What Pen Did You Get Today?

[Sailor Kenshin]

The new Preppys with their medium nibs arrived today. I got a blue and a green. So far so good. A nice inexpensive writer of a perfect size and weight for my hand.

[ibz]

The black Pelikan M200 F I ordered on Tuesday was waiting for me when I got home from work. What a nice little pen!

[cuza]

The diminutive Pilot 78G F. Considering its cost, it is impressive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-- cuza

[Lachesis]

The Herbin inks I bought and the Hero fountain pens Kenshin sent me. :] So happy.

 

Lachesis

[diplomat]

A green Admiral Sheaffer's that I though it was a Snorkel but revealed to be a Touchdown...

[ZeissIkon]

A green Admiral Sheaffer's that I though it was a Snorkel but revealed to be a Touchdown...

 

Don't look so down -- a TD is hardly more difficult to restore than a common lever filler -- a new sac and possibly an O-ring, and you're ready to write. There are more parts in just the Snorkel mechanism than in most self-filling pens; except for getting the last drops of ink from a bottle, IMO the TD is superior (less to go wrong).

[Kaych]

I just picked up a near mint black Canadian aerometric Parker 51 from PenPalace. I inked it up as soon as I got home (with Noodl'ers BPB) and it writes like a beauty! This pen definitely deserves all the hype it recieves.

[reprieve]

Yesterday I received an Edison Pearl bulb filler in Tortoise Lucite with an 18k broad nib. Today I received two Pilot Preras, a gift for my husband (I am trying to convert him to fountain pens).

[liapuyat]

A golden brown striped military clip Sheaffer with a white dot and a Lifetime nib that writes a lovely smooth fine line I believe it's a 1941 Vigilant. A good friend restored it (a lever-filler) for me. Love it

 

By the way, it has that odd white feed.

Edited September 13, 2009 by liapuyat

[tt32003]

Picked up a used Pilot Prera and a Sheaffer Craftsman from a forumer here.

[Mr Rob]

A yellow Lamy Safari with an EF nib. Loaded it with Noodler's Navajo Turquoise and I'm surprised at how wet it is compared to my Al-Star F (and even my Pelikan M200 F). Doesn't write any finer than the F either. Oh well, maybe a different ink will work better. At least it's a smooth writer.

[Wino In Training]

Azure Blue Parker Vac Junior Deb.... at the shop for an ultrasonic cleaning right now!

[cuza]

Got a beautiful Kaigelu 316. Heavy, great acrylics. Love the kangaroo logo on the nib.

 

-- cuza

Edited September 15, 2009 by cuza

[Jimmy James]

I got the Baoer that is obviously inspired by the Starwalker. The nib needs smoothing.

 

I also got a Bookworm. It has flow issues.

 

Such can be life with the sub-$10 (shipped) pens from China. It's nice to have projects, not that I lack for them in the pen world.

[zubipen]

Montblanc Solti and Parker Duofold Big Red; also Pelikan 400 tortoise

[liapuyat]

Black Pelikan M215, Lozenge (diamond) design, with F nib.

[Vanrensalier]

 

 

It's odd that the seller isn't offering any of them as "Buy it Now" anymore, but has several available for bidding ...

 

I thought the same thing. Especially in light of the free shipping, you think they would want to give people the opportunity to order more than one and cut down the loss to their profit by multiple pens shipped separately. I purchased two, but as two separate bids. I have not seen too many Chinese pens that I like - they are generally too glittery for my tastes. And a different one that I purchased awhile back, wrote badly. I like the Japanese pocket pens but they always get bid out of range of my budget. I keep hoping to get a Sailor Gold nib NOS pocket pen but the Jinhao will have to do for now.

[cuza]

A Conklin All-American med nib. Colour: Orange and black.

 

Why do Conklin pens comes in such humongous boxes? It's as big as a bleeding shoe box. My new Kaigelu 316 came in a box that almost revels the Conklin. Crazy.

 

What happened to the use of appropriate packaging? Enough soap-boxing.

 

 

 

-- cuza

[ZeissIkon]

 

 

It's odd that the seller isn't offering any of them as "Buy it Now" anymore, but has several available for bidding ...

 

I thought the same thing. Especially in light of the free shipping, you think they would want to give people the opportunity to order more than one and cut down the loss to their profit by multiple pens shipped separately.

 

Honestly, I suspect they're paying less than a US dollar for shipping from Hong Kong to the USA. I suspect that because a couple Chinese sellers I've dealt with (ghostshow and caleen6) sell a bunch of different pens for the same ninety-nine cent starting bid and no reserve, but the shipping varies with what I suspect is the MSRP equivalent -- some, like the Hero 70s I bought a while back, have free shipping; others have shipping running to $7.95, or $9.95, or $13.95 -- even though the weight, and consequently the actual shipping cost, can't vary appreciably between a Hero 70 and a Jinhao or Kaigelu of some stripe. Further, they often mix free shipping and higher shipping costs on the same pen models, seemingly in hopes someone will fail to notice the shipping before bidding. They may even be hoping to get some actual bidding going, but when I was watching the Hero 70, I didn't see them going much over $2 even when they got more than one bid, and it was easy to find them with less than 24 hours to run with no bids. Most recently, they may have even started some shill bidding, but that still doesn't seem to drive the price up much.

 

Bottom line, they're getting these pens at prices American simply have trouble believing, and shipping from China is far lower than we'd credit as well -- so they probably aren't losing much if anything on the pens they sell, and they're building up their feedback, as well as creating a base of satisfied customers with the nice writing pens they sell (I don't know if Chinese pens have really improved that much since they got their reputation, or if these sellers are tuning the pens they ship, like some American sellers do).

[Chthulhu]

QUOTE (Vanrensalier @ Sep 6 2009, 07:16 PM) Thanks for the tip. I just put a bid on a Jinhao bullet pen!

 

It's odd that the seller isn't offering any of them as "Buy it Now" anymore, but has several available for bidding ...

 

And now he is again, plus a couple of variant models for the same price: eBay items 400073003749, 400073043869, and 400073043877