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writingrav
April 16th, 2012, 07:20 PM
Anyone have a retailer that sells Akkerman inks and ink to the US market?

Jon Szanto
April 17th, 2012, 12:14 AM
No. Akkerman only sells from their store, but there is one change: only within the last week or so did I see an announcement that they have launched a website. Bear in mind, this is a very old-school, family-run business, so it is still a work in progress. When I can find the page again I'll post a link. The shipping costs from Amsterdam are NOT cheap, BTW.

writingrav
April 17th, 2012, 05:02 AM
Thanks. If you find that link I'd appreciate it.

Jon Szanto
April 17th, 2012, 11:01 AM
Take a look at this thread (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/218917-pw-akkerman-has-a-webshop-now/page__p__2309107__hl__akkerman__fromsearch__1#entr y2309107).

writingrav
April 17th, 2012, 02:43 PM
Take a look at this thread (http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/218917-pw-akkerman-has-a-webshop-now/page__p__2309107__hl__akkerman__fromsearch__1#entr y2309107).
Thanks so much. I followed it and have purchased a bottle.

Jon Szanto
April 17th, 2012, 03:05 PM
Thanks so much. I followed it and have purchased a bottle.
Excellent! Please post about it when you get it. I'll be frank: I have plenty of inks, but I'd really like one of those bottles! Could you say how much shipping was to the US? What would be TOTALLY cool would be to get a vintage bottle, but I've never found one:


333

writingrav
April 17th, 2012, 07:46 PM
About 18 euros. The whole deal was 62 euros, almost 48 dollars. Very extravagant but I too wanted to check this out, especially the bottle.

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Jon Szanto
April 17th, 2012, 08:05 PM
Ouch.

Ouch!

Freddy
April 17th, 2012, 09:21 PM
About 18 euros. The whole deal was 62 euros, almost 48 dollars. Very extravagant but I too wanted to check this out, especially the bottle.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

With all due respect, €62.00 would be about US$81, not the $48.00 you mention (as of 17 April 2012) which puts it wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of my price range, no matter how much I'd like that ink and bottle.

Jon Szanto
April 18th, 2012, 12:48 AM
Indeed. At those prices, my colored liquid in a glass bottle will be a nice cabernet - wine, not ink, thankyouverymuch!

@penfancy
April 18th, 2012, 03:54 AM
Indeed. At those prices, my colored liquid in a glass bottle will be a nice cabernet - wine, not ink, thankyouverymuch!

Jon, you could use a dip pen in a merlot while your enjoying a glass. :D

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writingrav
April 18th, 2012, 06:15 AM
With all due respect, €62.00 would be about US$81, not the $48.00 you mention (as of 17 April 2012) which puts it wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy out of my price range, no matter how much I'd like that ink and bottle.

I was never very good with numbers. Bottom line, the credit card transaction/translation =$46.50 to be exact.

Jon Szanto
April 18th, 2012, 01:21 PM
I was never very good with numbers. Bottom line, the credit card transaction/translation =$46.50 to be exact.
Huh. Well, maybe this falls in the sumgai category!

Freddy
April 20th, 2012, 02:32 PM
I found this review, http://www.marcuslink.com/pens/ink/akkerman.htm, and as much as I love that bottle, the ink itself seems to have issues. For the price being asked and with the issues mentioned, purchasing this ink just becomes a non-starter for me. :(

Tracy Lee
April 20th, 2012, 06:34 PM
Loving all this good info. Trying to focus more on ink this year but don't want to waste time or money and I trust you guys to steer me right.

Always sign your name with a good pen.

caribbean_skye
April 27th, 2012, 09:50 PM
I managed to snag a bottle quite by happenstance as it was the last (I think) bottle from a group buy and I paid $30 (I really wanted the bottle). So if people are wanting it, maybe a group-buy should be considered. I will say that the bottle is glass and I read somewhere that it's 150ml of ink and it fairly substantial in weight which may account for shipping price. Now I need to figure out a way to finish all of this ink. It's parkpop purper incase you're curious, thankfully I love purple so it's making using the ink a lot easier.

writingrav
April 28th, 2012, 09:48 PM
The bottle of Akkerman Hopjesbuin ink arrived today. The bottle is outstanding and really very much worth the price once just for collecting-sake. The filling mechanism is superior and I don't see why all fountain pen ink isn't offered in similar bottles. I can see using this bottle over and over for all kinds of ink and for that reason alone, if it weren't so expensive, I'd buy a few more; but I'm not going to. the ink, on the other hand is underwhelming. Partly it may have been my choice of color. It was a bit tough negotiating the whole experience in Dutch. I'm not sure what hopjes means but bruin is certainly brown and this is a light brown, very similar to the Platinum Mix-Free Earth Brown I received as a prize from the FP Geeks, but a bit more watery. It is not my favorite color and despite feeling very much like water color paint on the page it doesn't flow all that freely out of the pen, so all-in-all I can't recommend it, but also want to suggest that other colors might be a better choice.

Chi Town
May 1st, 2012, 06:00 PM
What I did, as I am the pres of the New Mexico Pen Collectors Club, is we took an order from the club members, and then I placed the order with P.W. Akkerman. To get the best price you need to place a 15 bottle order and then it comes out to about 31.00 a bottle or less. I handled the whole deal. We ended up with only one broken bottle which Paul at P.W. Akkerman took care of promptly!

peterpen53
May 5th, 2012, 09:16 AM
I'm not sure what hopjes means but bruin is certainly brown and this is a light brown, very similar to the Platinum Mix-Free Earth Brown I received as a prize from the FP Geeks, but a bit more watery.

Your Dutch is getting along nicely, "bruin" indeed means brown. I'm sure you guessed that all the ink names bear some relation to the city of The Hague where the Akkerman store is located. "Hopjes" are a popular sweet from that area, with a light-brown soft cover and a darker, hard centre. I don't like them.

I can attest to differences in the properties of the different inks. My first choice was "IJzer-galnoten blauw/zwart" (Iron gall blue/black) that was horribly dry in a Parker Duofold that wrote fine with anything else remotely resembling ink. Paul confirmed that he had had complaints about that ink from several customers, while others were very satisfied with it. He let me exchange it without any problem for a bottle of "Rood Haags pluche", the best-flowing, warmest red ink I have ever seen.
And as we all know, it's the combination of pen and ink and paper, YMMV.

Cheers,
Peter

jor412
May 14th, 2012, 03:48 AM
What I did, as I am the pres of the New Mexico Pen Collectors Club, is we took an order from the club members, and then I placed the order with P.W. Akkerman. To get the best price you need to place a 15 bottle order and then it comes out to about 31.00 a bottle or less. I handled the whole deal. We ended up with only one broken bottle which Paul at P.W. Akkerman took care of promptly!

Hi, is that $31? Or Euros? And did that include shipping to the U.S.?

Trillium
May 18th, 2012, 04:24 PM
That was $31.00 USD. I was in on that group buy too. Trevese Turquoise. My second bottle of Akkermans, and yes, even if it indeed is relabled Diamine ( which has been a persistent rumor) the bottle IMHO makes it well worth the price. No more inked sections or fiddling with a 1/3 full bottle trying to get the angle just right as you twist..oh darn.. the other way.... on that converter. Oh yes, well worth it. I would love to get in on another group buy of Akkermans if one gets going!

writingrav
May 18th, 2012, 04:30 PM
If only Akkerman would sell the bottles I'd buy a dozen and transfer the inks I use most regularly.

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Trillium
June 6th, 2012, 10:52 PM
I was lucky enough to grab a bottle from Pendleton Brown in Atlanta (Nassua Blau) it was heavy on the purple and I got used to it. The bottle is so neat that I got in on a group buy on FPN for under $40 Trevese Turquoise. Another cool bottle! And the Turquoise is amazing. I would love to get another if there is a group buy here!

writingrav
June 7th, 2012, 04:50 AM
I've been enjoying using their Hopjesbruin aside from the bottle. If anyone feels like organizing the group buy I'm in.

82-Greg
June 9th, 2012, 02:09 PM
I'd join a group by as well.

etoyoc
June 9th, 2012, 02:14 PM
sure... I could be talked into participating on a group buy

writingrav
June 9th, 2012, 03:39 PM
Ok. So let's start talking colors. I'll check the website later tonight and by tomorrow make a nomination or two or do you think each person should just say their in and let us know what ink they want? I'm happy to coordinate with akkermann once we have at least 15. But how do we coordinate distribution around our far flung geekdom?

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etoyoc
June 9th, 2012, 06:38 PM
hmmm... it might be easier to get the 15 if everyone could choose their own colors. On the other hand, it may be hard to choose a color... too many options. Myself, I may go with #27

http://www.vulpennen.nl/merken/akkerman/inkt-and-vullingen/p-1/AkkInkt000.html

writingrav
June 9th, 2012, 07:59 PM
hmmm... it might be easier to get the 15 if everyone could choose their own colors. On the other hand, it may be hard to choose a color... too many options. Myself, I may go with #27

http://www.vulpennen.nl/merken/akkerman/inkt-and-vullingen/p-1/AkkInkt000.html
I would go for that, though if I were picking I'd like number 17

etoyoc
June 9th, 2012, 08:17 PM
After looking at reviews, I want to add #22 to my want list. decisions decisions decisions...

82-Greg
June 10th, 2012, 01:06 PM
I don't have a brown yet, so I'm thinking #23, Bekakt Haags, which Google translates to Posh Hague.

melissa59
June 12th, 2012, 04:59 AM
Ok. So let's start talking colors. I'll check the website later tonight and by tomorrow make a nomination or two or do you think each person should just say their in and let us know what ink they want? I'm happy to coordinate with akkermann once we have at least 15. But how do we coordinate distribution around our far flung geekdom?

The easiest way would be to have everyone pay an additional flat rate USPS charge (or whatever it would cost to send to other countries) in addition to the single bottle price. One person does the ordering and receives the bottles from Netherlands and that person gets their bottle(s) for the original price for doing all the ordering and post office mailing.

writingrav
June 12th, 2012, 05:00 AM
The easiest way would be to have everyone pay an additional flat rate USPS charge (or whatever it would cost to send to other countries) in addition to the single bottle price. One person does the ordering and receives the bottles from Netherlands and that person gets their bottle(s) for the original price for doing all the ordering and post office mailing.

That sounds reasonable. Let me think about it.

maiboo
June 23rd, 2012, 02:46 PM
I really hope this can be done. I would really love to have a bottle.

Ravenlunatic
June 24th, 2012, 01:25 AM
As would I. If there is a group buy, I am in!

maiboo
July 12th, 2012, 05:42 PM
There's a group buy over at FPN that just got started.

inky
November 12th, 2012, 07:15 AM
I know this thread hasn't been visited in awhile but is this still in the works? I'd be on board for a bottle. Can't decide between #10 and #13 though.

earthdawn
November 12th, 2012, 11:59 AM
I know this thread hasn't been visited in awhile but is this still in the works? I'd be on board for a bottle. Can't decide between #10 and #13 though.

Yea that is over...

I saw that group buy when it was almost over. They got it in 2 boxes as they hit the 30 bottle mark.
http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?/topic/225494-akkerman-ink-group-buy/page__p__2401381__hl__%2Bakkerman+%2Bgroup__fromse arch__1#entry2401381
The exchange rate has gone down since then so it is cheaper but it was close to $26 a plus $5 to ship it once it hits the US.

I just ordered 3 bottles and the total was just under $80 sent to NY .... so with the lower exchange rate is about the same or a little cheaper to order direct when ordering 3 bottles.

While its a lot I know... those are 150ml bottles.

inky
November 12th, 2012, 01:02 PM
Thanks earthdawn! That's actually not unreasonable to me. I will probably do the same as you and order 3 bottles. 150ml is a lot of ink! Now off to find a third color... :)

fountainpenkid
November 12th, 2012, 05:26 PM
Hmm..I just found this...for under $30, I might just be interested...150 mls of a good ink would last me a while! (I use two fountain pens every day for notes+hw at school--both are piston fillers/vac fillers so I empty 3-4 bottles (~60ml) of blue ink a year!)

earthdawn
November 12th, 2012, 11:13 PM
P.W. Akkerman emailed me today to say the inks would be sent out before the end of day.

So I will update this and let you know just how long it is.

A few detail...
I was able to use paypal and that was nice and easy.

PS the base shipping is € 20,00 after 3 bottles it goes up to 30 so thats why I keep saying "3 bottles" as it seem the optimum # to maximize the value and minimize the cost.

Here is part of the invoice to give you an idea of what the cost breakdown is;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Order summary

P.W. Akkerman B.V. has received the following order with Order number

Article Description Quantity Price Total price
AkkInkt000 Akkerman Jubileum Vulpeninkt, kleur 23 Bekakt Haags 1 € 13,64 € 13,64
AkkInkt000 Akkerman Jubileum Vulpeninkt, kleur 13 Simplisties Violet 1 € 13,64 € 13,64
AkkInkt000 Akkerman Jubileum Vulpeninkt, kleur 10 Akkerman IJzer-Galnoten bl/zw 1 € 13,64 € 13,64
no VAT will be added
shipping cost (United States) € 20,00
Total price € 60,92
Bedankt voor uw bestelling, wij zullen uw order zo spoedig mogelijk afhandelen. Indien u heeft gekozen voor 'Vooruitbetalen' zullen wij uw bestelling versturen als u het factuurbedrag op onze rekening heeft overgemaakt.
ING 14109 t.g.v. P.W. Akkerman B.V. Den Haag


Payment Method
PayPal
P.W. Akkerman B.V.
Passage 15
2511AB Den Haag, Netherlands
Phone number +31-(0)70-3462264
Fax +31-(0)70-3633551
E-mail info@vulpennen.nl

snedwos
November 14th, 2012, 09:17 AM
€20 total for such a large bottle of ink seems extremely reasonable. Given a 3oz Noodler's bottle costs GBP 12.50 in the UK...