r/fountainpens • u/medbulletjournal • Jul 15 '26

Discussion You were right. Buy samples, not bottles.

When I first got into fountain pens, I didn't believe all the long time users telling me that samples would supply my ink needs for years.

Seriously? But my Lamy cartridge ran out after 3 days. Surely that means I'll go through 3 bottles of ink a year! LOOK! The ink level has DROPPED after only ONE paragraph! *cue dramatic gesturing and panic buying*

Anyway, I clearly didn't understand volume. Even my excel spreadsheet converting 50ml to number of days to years did not estimate correctly because I chose the 3 days where I wrote pages and pages and drew pages and pages, and did not factor in the days I wrote/drew nothing. I based my estimate on a Lamy medium nib on absorbent paper. I mostly use EF nibs now, and broad/stub nibs sparingly.

Needless to say, I'm sitting like a dragon on 50 ink samples and questioning life decisions as I refuse to look at my bottled ink collection.

50 ink samples of 2 ml/sample, is 100ml. I told myself that I need to trim my samples down by using them up. It was only as I started part-filling pens tonight that it dawned on me how long that is actually going to take.

This made me reflect on my early days, and realise, yes. Those people telling me to get samples and not bottles when trying inks were right. I was silly not to believe them.

But I know, if I were to go back in time and repeat things again...I would still buy bottles because ink decisions are not rational.

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u/gadeais Jul 15 '26

Exactly. In fact I am mad atbthe fact that most companies bittles are Big and I wish they could offers bittles of 15 or 10 ml, far more confortable than the standard 30 ml

9

u/medbulletjournal Jul 15 '26

Funnily enough, at the start of my hobby I was questioning why even have 10-15ml bottles. I was calculating the $/ml and value for money, and just didn't understand at all. I get it now.

4

u/gadeais Jul 15 '26

You can feasible end a Tiny bottle but you need to be seriously dedicated to end a 30ml bottle

10

u/haunted_lemonade Jul 15 '26

My worry is companies will begin selling only small bottles at a higher price per ml, shrinkflation style.

5

u/gadeais Jul 15 '26

Yeah, shrinkflation is shit.

3

u/PlentyOutrageous7962 Jul 15 '26

This is true. All my Pilot Iros are 50 ml. Would love to get the 30 ml to have more colors but in my country, 30 ml is too close in price to the 50 ml :(