Platinum Pocket Fountain Pens

[MYU]

From my experience, PILOT was the best maker of pocket friendly pens. These are pens with a short body and long cap, which means a low profile when capped and tucked into a shirt pocket, but then extended to a normal sized pen when posted. I don't have any concrete info on when the first pocket fountain pen was created in Japan, but I believe Pilot started it, followed by Platinum and Sailor. Of course, in the USA Sheaffer was making pocket friendly pens for some time of a different design (simply shorter barrel and cap, with cap posting further out to elongate the pen).

 

I've accumulated a number of Pilot pocket pens over the years. I love them (see my review, HERE). Excellent quality and highly reliable nibs and feeds. What really drew me towards them was the integrated nibs... the MYU/Murex pens. But that's a whole other chapter.

 

For the most part, Platinum made a lot of rather cheap pocket pens. Not really much cheaper than Pilot in terms of price, but quality was definitely behind. The plastic was thinner. The finish was more scratch prone. But the nibs were always very good. It's no wonder Platinum nibs have been used for Nakaya hand made pens.

 

Anyway, Platinum did have a few higher end pocket pens that matched Pilot quality. Whereas you could buy a MYU 701 for the mere sum of 3,500 JPY, Platinum had their best pocket pens priced at 6,000 JPY! Yikes. For only 5,000 JPY you could have gotten a black striped MYU pen, which now sells for upwards of $500 USD in mint condition!

 

Here's a Platinum Pocket Fountain Pen that I got recently:

Notice the extra clutch ring on the body, for posting (keeps scratches to a minimum). Cap is nicely weighted. The finish is iridescent. What looks like a spot light is just the reflective nature of the material. Unfortunately it has some little black nicks inside the material... not sure how those happened. Wasabi. Anyway, the price tag? 6,000 JPY! That was very expensive back when it was released.

Here's another, all metal treatment, which I was priced at only 3,000 JPY:

Anyone else here own and use a Platinum pocket fountain pen?

Edited March 4, 2017 by MYU

[antichresis]

I have a pen exactly like the one first photo but without the extra clutch ring. I don't know if it was lost, but the barrel is very smooth so I think we have slightly different models. We have the same problem with pitting(?) in the cap. Mine also has the problem of the lines of the barrel (it's squarish with angles) not being perfectly in line with the lines of the section. Maybe wear on the internal screws. The one I have has a 22k medium nib; smooth and soft. What's on yours?

 

I, too, like the Myu pens for the same reason—integrated nibs—but, as you said, the price is just too much.

[stan]

The large size sterling pens made by Platinum in the 1970s were a cut above the Pilot Silvern series in quality and price. Pilot had more varieties in design with some models made in small quantity.

 

For the pocket pens The Big Three seemed to compete for different market segments. Lots of overlap of course. For the cheaper pocket pens, yes, perhaps they were not up to the quality of some Pilots. However, a good number of their pens were as good, especially the models that appear designed for men.

 

I'm not sure if I posted my Platinum catalogue. Will look for it. Many great pens.

 

As for Myu...ever wonder why so many are still around and there seems to be an unceasing supply. They never sold!!! Nobody wanted them. And, for the era, they were inexpensive. For yours I've thought it ludicrous people would pay what they do for them. It is a neat design and that does count for something. And, if you ever find a super rare BROAD or MS, they are definitely worth the price. MS is not MUSIC. It is MEDIUM SOFT and were made in early runs.

[MYU]

Thank you for the info, Stan. Yes, Platinum full size sterling silver pens were certainly well made. I have two of the "Galaxy" vermeil pens and find them having very solid construction, rivaling the Pilot Elite. The two pocket pens I posted above are definitely on par with Pilot, and I've seen listings of a few others that appeared to be of similar quality. The nibs perform very much like Elite nibs. The large Pilot Custom inlaid nibs seem to be just a little better. Beautiful. Pilot utilized them so many times in their higher end models.

 

Yes, if you could post the Platinum catalog, that would be terrific!

 

I had no idea about the sales success of the MYU and Murex series. Did you see some early reviews and/or reports about that? It does seem like high quality PILOT pens ended up rather coveted by stationery shops and they'd just squirrel them away if they didn't sell, or ended up discontinued, rather than leaving them out and continuing to try selling them. Perhaps because of space considerations. But it seemed like about 10 years ago or so a whole army of folks in Japan descended upon those shops and bled them dry. Tokyo Russ had dozens for sale every month. Someone told me that in more recent years, supply has been exhausted and now what we see is just pens changing hands. But yes, having known how much they originally cost, it does seem nonsense to pay nearly $300 for a mint MYU701.

 

The M90 is a beautiful evolution of the original MYU. I find it superior, in terms of capping and posting, plus being a little fatter it feels better in my large hands. But not worth $500+. I still find the MYU500BS to be the most handsome, with its stunning striped lined and pointed corner towards the front of the nib.

[stan]

The way it worked...

 

Pens were sold through middle-men, some pen company salespeople, some typical middle-men. Stores were provided quotas for sales. If you didn't sell what you had, you didn't get more - your supply would dry up. Supply was not just pens but, ink and other stationary items. If you sold what you had you got more. If you sold what you had and more, you got even more. Whatever didn't sell got stocked away. One was not allowed to sell on sale or they would get cut off. Was it sustainable - no. It worked as long as the seller had sales.

 

I once purchased the leftovers from a defunct stationary shop that sold Sailor pens. Was amazed at what they had left over from the 1960s and 1970s - this over forty, fifty years later. We see the same with 1950s pens suddenly coming on market. Not high quality pens but, just coming on market with labels and all. they were stocked away all these years.

 

Another purchase was 1950s pens from an ex-middleman. Nothing special, a lot of names you would never recognize. He was stuck with the merchandise. Could never ever return to manufacturer. Sorta tells you something about the system.

[zchen]

Although I prefer Pilot and Sailor, I still ended up with a small collection of Platinum Pocket pens

 

My favorites are the one with zogan inlay and 18K soft fine nib and the stainless steel stripe one with 18K-WG fine nib

 

 

IMO the one part they do lose out a little bit to Pilot and Sailor is there were only 1 type of inset nib (in terms of looks) used with only difference being physical size compared to the different designs that Pilot and Sailor had.

Edited March 4, 2017 by zchen

[Mon34480]

I had no idea about the sales success of the MYU and Murex series.

From what I can remember from a Japanese blog the pens were plagued with issues and lacked any proper repairability which was the primary reason why no one wanted them. They weren't popular until decades later, there is actually quite a bit of stock but they hardly reach the market with most seller trickling them in to maintain the inflated price.

[MYU]

The way it worked...

 

Pens were sold through middle-men, some pen company salespeople, some typical middle-men. Stores were provided quotas for sales. If you didn't sell what you had, you didn't get more - your supply would dry up. Supply was not just pens but, ink and other stationary items. If you sold what you had you got more. If you sold what you had and more, you got even more. Whatever didn't sell got stocked away. One was not allowed to sell on sale or they would get cut off. Was it sustainable - no. It worked as long as the seller had sales.

 

I once purchased the leftovers from a defunct stationary shop that sold Sailor pens. Was amazed at what they had left over from the 1960s and 1970s - this over forty, fifty years later. We see the same with 1950s pens suddenly coming on market. Not high quality pens but, just coming on market with labels and all. they were stocked away all these years.

 

Another purchase was 1950s pens from an ex-middleman. Nothing special, a lot of names you would never recognize. He was stuck with the merchandise. Could never ever return to manufacturer. Sorta tells you something about the system.

Very interesting, especially with the retail culture... you've got inventory that won't move and you're stuck with it because you can't discount it. I wonder if some sellers would give a "rebate", cash from their own pocket as an enticement. But for a very compliant body of merchants, it explains why there's a large amount of inventory that ended up "mothballed." I wonder if they're selling them for the actual sticker price these days? Certainly a bargain considering what after market resale is. Just amazing how they don't make an effort to inform themselves of that. I seriously don't think PILOT, Sailor, or Platinum would care if long discontinued merchandise was sold at prices higher than original sticker.

 

Anyway, "water under the bridge" as they say. But having followed a number of auctions over time, it does look to me like the same pens change hands a few times. What's interesting is that for a while around 2008~2009, there was a flood of sealed in bag MYU701 pens being pushed onto eBay. But these days you hardly see those. Still a few appear with sticker, but many examples are used to some degree (from very light to moderate). Over on Yahoo Japan, there is a major reselling of vintage pens going on... I see bidders with tens of thousands of feedback entries snapping up the more prized and hard to find models.

 

Take a look at this one: Pilot Black Stripe Capless, Black MYU and Colored MYU fountain pens. That auction closed for 65,000 JPY! That particular buyer, l*2*u (388), shows up repeatedly when any rare or sought-after Pilot pens appear, and repeatedly buys clusters of uncommon/rare pens like this. Here's another he won for over 42,000 JPY, featuring Murex Red stripe, MYU500BS, MYU colored, etc. The amount of times I've counted, it's far more than for a personal collection - they must be reselling. There's about 4 or 5 other ID's that keep showing up. I haven't spotted those sold pens flipped on Yahoo... so I expect they must be reselling via other channels.

Edited March 4, 2017 by MYU

[AltecGreen]

On the flip side, a black striped MYU sold for $200 USD at the last Pan Pacific Pen Club. I snagged a mint Murex pen and pencil set in the original box for $200 at the same meeting and a Pilot Silvern in the emblem pattern sold for $300.

[stan]

Many of the better pens on Yahoo Japan are purchased by overseas buyers through proxy services, thus the huge number of buys registered to a buyer. There are a smaller, much smaller, number of foreign buyers who have bank accounts and mailing addresses in Japan. Other local buyers are collectors or resellers. Tokyo Russ and the faux doctor from Kamakura used to buy large numbers of pens from Yahoo Japan. I use to purchase through relations and friends as proxies.

[toothnerd]

Hi Stan

 

Is there any chance that you might post the Platinum catalogue here?

 

Kind regards

John

[stan]

Working on it.

[KKay]

Very nice. I wish they had those Japanese pocket pens for sale here.

[SNAK]

I happen to prefer Platinum Pocket pens over Pilot Short pens or Sailor Mini pens. That's probably because for the purpose I use these long/short pens (purse pen, note taking pen around the house) I need water and bad-paper proof Carbon Black ink and with Platinum Pocket pens, I can just pop on the Platinum Carbon Black ink cartridge and off I go.

I do enjoy my Pilot MYU and Elite pens too, and the Sailor 21 etc, but for my daily carry, I go for the Platinum Pocket pens because they feel easy to use and easy (relatively) to replace. I don't feel like I need to carry them in my pen case.

 

 

 

[ManofKent]

I happen to prefer Platinum Pocket pens over Pilot Short pens or Sailor Mini pens. That's probably because for the purpose I use these long/short pens (purse pen, note taking pen around the house) I need water and bad-paper proof Carbon Black ink and with Platinum Pocket pens, I can just pop on the Platinum Carbon Black ink cartridge and off I go.

I do enjoy my Pilot MYU and Elite pens too, and the Sailor 21 etc, but for my daily carry, I go for the Platinum Pocket pens because they feel easy to use and easy (relatively) to replace. I don't feel like I need to carry them in my pen case.

 

Nice collection. Do the metal capped ones have any 'heft' to them? I like small pens, but can't write with anything that doesn't have a bit of weight (I struggle with a Pilot 78G).

[SNAK]

Nice collection. Do the metal capped ones have any 'heft' to them? I like small pens, but can't write with anything that doesn't have a bit of weight (I struggle with a Pilot 78G).

 

I like small pens too, but my preference is always a lighter weight pen. However, to me the balance of the pen as I hold it is more important than the overall weight. I don't like pens that are top heavy, so I usually don't post the caps of my pens. The only exceptions are these Japanese long/short pens, Stipula Passaporto pens, and maybe Kaweco Sport and Lilliput pens. However for short notes I can happily use even these tiny pens without having their caps posted. I have small(ish) hands.

 

Just for fun as I had my digital kitchen scale out for baking, I weighed some of my pens for you. Since you mentioned Pilot 78G, my 78G (BB) with cartridge in it weighs 12g for reference. I also got my Lilliput out too as I saw your have one in another thread.

 

Platinum Pocket pens in my photos above (from Left to Right)

• Green one: 18g
• Red one: 11g
• Maple Leaf: 15g
• Tulip: 15g
• Black and Silver: 16g
• Black Silver Stripes: 18g
• Black open nib: 17g

My other tiny pens

• Kaweco Liliput Brass Wave: 24g
• Kaweco AL RAW Sport: 20g
• Kaweco Plastic Sport: 11g
• Stipula Passaporto: 17g

 

And FYI, the centre of gravity for my Platinum Pocket pens when their caps are posted, is just around the area where the bottom of the price stickers is, for all of these pens. So about 1cm to 1.5cm from the cap lip, which means when the pen is capped to make it into a regular size pen, the centre of gravity is fairly close to being at the middle of the length of the pen. I find it very comfortable to hold and use as the upper part of the pen rests on the web of my hand between my thumb and index finger.

 

I hope this helps.

[ManofKent]

 

 

I hope this helps.

Much appreciated

[mwpannell]

Great group. Do you have particular info on the second pen from right? Silver with black stripes? Particular name? Model number? Production dates? Etc.? (Thanks!)

[SNAK]

Great group. Do you have particular info on the second pen from right? Silver with black stripes? Particular name? Model number? Production dates? Etc.? (Thanks!)

 

This is actually a replacement of a similar looking Platinum Pocket Pen which I lost (left it at the doctor's office). The old one had a Fine nib and it had straight stripes a bit similar to Pilot MYU Black Stripe, but this one is a Medium nib and the stripes are actually closed like boxes at the cap lip and at the cap top so not exactly stripes, but close enough). Typical Platinum stiff nail with perfectly regulated ink flow.

 

Unfortunately I don't know the official name of these pens, although when they were sold at the shops in the 70's/80's they must have had the product code. This pen didn't come with a sticker on the pen itself, but rather a paper tag attached to the clip with a bit of thread. I have chucked away the price tag, but I do have a grainy photo of it from the seller's product description. It says "PLATINUM STAINLESS / (symbol for yen)5000 / 18K Chuuji (which means Medium)". So perhaps the pen was called Platinum Stainless? Here's the grainy photo of the tag.

 

The pen is a nice little one, with the black lines etched onto the stainless steel cap. The etching is not as deep as the ones on my Pilot MYU Black Stripes, but it is recessed enough to not let the black colour rub off. Obviously I liked the look of the old (lost) pen enough to seek out the replacement on Rakuten not realising that the black lines were a bit different in the two (lost pen and the replacement).

 

As for production date, there is no indication on the pen itself (unlike Pilot and their nibs from this era) so I can't help you there other than to say that these pocket pens were supposedly quite common in the 70's and 80's.

 

Sorry I can't be of much more help.

[KKay]

SNAK, you have a great collection of these pens. Love them!