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The move from the Warden Ink to Eel was a pretty big deal, but the new switch to Polar eel is only relevant for those of you that use your pen in freezing temperatures. The trade-off of the Polar Eel is feathering, skipping, staining and wetness on normal paper. For someone (like me) that lives down South, its the last Ink I'd ever buy.
I was always under the impression that Massdrop had "contracts" with vendors. If they committed to the original inks, they should ship them. And now to have the black ink be a winter ink shipped in summer screams of somebody just trying to get rid of inventory that won't be sold for another 6 months otherwise.
Sorry for my rant, but this went from a nice deal that took too long to a question on the whole concept of Massdrop and whether we should be advancing money on products to be shipped at an undetermined date.
This has been the first time we've worked with Noodler and suffice to say, it has been a very messy ordeal. Reported stock/inventory levels weren't accurately communicated to us, leading to overselling of certain ink colors. We're admittedly not experts in Noodler ink, and the substitutions offered aren't random decisions made by us, rather, they're suggestions that have come from the company. We're doing our best to make this work, and appreciate the group's patience with this situation. Going forward, we'll work to figure out how to avoid these problems, or simply not list the product in the future.
In terms of your question about contracts, at these sizes, no, there are no fulfillment contracts that bind a manufacturer to ship product. Even if there was, it's not cost effective for either side to enforce it. In the Mega-b2b world where Samsung agrees to supply millions of dollars of LCD TV's to Bestbuy's national sales chain, then yes, contracts exist. Even then, they regularly short-ship product or have launch delays- It's just not as clear to the consumer since you purchase things off the shelf after all the messy logistics have been sorted out behind the scenes.
Participating in a group-buy, brings all of the messiness of the wholesale channel up front.
I guess I'm out of this drop. Please refund my money. I was very upset that the Warden's ink and the English Rose were substituted for less appealing inks. The move to the Polar Eel takes me out because I wouldn't buy that ink under any circumstance.
I think that you guys need to do a lot more research on the inks you are substituting so freely. Even their standard bulletproof black would have been a better choice than this ink which is only good for people that routinely take their pen into below freezing environments. Given that we are entering the heat of summer, this isn't a great deal by any stretch.
Burma Road Brown (brown with a slight green tint) - Still Shipping? Black Swan in English Roses (rusty brown) - CANCELLED Bad Black Moccasin (black) - SWAPPED for Eel Black SWAPPED for Polar Black Baystate Blue (royal blue) - SWAPPED for Bernake Blue 54th Massachusetts (dark blue) - Still Shipping???
The Bad Black Moccasin is a Warden ink, which is one of the best anti-fraud inks available. The Eel Black is a nice lubricating ink (very popular) and the Polar Eel Black is specially formulated for below zero use (but having worse on-paper performance than the Eel Black).
The Bernake Blue is a quick drying ink, particularly made for left handers. It is not waterproof (like Baystate) so if you get water on it (or someone try's to lift your signature), its a risk. I wouldn't use Bernake for any legal instruments or checks - but if you like a quick drying ink, or are left handed, its a good ink.
Here is a good listing of the different characteristics of each Noodler's ink. https://www.gouletpens.com/v/vspfiles/files/noodlers-ink-properties.pdf
It sounds like its Noodler's fault - and I'd like to recommend the basic black as a replacement for the Polar Black (which really is a single-use ink IMO). It is a better room temperature ink than the Polar Black, its darker and given that its June, nobody will get the benefits of the ink for 6 months, but have to deal with the problems (which include staining and some other issues of the formula necessary to make it freeze-proof).
I'm sorry I'm being a stickler, but this was a special deal because of the Moccasin and English Roses. The pens are nothing special, but the package with some originally very good ink choices was what made this massdrop worth the wait for me.