The variety room could best be described as 1) earthquake aftermath, 2) where the stolen mail goes or 3) signs of struggle.
This means I’m either the most disorganized ink dealer in the world or I’ve got more business than I expected. I definitely have more inventory.
Because I’m reselling inks that are, as of right now, only available in Japan and are, as of now, only produced in fits and starts by a company that knows they will sell locally and couldn’t care less about exports, I tend to have to acquire bottles of ink as they come available. My research method for this involves frequently checking the website and buying stuff when it’s no longer marked “sold out”.
I also tend to order a substantial amount of stuff I know will sell as the popular inks disappear quickly. When, I started this small little service, for example, the available “flavors” from the morning were unavailable by the end of the day. Other inks always seem to be available and I find myself as their biggest cheerleaders.
This acquisition method means I have stacks of ink, and the boxes they came, and the extra packing/protection material filling up a corner of the variety room.
This particular store has 20 flavors of ink in four series: Japanese Birds; Japanese Crustaceans; Japanese Insects; and Japanese Fungi. Each series has a variation of blue, orange, and brown, with other series having black, green and gold and each has a picture of the fungus/creature that inspired the color.
This means the stacks include pictures of insects. Given the insect friendly nature of the stacks, I should probably be worried that insects will see this as a welcome sign. For example, at the top of this picture you can see a pair of rhinoceros beetles:
Rhinoceros beetle, Kabutomushi in Japanese, is an awesome brown ink, by the way, if you’re looking for such a thing…
I have a few packages to send out on Monday, and hope to convince a few more people they can’t live without the ink currently in a box in my office.
Someday, if sales remain consistent, I plan to approach the store for a better deal and a more regular inventory. (Slim chance, but worth a shot.)
In the mean time, I’ll be watching the website for more bugs and more fungi.