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Baoer, Jinhao and Hero pens can be found with ease, but brands like Wing Sung, Moonman etc are almost impossible to find. I really want to get a Wing Sung 699 and a Moonman M100, but the price of shipping is more than one and a half times the pen itself. Please suggest me sources from which I could buy Chinese pens for a reasonable price.

Is it common for fountain pens to be severely damaged by heat or cold when being shipped? If so, what are the most common forms of damage? Can anything be done to reduce this risk, such as using packages that can breathe or paying for faster shipping? The reason I ask this is because the first fountain pen I bought online was a gorgeous Parker vacumatic maxima. When it had arrived, the celluloid lacked shine, the cap band was loose (as if the plastic had shrunk), and the iridium on one tine was gone and on the other side it jarred sideways, as if a new piece had been soldered on. I suspected that it had been baked in the mail. Ever since then I have never purchased pens online in the winter or summer. Since Im from Minnesota, that is about eleven months of the year. Ive also noticed the smell of camphor when buying celluloid fountain pens. Does the amount of camphor that is baked out of the pen weaken it substantially or is it too small to make a difference? Thanks

Hi everyone! I searched a little and couldn't find a good answer, so please forgive if this has been covered. I'm moving my 200-bottle collection of inks. My choices are: In the POD, which will be overland from Colorado to the coast, then on a boat for 7 days. I worry about this method being too hot. In a Priority Flat Rate Box (several of them, I'm sure), shipped USPS. Again, I worry about the heat, but it will be a shorter exposure than the shipping in the POD. In my checked luggage This seems like a huge pain in the patootie and extremely heavy, but maybe the least exposure to prolonged heat. They put animals in the hold, so it can't be TOO hot. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Hello, I just bought some pens, paper and inks from Gouletpens and paid a very expensive shipping to Mexico, but now I am afraid that my package may be retained at customs for containing inks and sent back. So, I wanted to know if anybody has experience buying inks from US to Mexico and if you have encountered problems with customs in doing so. Thanks a lot in advance for your help. I hope my package reaches me without problems. It would be very sad and disappointing to not get my products after paying those shipping prices. :/

Good day FPN, This event literally just happened a few minutes ago and I wanted to recount the details. Before I go further, I will say at the very beginning that the issues occurred in transit after leaving Goulet, this is a review of their customer service in dealing with such an incident. I'm also not affiliated with Goulet Pens in any way other than a customer who spends way too much on fountain pen supplies, but that's all of us right? So I've been ordering from Goulet Pens for a pretty long time, since before the Noodler's Ahab came out, and I've made more than a couple of orders so I know their shipping habits by now. Over the weekend I ordered a shiny new TWSBI Diamond 580 in Rose Gold (buy one here, if you like), as usual I got my shipping confirmation from Goulet first thing Monday morning when they opened. The first odd thing I noticed is USPS tracking said the item would take several days to be delivered, I live about 1.5-2 hours north of their office (in the DC area) so I'm used to my packages from them arriving within 24 hours even with regular shipping. No big deal, something must be going on with the post office. The day of delivery (according to the tracking number) arrives, and the pen does not. I check the tracking number again after receiving the rest of my mail, and see they misrouted my package to the wrong city; again, post office issue. The next day they've sent it where it needs to go and this is where things go from curiously irritating to bad. My box arrives and I open it up to find... nothing. The TWSBI box inside has the plastic case with the wrench and the booklet (you know the one I mean), but no pen. I was as crestfallen as a child without a puppy: http://i.imgur.com/W2l2zEC.jpg So I contacted Goulet Pens with a few pictures, and this is where the review starts. In less than 5 minutes I received two emails; one was an order confirmation for a replacement, the other was an email from Jeremy in customer service expressing his concern and he wanted to know more about the situation. I was also contacted by Jessica (who is a personal friend of my girlfriend, so we met each other quite recently) who recognized the order immediately. Between the three of us we discussed the state of the package, the outer box was banged up and retaped where torn, the TWSBI booklet was loose inside, there was no bubblewrap or cellophane (anyone who orders from Goulet understands this is a red flag), the TWSBI box itself was torn and taped over, and the TWSBI casing was missing tape on one side. We very quickly determined that something must have happened with the postal service, which I would not say is Goulet staff saying "oh it isn't our problem", this is a conclusion which I came to on my own from my personal inspection and past experiences and I fully believe the problem happened during transit: http://i.imgur.com/Khx5dSy.jpg http://i.imgur.com/7eMa8oI.jpg At this point, they've already packed my replacement, they even made sure the pen was inside the package and sent me a photo of it. If it arrives without my pen again, of course I must challenge USPS to a duel. I'm confident in my abilities, I'm a trained rapier fencer and a biter. I can't express enough the atmosphere of this company, it was a very human experience, no form letters or customer service templates, the interest and concern was sincere, you aren't getting the "jaded customer service rep punching a timecard" from Goulet Pens. This is also the only bad experience I've had while ordering from them, and clearly at no fault of their own. I'm preaching to the choir here for veteran Goulet customers, but this sort of personal touch is what put Brian and Rachel Goulet on the map in the first place; I think it's important to recognize that in 8 years since the company started, that core value has not changed. Goulet Pens has expanded and evolved over the years quite a bit, however they are no less personal and organic than when they were shipping out of their garage. I don't think that will ever change, because it's deeply ingrained into the company culture. I hope that the US Postal Service can do something to mitigate the damage, but regardless I am sad that this incident may have caused them a loss of profit because of the lost merchandise, that being said I appreciate them taking care of me so throughly and quickly. I can only hope that this testimonial will steer more business towards them in the future, and the potential customer base will outweigh the cost of one misappropriated package. A big thanks to Jeremy and Jessica at The Goulet Pen Company for giving 120% to taking care of the issue! Cheers.

Now this is how to pack a boxed pen for trans-atlantic shipping. Almost six feet of 14 inch wide bubble wrap, plus about five feet of five inch wide wrap on each side in a FedEx Express medium box. The pen inside the display box is wrapped in tissue that is taped. I know there are other probably easier and equally effective ways to pack for shipping. I was just impressed by the attention to detail in the wrapping process. It took me a few minutes to cut through it and perhaps longer for the shipper to wrap and tape it. Stay tuned for photos of the pen.

Has anyone ordered pens or inks from Nordic Pens recently and if so, could you let me know how long it took for your order arrive after it was shipped? I'm in New England, for reference...and hoping not to come back to find a box of frozen ink outside the door in case it takes longer than anticipated.

Let me start by saying that I have NO affiliation with Amazon or the retailers selling these Pilot Iroshizuku inks On Amazon UK, if you search "iroshizuku", you can find almost the whole range for around only £15! Normally, one would have to pay around £30 for these. They're even shipped for free! I'm not sure if these retailers ship to other countries for free or sell elsewhere for the same price. So, if you want an Iroshizuku ink, but haven't gotten one because of the price, you're in luck! Unfortunately, the prices do change from time to time, but you can track the prices using http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com/ Some links to the more popular inks: Kon-Peki http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Iroshizuku-Fountain-Pen-Ink/dp/B0018HJVS6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399811984&sr=8-1&keywords=iroshizuku+kon-peki Asa-Gao http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Iroshizuku-Fountain-Pen-Ink/dp/B001AX7TFA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399812002&sr=8-1&keywords=iroshizuku+asa-gao Yama-Budo http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Iroshizuku-Fountain-Pen-Ink/dp/B001PWFZ02/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399812748&sr=8-1&keywords=iroshizuku+yama-budo Fuyu-Gaki http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pilot-Iroshizuku-Fountain-Pen-Ink/dp/B002BV11I6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1399812773&sr=8-10&keywords=iroshizuku Unfortunately, Tsuki-Yo was available, but I can't find it at this time. It will probably be re-stocked soon with the £15 price tag. I hope this was useful to you.

I have been following the Classifieds for some time now and I have observed that many sellers state that they are willing to ship their pens to "CONUS only" (not even to all of the US). In contrast, I am not sure I have seen even a single ad where the seller was willing to ship "to the EU only". Has anybody else observed this? Why does it happen? I am just curious...

This is a question, not a conclusion, so I am looking for opinion. Recently I have been looking at a lot of Conway Stewart pens on ebay. Most of them come from British sellers, and I would say that 75 percent of them carry what I consider exorbitant shipping costs. Fifteen to 20 dollars US seems to be near average. Every now and then, I see a British seller set a shipping price in the $7 to $10 range. Now that sounds reasonable. Are the sellers jacking up the cost without good reason? I see some of that in the US with many sellers wanting to ship everything at expedited rates rather than standard USPS rates. Granted some folks may be in a hurry, but high shipping charges often turn me off even bidding on some pens. What say you all?