Pilot News For Fall

[ehemem]

The Story So Far:

 

I did get to Art Brown this afternoon (living in Brooklyn for some 20-odd years has spoiled me...walking on most any street in Manhattan these days makes me feel like the proverbial trout moving upstream). The gang from Pilot was there. So were most all the upcoming goodies from them, including the Justus 95:

 

pilotJustusmed_001.JPG

 

I got to try the Stella and Grance as well (I'm told, as Keats mentioned in the first post, they're thinking about a name change on the former), and ogle the new Raden VPs (there are two versions, both stunning). Pilot is clearly on a roll here.

 

But it was the Justus 95 that simply knocked me out:

 

pilotJustusmed_002.JPG

 

The story is that the late-70s version of the Justus wasn't really up to Pilot's usual standard in terms of mechanical integrity, and was pulled from production. Not long ago, the rep was handed a pen that was to become the Justus 95, from one of the top people at Pilot. Apparently, someone got the mechanical bits sorted out, and decided to update the styling. He was asked if he could sell something like this in the States: "Could I!" was his answer. I added that, IMO, Pilot's initial problem is going to be making enough of them to fill initial demand.

 

A few details: the pen will be offered with a choice of F or M nibs (14k), and will only be offered with the black Barley finish - the rep feels the striped version wasn't quite distinctive enough, though I'm toying with the idea of asking if he'd have at least one of those slip in if I put in an advance order.

 

Target street price is $300.

 

Yep, I'm getting one.

 

 

- Barrett

 

 

Why wait? The Justus 95 in both the striped and barley patterns is on sale in Japan already, and there are even showing up on fleaBay.

[amateriat]

@ehmem: In fact, I'm still sorting out how I'll do this: I did get my (replacement) black Custom 823 from Japan last month (via Le Auction Site), since that was the only way I'm able to get a new 823 in black (amber os the only finish officially distributed in the States), so let's just say I reserve the option to do the same with the Justus 95.

 

 

- Barrett

[hari317]

 

 

Why wait? The Justus 95 in both the striped and barley patterns is on sale in Japan already, and there are even showing up on fleaBay.

and also much cheaper than the ridiculous $300 "suggested street price" target for USA. the export msrp of the Justus 95 is 30,000JPY. This is the msrp that includes all margins etc. with the weaker yen, the USD rate today is 292.5USD.

 

I can understand if the US msrp is kept at 300USD, keeping that as the street price is like fleecing the customers IMO. YMMV.

 

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dpilot.co.jp%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3Dj6w%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official&rurl=translate.google.co.in&sl=ja&u=http://www.pilot.co.jp/products/pen/fountain/justus95/index.html&usg=ALkJrhj60cEdUWn6GjzxxYkLvVE85BjNSQ

[bbbiswas]

The MSRP of Justus95 is $300 in USA which matches Pilot's declared price in Yen.

But most sellers will sell at 80% as is common practice, that is $240.

I got it at $200 plus $10 for shipment by Express Mail from a Japanese webshop.

It was delivered to me in 3 days from Japan to India.

Even if I got it at $200 from an American dealer, the Express Mail cost would have been $45 making it $245 total.

If you are not in USA, buying from Asia and even Europe makes more sense as the postage cost in USA is sky-high.

And even if you are in USA, then also buying from Japan will be cheaper as in Japan retail price is 60% of MSRP.