Have used Hobbicolor inks and am well pleased with them but are they only obtainable from America or are there any outlets in the UK that sell Hobbicolour inks ?
They ship worldwide and as far as I know, there are no other outlets anywhere else in the world. People from all over the world buy from them so their shipping costs must be reasonable.
If I were in the UK, I would get all my ink and supplies from websnail. In fact, I'm in the USA and I have gotten KMP pigment black ink from him. Besides that particular ink, he sells a whole line of Image Specialists inks. But of course if you want Hobbicolors, you will have to order direct.
Inks made in the USA or even imported to USA (such as from Mexico) price wise will be always cheaper to buy from USA. There is very little overhead for the sellers in terms tax. There is no sales tax for a USA seller to acquire goods from a USA manufacturer as long as the goods are resold. There is very little import duty for anyone imprting goods into USA. I was caught for bringing with me too much goods into USA when I was returning to USA from Japan. I did file all the goods I brought with me in the custom declaration. I was not fined for anything but simply had to pay importation duty. It turned out to be a 2 - 3% of the value of what I claimed. Actually the US Custom only charged me duty for a few electronics items only.
The point I am trying to make is if goods (and inks) made in USA you may find it cheaper to buy from a US distributor because their overhead in taxes and duties are very low.