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Dear FPNers, I have four FPs - Lamy Studio Palladium - Waterman Carène - Parker Premier - Caran d'Ache Léman but only use the first two. I wrote with the Parker a couple of times, but never inked the CdA – I think I don't have a "suitable" environment for them. Regarding the Waterman and the Lamy, both write nicely, but I prefer the Waterman. The Lamy is a bit too wet and, while the Carène writes without ANY resistance, I feel the Studio Palladium... not to be "scratchy", but kind of tending to offer resistance to some movements over the paper. I can assure that the M nib of the Lamy is in perfect condition. I would like to read the experiences of those of you write or have written with both. Marcelo

Last night, I was browsing Amazon.com and visited this page: http://amzn.com/B000VPJA0K, which advertises the Lamy Studio Palladium fountain pen through the Amazon Marketplace system. At the time I visited, the price of the Lamy Studio Palladium was $ 40.00 (with free shipping), as shown in large crimson font near the top of the page. The name of the seller was provided on the website as follows: "Japan Slect Shop Are you worried about buying original Japanese items from countries other than Japan?Our Japanese staff will send you with care." That seller is still offering the pen for sale through the page (now at a higher price), as you can see by clicking the link on the page that says, "20 new from $199.95." (As the particulars of the terms of sale of any given item are constantly changing on Amazon Marketplace, this link may appear differently by the time you visit the page.) Because $ 40.00 is an unusually low price for the Lamy Studio Palladium pen, and I suspected that an error had been made, my first thought was to contact the seller. However, as far as I could discern, that is not possible through Amazon Marketplace: I could find no way to get an inquiry to the seller. None at all – not through Amazon Marketplace, nor by e-mail, phone, or mail. A bit strange, for a business dedicated to facilitating buying and selling to provide no means for buyers and sellers to communicate with each other. My second thought was to send an inquiry to Amazon.com, Inc. about the item. However, that is not straightforward either. The webpage for the item itself does not provie any way to lodge an inquiry (which would be nice, because then it would be clear that the inquiry relates to a particular item and maybe even a particular seller of the item). Amazon.com has a general-purpose "Contact Us" page ( Not only is it hard to find, but it forces the user to navigate through a series of forms without any obvious way to actually contact Amazon.com staff. A bit frustrated, but not wanting to drop the matter, I placed an order for the pen at $ 40.00. I was contacted by the seller the next day; its message to me said: Not that I am without sympathy for the seller, but that message is false. The seller continues to offer the same item through Amazon Marketplace, now at a higher price, as you can see by visiting http://amzn.com/B000VPJA0K and clicking the "20 new from . . ." link. It's not my objective to have a dispute with the seller, which is probably just as frustrated with its experience using Amazon.com, as I am with mine. However, I do not want to leave the issue be, with Amazon.com conducting a huge volume of business through its automated system but seemingly ducking contact from its customers and not letting buyers and sellers talk to one another before the placement of an order. Any suggestions?