It broke my heart when I heard these stamp pads were out of production but they have returned better than ever. I love these ink pads for stamping because the provide a soft and very juicy pad. They are an acid free dye ink that is archival which means it won't smear if it gets wet, you are free to use sprays, paint, mediums, watercolors and anything wet with out smearing your original impression.It’s a very good Ink for what you pay for. I definitely would buy it again.Had this brand for years. So glad to find it in exactly the color I was looking for.This product wasn't what we needed. In our clinic, we use the ink pads to do footprints for the newborns that come in. The ink on this was too fast drying and didn't wipe of the babies' feet as well as our other ink pads. I still give this product four stars because it came quickly and was in good condition, it just wasn't quite what we needed. I'm sure for someone looking for fast drying ink, it would be perfect. The color is a very nice dark blue.I was trying for a dark blue, navy ish. Seems ink pads on come in a royal blue color. Tried this one thinking it would be a dark blue, but it really seems more of a light black.Love the color, love the coverage, love the product! While I am sure that you may feel other ink pads are great for other project, for my money (which is a bit scarce, probably like yours...) "Color Box" is the absolute perfect medium for embossing. Yep, you artistic types are correct, I have no, no, no artistic ability. I rely on my stamps, my magic embossing powder, and my super-de-duper magic wand (aka: that embossing blower-thing) to make me appear to be oh-so groovy! And, again, for my limited funds, "Color Box" is the...uhm...what is it I heard my students say once? "The bomb"? Yeah, okay, so that is a couple of years old, I still like the word "groovy" so let's not judge.In conclusion...YEP, BUY THIS!Permanent, water resistant ink stamp pad.The ink is great and dries quickly and is very useful if you need results that won't bleed or run.But it doesn't last long....A drawback to this ink pad is that the pad dries out very quickly - I've had the ink pad for just under 3 weeks and it has dried out to about 1/2 its strength at this point - I thought it would last a year or more at least.A thought of mine is that the stamp box does not close very securely, rather it's more of a top that lays on the bottom portion of the case instead of sealing it shut - perhaps the company might rethink the case design for this type of ink to prevent it from drying out so quickly.Great little ink pad! It is full of ink and came very moist. I wish the lid stayed on better (to prevent drying just in case it popped off accidentally) but other than that, no complaints! The ink is super dark and very black. I got this to use with alphabet rubber stamps and although the stamps were no good, at least I had a good ink pad! By the way, don't order the alphabet stamps that come in the wooden box, they are garbage! Guess I need to find some better stamps so I can use my ink pad more!