Cost Comparison Across 6 Ink Brands

[Armstrong]

I wanted to look at ink price points between Noodler's and Diamine, then decided to expand it for a larger sample. The only real criteria I applied was that I included three boutique inks (DeAtrimentas, Diamine, Noodler's) and three inks by big pen companies (Parker, Pelikan, Platinum). This was by no means meant to be an industry representative sample - just a quick, off the cuff, comparison.

I took the prices off of Goulet's website and put it into a spread sheet to compare the price by unit volume. So the choices were limited by Goulet's selection of inks. I chose to compare it as dollars/ml (USA) which really comes out to cents/ml. Ounces are converted to milliliters. I was going to do several ink colors but it quickly became apparent the prices were repeating so I stopped. I used conditional formatting to add a pastel red (pink) fill color behind the prices per unit volume which were below average. The prices highlighted as such are cheaper than the average price across all six brands.

The results were that Noodler's is substantially cheaper, even at $$/ml measure. That surprised me a little. I expected some of the big pen company inks, like Parker Quink, to be cheaper than boutique inks. Plus the amount he sells is generous compared to other offerings, especially in the 4.5oz bottle. Another surprise is that Noodler's inks, unlike others, stays at the same price point no matter the quantity. Diamine, for instance, is cheaper in a larger quantity. Image below: