Search the Community

Eight Eleven units of the Sailor Profit Black Luster fountain pen with ruthenium-plated 21K gold Medium nibs (model 11-3048-420), and one unit with Fine nib (model 11-3048-220), are available on Amazon.co.jp – sold and fulfilled by Amazon.co.jp – at the moment for ¥19,755 each. That works out to approximately A$251, or US$179, by the current exchange rates. That's a drop of 10% since I placed my order for one with a Fine nib not even 24 hours ago, and it was a pain in the butt trying to cancel it (since Amazon.co.jp advised it was unable to intercept the dispatch) and re-buy at this price. I had to call the parcel courier service in Japan, as well as speak to Amazon.co.jp, to make it happen. Camelcamelcamel indicates that this is significantly lower than the lowest third-party prices seen on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.jp for these products, and is also (approximately) the lowest price† sold by Amazon.co.jp in almost three years. Obviously, there is the issue of how you're going to order one and get it 'home' or sent to you, if you're not in Japan. I don't know if Amazon.co.jp would ship it directly to you if you're in North America, but it won't ship to Australia. I'm using a reshipper to receive the goods on my behalf and then forward them to me at not-insignificant additional expense, but the total cost of acquisition is still a darn sight cheaper than, say, ordering it from a Japan-based seller via eBay.com.au or buying on Rakuten Ichiba (and/or Rakuten Global Market) today. Just thought I'd share the find with anyone who may be keen to get one, but don't want to pay the street price of US$400 or so. Update 1: I see the single unit with the Fine nib is now gone. That didn't take long! Update 2: It seems more stock with the Medium nib has been added. It'd be so much better if Amazon.co.jp added three units with Fine nibs instead. †I'm only able to be look at it in graphical form, without being able to review the specific numbers by data point, so the granularity is limited and my conclusion could be off by ¥50 or so.

Well, I went to use my Sailor 1911 black luster today only to discover that the black ionized plating had mostly eroded from the nib. After a quick google search, I learned that some inks don't play nice with the black ionized bits, and the ink I had in there most definitely didn't (I think it was FPN's own Noodler's "Starry Night"). Because I purchased the pen secondhand, I had no idea that Sailor specifically requests using their own inks for this finish. *sigh* Is there anything I can do to re-plate the nib? Or would such a repair be so utterly expensive as to make the process ridiculously cost prohibitive? Helpful suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks!