Comprehensive Analysis of Fountain Pen Ink Costs (v.2)

Here's a clickbaity list of the TOP TEN MOST EXPENSIVE INKS!!!!!!

Hakase dethrones Louis Vuitton.

Brand and Line

Common Price

Size (mL)

$/mL

10. Montblanc (Old Writers/Great Characters)	$20.50	30	$0.683
9.   Super 5	$20.60	30	$0.687
8.   Sailor Storia (Smaller Size)	$14.25	20	$0.713
7.   Sailor Shikiori	$15.00	20	$0.750
6.   Waldmann	$23.00	30	$0.767
5.   Montblanc (New Writers/Great Characters)	$43.00	50	$0.860
4.   Bungubox	$39.00	40	$0.975
3.   Louis Vuitton	$52.00	50	$1.040
2.   Hakase Sepia (Light)	$54.18	50	$1.084
1.   Hakase Sepia (Dark)	$63.21	50	$1.264

As well as the top ten cheapest by cost per mL.

Bigger isn't always better, but it usually is: six of these clock in at/over the 250 mL mark.

Brand and Line

Common Price

Size (mL)

$/mL

10. Pelikan 4001 (1000 mL)	$78.00	1000	$0.078
9.   Octopus (Large)	$18.32	250	$0.073
8.   Raduga 2	$5	70	$0.071
7.   Blackstone (Bulk X-Large)	$70.00	1000	$0.070
6.   Higgins Fountain Pen India Ink	$4.90	73.93	$0.066
5.   Pilot (350 mL)	$22.00	350	$0.063
4.   Hero	$3.00	56	$0.054
3.   Koh-i-noor	$1.99	50	$0.040
2.   Daytone	$4.70	1000	$0.005
1.   Ostrich Ink (Carton)	$19.00	4080	$0.005

Observations

The world really has changed: Iroshizuku 15 mL bottles are now at the same unit cost as the large bottles once were, and those large bottles no longer crack the top ten most expensive. Kon-Peki is one step closer to being as affordable as it is popular (especially when Amazon has it for $17.) On that note, let's do some math:

According to scholars' most trusted source, Wikipedia, a standard Olympic swimming pool is 25 meters wide, 50 meters long, and 3 meters deep* and thereby holds 3750 cubic meters of water, i.e., 3750000 liters or 3750000000 milliliters, equivalent to 75 million 50 ml bottles of Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki Yo. Since a 50 mL bottle of Tsuki Yo costs (on average) $20, 75 million would cost 1.5 billion dollars, a surprisingly reasonable sum, given that the two frontrunners in the 2016 election collectively raised that along with a few hundred million to spare on a nice Kon Peki kiddie pool. 

Let's say we're tight on money this Olympic cycle, so we need to fill our pools with something significantly cheaper. Sense doesn't exist here, so water is out. The next cheapest option is Tianjin Ostrich ink, which you can buy in a minimum quantity of five barrels for $20 a barrel. A single barrel holds 158987.3 mL for $20, so five of them hold 794936.5 mL and cost a reasonable $100. Since an Olympic swimming pool holds 3750000000 milliliters, one of them would hold ~4,717 5 barrel orders of Tianjin Ostrich ink. At $100 for each of those, we're looking at $471,736, with which you can buy a fairly nice home in Atlanta, assuming you can also travel back in time to 2014 when CBS's top minds put together that slideshow. Also interesting to note is that this price is significantly lower than the one you'd incur if you tried to fill the same pool with your run-of-the-mill bottled water at $1.22 per gallon (a little over $800,000 for your whole pool). 

*FINA specifies a minimum of 1.35 meters; we're being optimistic to make the numbers work out: Wikipedia says 2-3. There's no official maximum depth, so like Jay-Z we're doing some approximating, and let's say...3.

Here's a fancy embedded version for those interested in sources/sleep-deprived notes. Assuming that version won't work, follow this link to the original (locked) Google sheet. Thanks goes out to reddit's /r/fountainpens for drawing my attention to several of these inks, especially the Indian brands I'd never heard of before.