What Fountain Pen Inks Give You the Best Value?

[heath]

This is my breakdown on the value of inks. I'd love to get your input. I wrote this for Ink Week going on over at my blog if you want to check that out you can click here.

This might be a loaded question to some as the value of an ink may be more than the sum of its parts. For the sake of this post though that’s all we are going to look at. What inks, per ml, provide the most value. I’ll also say that some may be underpriced in my mind and in some cases even some of the best value inks might be useless or undesirable to me.

Several people have posted portions of lists and information that I will partly pull from and you can find links to all sources in this article.

Outstanding Value

Looking over current prices I would say anything under $.15 ml is an extremely great value. There are some in this range I’d likely not make my everyday ink but on the other hand some actually are my favorites. Some Noodler’s, Monteverde, Cross, Pelikan and Lamy Inks fit in this category. Some of these brands also offer some that cost more but the ones that sit below the $.15 per ml price feel like steals to me every time I buy one.

Really Good Value

This range runs right up to around $.25 per ml for me. We add offerings from Diamine, Private Reserve, Sheaffer, Omas, Waterman, Mont Blanc, Sailor Jentle, Parker and Stipula among a few others here.

Decent Value

For me this is the end of value inks and it reaches to around $.45 ml. Once we leave this category we get into the price ranges where you are paying for attributes, colors or brand names that aren’t catering to the entire market. Here we add some bottles of many of the brands already listed as well as some offerings from J. Herbin, Platinum, Aurora, Visconti, GvFaber-Castell and Pelikan Edelstein. Kaweco ink is right on the line here but for the offerings it provides I’d sit it on the other side of the line.

Boutique and Expensive Inks

For me these inks aren’t reaching for the entire market and sit over $.45 a ml. Some might have favorable characteristics but it would be hard to find one that can’t be matched by and ink in a category below although some do indeed pull that off. That doesn’t mean that some of my favorite inks aren’t in this category or that I don’t buy them but it means I am spending more than I have to. Here we have Montegrappa, Delta, J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary, Pilot Iroshizuku, Caran d’Ache and maybe a few more.

Here are links to some charts breaking down the prices per oz and ml. Some aren't as up to date as others but I still found them helpful.

Anderson Pens Ink Volume Comparison
Jared on FPN – Bottled Ink Prices
Glenn’s Pens – The Price of Ink

Buying by Bottle Price

Taking all the above into consideration I must also say though that I don’t always buy by the ml price. I know I might not use every drop of every ink as well. Sometimes it’s just as easy or helpful to just look at the by the bottle pricing. In that case some things move around from above but for the most part it’s not all that different. Bottles under $10 are steals for sure but there aren’t many. Anything under $15 feels like a steal and anything over $25 a bottle feels a bit high.

Ink Samples

Taking a step further if you are just looking to try a bunch of inks the best value might be sample vials. There are a few companies that do this but the two I am most familiar with are the Goulet Pen Company and Anderson Pens. The prices vary slightly but the way I look at it I would just buy from the one you are most familiar with. Goulet has the Ink Drop Program which is what drew me to them but Anderson Pens has slightly larger volume per sample which is a big plus too. The price per ml isn’t going to be as good as a bottle for sure but the effort it takes to make the sample vials and package and ship them in odd collections can be huge.

I hope this helps you in your decision on what inks to try out. For me I still end up buying and trying inks based on color swabs and particular features I am looking for first but if I had to pick between two I wanted to use long term I would likely break it down by ml.

-Heath
@WeThePPIL

[7188photo]

Gotta say, I write daily but a bottle lasts way longer than a year for me, so as long as it's not insanely expensive I don't really care about the price and look more for exceptional quality. 40$ for a bottle would be the painful maximum though, personally.

I love Montblanc Midnight Blue and think it gives me the best value for money of all inks I've tried so far.

[ChrisC]

I keep trying to replace Pelikan 4001 black. I just can't. It's the perfect wetness for me, just black enough, easy to clean, almost never feathers, and has a great velvety-feeling lubrication. This stuff is amazing.

[Jon Szanto]

Heath, you haven't even defined "value". All you have done is list inks from cheap to expensive.

My value on objects is apart from simply their cost. Sure, I use inexpensive inks, but I also use expensive ones. How would you place a "value" on a particular shade of ink, that has particular flow characteristics, and dries to an ink unlike others (some people just love sheen!). There are many qualities of an ink that might cause one to not only purchase, but *use* an ink repeatedly. Your question just doesn't adequately address what YOU consider value.

If it is just raw economics, that makes it both rather easy and rather boring, doesn't it?

[heath]

Heath, you haven't even defined "value". All you have done is list inks from cheap to expensive.

My value on objects is apart from simply their cost. ...

I'm using the standard definition for value:

noun
-monetary or material worth, as in commerce or trade:
This piece of land has greatly increased in value.

-the worth of something in terms of the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged or in terms of some medium of exchange.

-equivalent worth or return in money, material, services, etc.:
to give value for value received.

... If it is just raw economics, that makes it both rather easy and rather boring, doesn't it?

I like my economics as easy and boring as possible.

[Silverbreeze]

Honestly I like my Noodler's 4.5 bottles

[heath]

Honestly I like my Noodler's 4.5 bottles

Those are still a really good value at around $.15 to $.16 a ml and they come with the eyedropper which can be nice for some pen setups.

[Algester]

depending on where I'am at relative location Pilot Iroshizuku should cost like 3.33 USD per ML and a good behaving ink but that's to Japan price where inks like CdA are worth as much as 30 USD... and lots and lots of Sailor inks... which is about 2.5 USD ML per ink do I miss you can have it personally crafted to your taste? I guess I'm hooked to JP inks hooked line and sinker?
and noodler's inks sell like hot cakes in my part of the world but with very unreliable supply times AKA shipment is never consistent

[VertOlive]

Lowest price = Free bottle of Sailor Jentle Blue w/Christmas order.

Most "Joy per Milliliter" = Sailor Kingdom Note Amanita Muscaria.

[jar]

Whatever I enjoy the most. Kon Peki is high on the list as are several of the P.W. Akkerman inks.

[mhosea]

The cheapest inks I have bought are Hero. I value these so little that I don't even use them. I suppose that puts the effective price/ml through the roof. The most expensive I use are Sailor Nano pigmented inks. Sei Boku in particular I really like. So how am I supposed to use this "value" concept again? 'cause what I value the most doesn't seem all that correlated with price. I guess I can tell you the cheapest inks I really like. That'd be Noodler's and Diamine, certain colors at the standard price.

[mrcharlie]

depending on where I'am at relative location Pilot Iroshizuku should cost like 3.33 USD per ML [snip]

They cost over $150 US per bottle (3.33USD/ml x 50 ml = 166.50 USD)? Where are you? If you meant 3.33 US cents then I am crazy envious.

The best value in inks I've had is Hero 231, 232, 233, and 234 for about $4.50/60ml each, including shipping. They all are nice working and looking inks. About the same price per ml as the lower cost Noodler's varieties in a 3 oz bottle, but I don't know what the exact amount of ml in a Noodler's bottle is (3 oz Noodler's == 3 oz weight, not 3 oz volume) although it should be close to 179 ml. Close to the same price per ml, but much less per bottle. Only four colors available though.

[earthdawn]

This time last year Akkermans 150ml bottles were a steal in my opinion.

For $78 usd I got 3 - 150ml bottles. 450mls of ink for $78 is .17 per ml and for their inks I feel it's pretty darn good. Thats shipped to my door in 10 days.

Noodlers is .14 per ml and thats before shipping.

And Akkermans has the AWESOME bottles... of course now they are just smaller.

[mrcharlie]

You are right about the Noodler's price; I multiplied the amount of ml in 2 oz times 3 instead of ml per 1 oz times 3. Doh! The Hero inks via tmart.com or their amazon/ebay seller account are only 7.5 cents per ml shipped. So, crazy cheap per ml and per bottle.

Generally, if you use the same color all the time, you buy a small number of bottles and go through all the ink, price per ml is relevant.

If you like to have a lot of different colors and switch between them often, you have a few dozen (or more) bottles and rarely if ever finish one, price per bottle matters more.

[snedwos]

At about $10 for an 80 ml bottle, diamine's European prices are crazy good value, especially given their well recognised quality.

[Sailor Kenshin]

The cheapest inks I have bought are Hero. I value these so little that I don't even use them. I suppose that puts the effective price/ml through the roof.


.

And I actually like mine! They're always being used to dip-test new pens because the bottles are nice, neat and stable. I have the red, blue, and the blue-black, the latter two of which I mix 50-50 to form what I call Hero Hanbun. It's a great dark-blue ink with unassuming and trouble-free properties.

Five bucks a bottle. Win.

[sharmon202]

I love that "joy per ml" description. Not sure what it is but you know it when you feel it?
Currently mine are PR Midnight Blues and DC Electric Blue.

Lowest price = Free bottle of Sailor Jentle Blue w/Christmas order.

Most "Joy per Milliliter" = Sailor Kingdom Note Amanita Muscaria.

[LagNut]

I have to say, value and price are two absolutely different concepts in my book. A price is a (free) market value, which is different from actual value, which varies depending on which entity you name. If value were as simple as price, we'd have no need of free markets.

On a value/$ basis, sailor nano blue black (sei boku) is highest in my book. Hasn't destroyed a pen yet, waterproof, lightfast, and a beautiful dark blue green with shading. These properties give it such a great value to me, the price is almost insignificant. At the point that it renders a piece of clothing marked, that will probably be a bigger part of its cost. I haven't crossed that bridge yet, but I know it's there.

On the other end, there are a lot of inks that have essentially negative value, they don't dry quickly, creep onto the section, etc - costing clothes well in excess of purchase price of the sailor. Others water non-fastness has destroyed work, which has potentially a higher cost, though in general, once I write it down, I can generally reproduce it, or I try to get it into the digital realm immediately.

So, ink price in my view is just the cost of admission. True cost can be higher, and value is something else entirely.

Good topic, BTW...
Mike

[mhosea]

At the point that it renders a piece of clothing marked, that will probably be a bigger part of its cost.

The blue stain is actually quite lovely but fades a bit with repeated washing, unfortunately.

[ac12]

I think Pelikan and Pilot both have large bottles Pelikan = 1L and Pilot = 350ml.
And that will drop the cost per ml.
But how long will it take you to use up a LARGE bottle of ink?