X450: $.99Usd/free Shipping!

[Xmsteel]

Well I'm pleasantly surprised. Not only did it arrive in South Africa, it made it in less than a month. It arrived in a plain bubble wrap envelope with no extra protection. But it was still perfect condition. I inserted a Diamine Prussian blue cartridge and it writes flawless.

 

 

Good to hear it arrived in nice condition. Mine should be here tomorrow. It took 4 days to reach California from China, but 4 days later it just now reached Washington state from California.. Don't know how the postal service works but that's still very quick compared to other out of country orders I've made.

 

UPDATE: Came today. A lot nicer quality than I would have thought. Seems to be in perfect condition and writes well.

Edited February 12, 2016 by Xmsteel

[magnus919]

I've gone through about 15 of these now and have some observations:

 

• 100% delivery rate.
• 100% genuine Jinhao. Haven't gotten any fakes yet.
• 80% of the pens either work fine with no tuning or with up to about 5 minutes of tuning.
• 20% of the pens need up to 30 minutes of nib fiddling or nib replacement (the couple that I've replaced nibs on was more a matter of having a bunch of Jinhao nibs laying around and not wanting to spend that much time on a pen I want to give away for free to someone).

[Xmsteel]

 

I've gone through about 15 of these now and have some observations:

 

• 100% delivery rate.
• 100% genuine Jinhao. Haven't gotten any fakes yet.
• 80% of the pens either work fine with no tuning or with up to about 5 minutes of tuning.
• 20% of the pens need up to 30 minutes of nib fiddling or nib replacement (the couple that I've replaced nibs on was more a matter of having a bunch of Jinhao nibs laying around and not wanting to spend that much time on a pen I want to give away for free to someone).

 

 

I've noticed on some listings that the converter is different but the pen is exactly the same. Have you gotten any with different converters? The one I received is the plastic one with the black end that says JINHAO, but I've noticed others are all clear.

[Seele]

I also noticed that they are no longer post-free.

[Xmsteel]

I also noticed that they are no longer post-free.

 

The seller I posted: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fountain-Pen-Medium-Nib-Black-Body-Gold-Trim-Gold-clip-Snap-on-Cap-/271941111771?afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

 

Shows free for me still. (USA)

[Seele]

 

The seller I posted: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fountain-Pen-Medium-Nib-Black-Body-Gold-Trim-Gold-clip-Snap-on-Cap-/271941111771?afsrc=1&rmvSB=true

 

Shows free for me still. (USA)

 

"Does not ship to Australia" he says.

 

Still there is one seller with 99c shipping; they all seem to be in Fuzhou city, Fujian province, so I suspect it's the same vendor using different eBay member names.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Seele

[dvalliere]

I also noticed that they are no longer post-free.

 

Not so. Both of these listings will ship free to Australia (and most of the world): http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=fountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cartridges+-baoer+-lion+-ad+-f+-fine+-250+-599+-599a+-transparent&_udhi=1&_mPrRngCbx=1&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=3&LH_FS=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xfountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cart.TRS0&_nkw=fountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cartridges+-baoer+-lion+-ad+-f+-fine+-250+-599+-599a+-transparent+-%22famous+style%22&_sacat=0

[Seele]

 

Not so. Both of these listings will ship free to Australia (and most of the world): http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=fountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cartridges+-baoer+-lion+-ad+-f+-fine+-250+-599+-599a+-transparent&_udhi=1&_mPrRngCbx=1&LH_BIN=1&LH_ItemCondition=3&LH_FS=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xfountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cart.TRS0&_nkw=fountain+pen+-roller+-rollerball+-ballpoint+-calligraphy+-hero+-cartridge+-cartridges+-baoer+-lion+-ad+-f+-fine+-250+-599+-599a+-transparent+-%22famous+style%22&_sacat=0

 

How odd: the link gave me nothing.

[dvalliere]

 

How odd: the link gave me nothing.

 

Must be related to the way that eBay is processing the search for you being from Australia. Here are the two results of relevance:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fountain-Pen-Medium-Nib-Black-Body-Gold-Trim-Gold-clip-Snap-on-Cap-/271941111771?hash=item3f50f40fdb:g:id4AAOSwT6pVtY0I

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cheap-New-Hot-Medium-Nib-Gold-Trim-Fountain-Pen-Black-Body-Clip-Snap-on-Cap-/121667349590?hash=item1c53f06c56:g:q1gAAOSwl8NVbRYJ

[bonsaiboy]

 

Must be related to the way that eBay is processing the search for you being from Australia. Here are the two results of relevance:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Fountain-Pen-Medium-Nib-Black-Body-Gold-Trim-Gold-clip-Snap-on-Cap-/271941111771?hash=item3f50f40fdb:g:id4AAOSwT6pVtY0I

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cheap-New-Hot-Medium-Nib-Gold-Trim-Fountain-Pen-Black-Body-Clip-Snap-on-Cap-/121667349590?hash=item1c53f06c56:g:q1gAAOSwl8NVbRYJ

I have noticed that free/cheap shipping does not seem to be available to Australians. The first link does not ship to Australia and the second costs $2.99USD to ship.

 

I've bought a few of these when they were available for 99c shipped worldwide. I still think it's good value at $4USD shipped.

[FromTheNetherlands]

 

I've gone through about 15 of these now and have some observations:

 

• 100% delivery rate.
• 100% genuine Jinhao. Haven't gotten any fakes yet.
• 80% of the pens either work fine with no tuning or with up to about 5 minutes of tuning.
• 20% of the pens need up to 30 minutes of nib fiddling or nib replacement (the couple that I've replaced nibs on was more a matter of having a bunch of Jinhao nibs laying around and not wanting to spend that much time on a pen I want to give away for free to someone).

 

Yep, that is also my experience, bought three, all three worked, although one I had to fiddle a little with the nib, but after that as smooth as the others.

Edited February 23, 2016 by GJMekenkamp

[JohnSparegrave]

I have seen to different kinds of nibs, is there a fake one and a genuine one. Recently I read a post stating that fake jinhaos could be identified because the fake nib stated Jinhao written in the length while the genuine one shows a cart driven by two horses. What about it?

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I've posted this elsewhere on FPN, but since it's about the exact same topic I figure it's all right to post it here too.

 

I finally got around to testing my 99¢ Jinhao X450. I had bought two of them at that price on the theory that I might get one that works if I bought two.

So I inked it up with a cartridge with some watery ink in it. I like to test using watery inks because they usually give less possibility of trouble in getting the ink to flow, even in pens that have some ink flow problems, and they're easy to clean out when I get done and have to clean the pen out before putting it in storage against the day when I may want it for use with some serious, non-watery ink.

So I get the cartridge in the Jinhao X450, and I tap the section a bit to encourage the ink to start moving. And I get nothing right away, which is pretty much expected. So I leave the pen at an angle to let gravity assist the ink in getting down the ink channel. Hours later the pen still won't write. I give the pen a flip to encourage the ink to flow. Nothing. I do what I can but the pen won't write.

So, since this is a 99¢ fountain pen and I have two of them, I pull the nib and feed out of it. I look at the nib and it seems really tight. Those times were not letting light pass in between them.

Putting a de-fanged razor blade between the tines didn't open them up. So I tried something I've been thinking about for years: I took my two pairs of needle nose pliers and I gripped each tine, up by the tip, and I pulled a bit. This could really bend the tines badly or even snap one off, but that pen was not going to write anyway.

So I was able to see some daylight between the tines after this. I also ran the blunt razor blade down the ink channel in the feed, just in case there was something in there that was blocking the ink flow. Very thin ink channel in that feed.

I put it all back together and the pen wrote! And it wrote pretty decently. I could use this pen for regular writing. So there it is.

I did find that the pen's a bit heavy for me, I frequently write at an angle and not with the paper horizontal, and weight matters, and the formed section was not so comfortable, but at least the pen writes now.

So there's my experience with the first of my 99¢ Jinhao X450s.

[Ray_NEMBFV]

I started collecting with the 450's, and have 159, 601, 501, 159, and 750. All around the price you quoted. They are not MB's, but never had a problem with them. And now as my collection upgrade so, I give them as presents as well as folks that express an interest in fp's in general.

[k3eax]

I've never had a problem with any of the, too many in number to mention, .99-cent 450s.

[JessLJessup]

Because of this post I ordered one. It arrived today. I water flushed it with a syringe, let it dry a while, put a generic blue cartridge in it, gave the cart a gentle squeeze, let it rest tip down for a few minutes and wrote away. No problems.

 

I got the medium and it has a healthy line, just for information purposes.

 

Jess

[J_MM]

I ordered a handful of these 99 cent pens as well. All work very well.

[magnus919]

Putting a de-fanged razor blade between the tines didn't open them up.

I can't read any further. Horror story!

 

Don't have any brass shims?

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I can't read any further. Horror story!

 

Don't have any brass shims?

 

1. The de-fanged razor blade did not harm the nib or me. So no horror story.
2. No, I don't have any brass shims. I keep on meaning to get some stuff like that, and one day I'm sure that I will.

 

Justifying buying pens and ink is difficult enough. Justifying buying repair supplies at this point in time is just not feasible.

[magnus919]

 

1. The de-fanged razor blade did not harm the nib or me. So no horror story.
2. No, I don't have any brass shims. I keep on meaning to get some stuff like that, and one day I'm sure that I will.

 

Justifying buying pens and ink is difficult enough. Justifying buying repair supplies at this point in time is just not feasible.

 

The thing is, a razor blade is much thicker than a brass shim. And much too hard. The brass shim is softer than the steel, and the ones we use for flossing tines are thinner than a razor blade. You may be damaging your nib in this attempt to improvise.

 

I don't really see brass shims & micromesh as repair supplies. This is just like having ink and paper, IMO: part of the fundamental kit that a person has to write with fountain pens.