Vp Raden Discontinued?

[seattlefrenchman]

Maybe share the love with others, FountainPenGuru, if you already have a few? Let us buy some!

[Donald2]

I bought mine from Japan from a Japanese eBay seller.

[A Smug Dill]

Amazon.com has one Pilot Capless raden 'water surface' with Medium nib in stock when I checked just now, but priced for the US market (as in, by Pilot US for its official imports). It's also incorrectly labelled; the product photos show the water surface (-RM) model, but the product details state it's the 'stripe' (i.e. -RS) model.

 

Iguana Sell is still offering them, at a lower price. "Ships within 30 business days" – I don't know how reliable that is.

 

There's a Pilot Capless raden black (-RB), aka 'galaxy', model on Amazon.co.jp for significantly less than the domestic market MSRP of ¥50,000(+tax). Only one Amazon Marketplace seller appears to be selling the 'water surface' and 'stripe' models on Amazon.co.jp, at a very slight mark-up, with the caveat of, "Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks."

 

I see a couple of relatively cheaper listings for the 'stripe' model on Rakuten Ichiba. The text in the product listing page for the cheapest one states something along the lines of, "Make-to-order production (4 months to 1 year)"

[mke]

https://www.hikaku.com/ec_shopping/ec/keywordSearch?shopping_search_keyword=fcn-5mp

 

http://s.kakaku.com/search_results/fcn-5mp/

 

on the comparison portals in Japan

[Mew]

Amazon.com has one Pilot Capless raden 'water surface' with Medium nib in stock when I checked just now, but priced for the US market (as in, by Pilot US for its official imports). It's also incorrectly labelled; the product photos show the water surface (-RM) model, but the product details state it's the 'stripe' (i.e. -RS) model.

 

Iguana Sell is still offering them, at a lower price. "Ships within 30 business days" I don't know how reliable that is.

 

There's a Pilot Capless raden black (-RB), aka 'galaxy', model on Amazon.co.jp for significantly less than the domestic market MSRP of ¥50,000(+tax). Only one Amazon Marketplace seller appears to be selling the 'water surface' and 'stripe' models on Amazon.co.jp, at a very slight mark-up, with the caveat of, "Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks."

 

I see a couple of relatively cheaper listings for the 'stripe' model on Rakuten Ichiba. The text in the product listing page for the cheapest one states something along the lines of, "Make-to-order production (4 months to 1 year)"

It is something that everyone should understand about the discounted price in Japan, whether online or offline, that there is no reliablity of stock situation, or of delivery from the manufacturer to seller.

They have very limited selection of items, and most of them order on a need basis only. So they can only provide whatever manufacturer has in hand ready to deliver. Also, they get lower priority on stock, with full price stores getting higher priority.

This is why they say 4 months to 1 year waiting. They are low in the priority order for manufacturers, and they don't keep enough stock, or at all.

Walk into Ito-ya or Maruzen and you can walk out in less than 10 mins with a VP raden, with the nib of your choice. Lower prices come with their own share of issues like I mentioned above.

[Donald2]

It is something that everyone should understand about the discounted price in Japan, whether online or offline, that there is no reliablity of stock situation, or of delivery from the manufacturer to seller.

They have very limited selection of items, and most of them order on a need basis only. So they can only provide whatever manufacturer has in hand ready to deliver. Also, they get lower priority on stock, with full price stores getting higher priority.

This is why they say 4 months to 1 year waiting. They are low in the priority order for manufacturers, and they don't keep enough stock, or at all.

Walk into Ito-ya or Maruzen and you can walk out in less than 10 mins with a VP raden, with the nib of your choice. Lower prices come with their own share of issues like I mentioned above.

 

So that means that one needs to fly over to Japan to buy a Raden Water. It's not worth it.

[A Smug Dill]

So that means that one needs to fly over to Japan to buy a Raden Water. It's not worth it.

No, it doesn't. You could have a Pilot Capless raden 'water surface' delivered by 1st February (since the flag against your member profile indicates you're in USA) if you're prepared to order from Amazon.com at the asking price. If you're uncomfortable with whether it's actually the -RM model, you could always ask the seller (Amazon.com itself) to clarify before you place the order.