18 for a friend at Xmas.

 

30ml of ink for £14.40 or 750ml of whiskey - with all the taxes too.

Ink is pricier per ml than whiskey.

Are we being taken for mugs?

[Estycollector]

Hopefully your consumption of ink is less than your consumption of whiskey. 😂

[lamarax]

Well, think about it this way: "boutique" inks are akin to aged single malts, while "standard" lines are the equivalent of your everyday blended whiskey whisky, or bourbon 😉

[senzen]

Depends on the ink, and depends on the whisky... I care a lot about specific colours even though I hate paying through the nose for them, and all these "genius" politicians are making it even more difficult and expensive to get it.

 

I can appreciate a single malt, have tried very fancy liquor, but I'm not much of a drinker, makes me sleepy real fast.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, I'm something of a cheapskate (with inks as well as pens) but did recently buy a couple of backup bottles -- Waterman's Tender Purple (because my bottle seems to have gone walkabout) and Waterman's Mysterious Blue (because I use that a fair amount and and below half a bottle at this point).  And the WMB was ordered along with a 1 oz. bottle of Noodler's La Reine Mauve, to fill out an order (in order to get to the threshold for free shipping). 

OTOH, I'm just kicking myself that I *didn't* order a second bottle of the MB Jimi Hendrix ink -- at retail price -- when I had a chance to, because now the price has skyrocketed!  

Okay, yeah, I had been running that ink through the sterling silver Ciselé 75 with a B nib, because it just looked SOOOO good coming out of that pen with that nib -- and of course the ink itself is GORGEOUS.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penguincollector]

  This Xmas I paid $25 for a 50mL bottle of whisky, which is about what I pay for my top end inks (GvFC and Caran d’ Ache are actually more expensive) and most of them are 50 mL. So for me, they are even. There was definitely more expensive whisky. 

[lamarax]

Streams of ink!

 

Show me the way to the next ink bar!

 

😛

 

[Eldan]

I know this is a facetious thread, but to be serious for a moment, comparing ink and whisky by volume is totally inappropriate. 30ml of Chou Kuro might last me the rest of my life. 30ml of Laphroaig 16 might last me an hour.

[inkstainedruth]

For me it would be the other way round -- I tried a sip of Laphroaig once and thought it was just HORRIBLE!  Give me a nice smooth 12 year old Highland single malt over that peaty stuff ANY day of the week!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Barkingpig]

Having stopped drinking in 1985, I am assured inks are less expensive than the alcohol I used to enjoy.  I can remember meals that the alcohol was equal to the food ordered & remembered when I was eating dinner in an expensive restaurant in Brussels with a Friend from my drinking life that had then joined my "wagon ride;" we had both been drinking sparking water & were convinced the bill was incorrect when we soberly remembered the times we had ordered the third $100 bottle of wine with a meal, which might have been followed by some after dinner drinks!

 

So, when I bought three bottles of Hieronymus ink, which was then the most expensive ink sold & paid the price of a fourth bottle for shipping , I still knew that it was a hobby better for me.  As long as I drink tap water & eschew bottled waters, I think I can continue to enjoy whatever priced ink I want to try & enjoy while doing so, with overpriced paper, besides!

[mke]

Look at Octopus Fluid's inks:

30 ml ~10 Euro and 250 ml ~25 Euro

Example: https://www.octopus-office.de/shop/en/creative-inks/fountain-pen-ink-writing-ink/classic-fountain-pen-inks/5630/classic-fountain-pen-ink-mango?number=FLUIDS6102

 

That shows that the ink is probably not the biggest part of the price. It is the rest of the product, mainly the (manual) filling and the preparation of shipping ...

Inks which are produced in even larger amounts (Pelikan 4001, Waterman, Lamy, ...) can be get cheaper or sometimes even in 1L bottles. A few years ago, I paid 20 Euro each for a bottle of Pelikan 4001 royal blue and black.

 

Other makers also had large bottles: I remember an Australian ink company with 1-gallon bottles and the German Gutenberg ink in 4 colors in 250ml or 1L bottles.

 

When the ink is produced in small quantity, then of course, it will be (much) more expensive.

 

Now it is up to you to judge if you are being scammed or not.

 

 

 

[jchch1950]

Inks and wikey give a different kind of pleasure. If you have to choose what will be your selection? 

[Estycollector]

Waterman Serenity Blue 50ml is $9 on Amazon aka less than a six pack of good beer. 

[nibtip]

Considering a Pelikan 4001 62.5ml is in the vicinity of 7€/8$, the answer is yes.

 

50ml equals roughly 1000 A5 pages. 5 bucks or 50 bucks fuel. Still cheap. Cheaper than paper, any paper.

 

But what the heck. Life is short. Single malt may shorten it dramatically. But so does ink, if you drink it.

[boilermaker1975]

9 hours ago, Barkingpig said:

Having stopped drinking in 1985, I am assured inks are less expensive than the alcohol I used to enjoy.  I can remember meals that the alcohol was equal to the food ordered & remembered when I was eating dinner in an expensive restaurant in Brussels with a Friend from my drinking life that had then joined my "wagon ride;" we had both been drinking sparking water & were convinced the bill was incorrect when we soberly remembered the times we had ordered the third $100 bottle of wine with a meal, which might have been followed by some after dinner drinks!

 

So, when I bought three bottles of Hieronymus ink, which was then the most expensive ink sold & paid the price of a fourth bottle for shipping , I still knew that it was a hobby better for me.  As long as I drink tap water & eschew bottled waters, I think I can continue to enjoy whatever priced ink I want to try & enjoy while doing so, with overpriced paper, besides!

 

Your post reminded me of a story about Charlie Munger. He was with a group for dinner at the Beverly Hills Hotel. The waiter came and asked about drinks. Charlie piped up and said, "We'll will have your least expensive bottle of wine." After the waiter went off to retrieve it, he looked at everyone and said, "In a restaurant like this their cheapest wine is going to be good."

[I-am-not-really-here]

Well, if you could only have one, would you rather buy a 750ml bottle of whiskey or a 750ml bottle of ink? 

[TgeekB]

Why not both?

[inkstainedruth]

1 hour ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

Well, if you could only have one, would you rather buy a 750ml bottle of whiskey or a 750ml bottle of ink? 

Well it would depend.  On what the whiskey was AND what the ink was.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[SpencerianDream]

I do think there are companies happy to sell “premium” inks. In general I’m happy to pay a few bucks more for a pretty bottle. My fear is that every company starts ratcheting up to match, and soon the base price of a bottle is $20-40, rather than $5-20. 

[Mark from Yorkshire]

20 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

For me it would be the other way round -- I tried a sip of Laphroaig once and thought it was just HORRIBLE!  Give me a nice smooth 12 year old Highland single malt over that peaty stuff ANY day of the week!

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Laphroaig is technically a highland whisky or like talisker is from the west coast IE Highlands and Islands. What I think you mean is is a speyside which is lighter