Tokyo Quill Pen Shop . . . Any Reason Not To?

[Honeybadgers]

Yes, I got a lovely email back (only slightly fractured English) saying that the 845 with FA nib I was interested in would take at least 8 months (and no upper time limit) to be available, but he would be happy to take my reservation. I'm thinking it over.

 

Like I said, his times are often substantially shorter than quoted.

[SpecTP]

Yes, I got a lovely email back (only slightly fractured English) saying that the 845 with FA nib I was interested in would take at least 8 months (and no upper time limit) to be available, but he would be happy to take my reservation. I'm thinking it over.

Their latency did not bother me in the least. I got my 823 FA in about 4months and it is exquisite.

Edited March 7, 2020 by SpecTP

[Karmachanic]

Their latency did not bother me in the least.

 

 

Did the latency thing with Conid. Now I'm into ontimency

[GardenWeasel]

My 823 arrived today. No complaints. And that nib is a miracle of smoothness! They do exceptional with nib adjustment.

[NeverTapOut]

This is a little off topic...I have purchased pens from the Netherlands with no import duties or taxes.

How is it with Japan? Is there a dollar limit one would have to be under?

Regards,

David

[Artforest]

...a nice note which I can't read except "thank you"...

 

My wife checked w/ her Japanese friend who told her the rest of the note says, “Thank you. We sincerely appreciate your purchase.”

 

BTW, thanks for this whole line of discussion. I’ve also been thinking about ordering an 823 from that shop, so this was great info.

[Driften]

This is a little off topic...I have purchased pens from the Netherlands with no import duties or taxes.

How is it with Japan? Is there a dollar limit one would have to be under?

Regards,

David

 

 

$800 including shipping is the limit at which you have to pay duties in the US.

[rosa_m]

For one pen , how much is shipping from Tokyo Quill Pen Shop to USA ?

 

[GOTO10]

A few months ago I purchased my 2nd 845 from this store and due to EMS being suspended they quoted me a VERY good price for DHL shipping to the US. Pricing is always subject to change but I paid 5690 JPY for the shipping.

[NeverTapOut]

Is it still $800 before you have to pay duties in the US from Japan?

[SpecTP]

Is it still $800 before you have to pay duties in the US from Japan?

 

The 823 was about 30000 yen.. about $312 with the exchange rate at the time and cost 2450 yen in shipping

Edited September 11, 2020 by SpecTP

[RJS]

I'm looking at buying an 823 with an M nib. I'm currently living in the UK, where the pen isn't officially sold, and the pen occasionally pops up on sites like Amazon for about $420 USD. Obviously I'm not paying that, as even with shipping, VAT and duty it shouldn't cost that. I lived in China the past few years and he going rate there for the pen is identical to in Japan- $230 USD/ ¥24500JPY including domestic postage.

 

Tokyo Quill Pen shop look legit and you all seem to rate them, which is good. So the pen with their markup is 30000 (full retail price I guess), plus 2500 postage.... add the duty, tax and charges and it's up to £309 ish / $400USD. Egads! Just thinking out load here.... Looks like I might have to wait till I go back to Asia till I buy this pen. It's annoying enough in the UK that Japanese ink has a 100%+ price increase.

[A Smug Dill]

I lived in China the past few years and he going rate there for the pen is identical to in Japan- $230 USD/ ¥24500JPY including domestic postage.

 

Speaking completely out of my exhaust vent, but that sounds like a "grey market" price instead of the MSRP (even after authorised dealer's discount in the normal course of business) set by the regional official distributor. Perhaps the sellers on Amazon for US$420 are "grey market" sellers as well; I don't know. You could always try your luck on Taobao, AliExpress, etc. But for the typical 'First World' consumer who expects to buy satisfaction with a product and have ready recourse when it doesn't deliver that, with the protection of local consumer laws, I think it's reasonable to expect to pay significantly more as a trade-off to taking less of a risk than buying from overseas sellers (and have some sort of guarantee that you wouldn't end up being worse off for it should problems arise, through whoever's or nobody's fault).

[RJS]

Amazon.co.jp sell the pen direct, not via a third party seller, at the price I mentioned: https://www.amazon.co.jp/パイロット-万年筆-カスタム823-FKK3MRPBNM-ブラウン軸/dp/B001AX5SQ2/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=custom+823&qid=1602152275&sr=8-1

 

I don't think Amazon count as a grey market seller just because they discount the RRP.

Edited October 8, 2020 by RJS

[RJS]

Regarding Taobao, it's less of a minefield than you'd expect. You can check the legitimacy of a seller via past sales and reviews, and sellers say they offer free returns if you're not satisfied then Taobao make them honour that. I have shopped endlessly on it, for every category of produce, and the only problem I ever encountered was a seller who sold me Heinz Tomato Ketchup that was expiring the same month, despite claiming the best before date was 9 months in the future. The idiot tried retrospectively editing his sales page, after I'd already taken screen grabs...

[RJS]

As far as selling below RRP/MSRP goes, that's standard practice for very many products, with fountain pens being no exception. Look at Lamy and the macralon 2000: in the UK its RRP is £199.99 ($260USD), but I doubt anyone ever paid that for it as it's available for £130-150 all year round ($170-190ish). In actual fact, I can't find a single shop that sells the pen for its full RRP.

 

Trustworthy German retailers can ship us the pen for £125 ($160) inc postage, and there's no customs charges or additional taxes we must pay when importing from Germany, so our domestic online retailers probably feel they can't stray too far from that. Ridiculously, Lamy have flooded the Asian market with that pen, where you'd expect to pay no more than £70/$90 for it locally. I grasp the concept of price variations around the world, but this is extreme.

[SpecTP]

As far as selling below RRP/MSRP goes, that's standard practice for very many products, with fountain pens being no exception. Look at Lamy and the macralon 2000: in the UK its RRP is £199.99 ($260USD), but I doubt anyone ever paid that for it as it's available for £130-150 all year round ($170-190ish). In actual fact, I can't find a single shop that sells the pen for its full RRP.

 

Trustworthy German retailers can ship us the pen for £125 ($160) inc postage, and there's no customs charges or additional taxes we must pay when importing from Germany, so our domestic online retailers probably feel they can't stray too far from that. Ridiculously, Lamy have flooded the Asian market with that pen, where you'd expect to pay no more than £70/$90 for it locally. I grasp the concept of price variations around the world, but this is extreme.

you can probably get an 823 cheaper on ebay too. But Tokyo Quill shop is a fantastic source for the 823+FA nib combo that is not commonly available anywhere else.

Edited October 10, 2020 by SpecTP

[RJS]

Most of the usual sources of Japanese stationary seem to have shut up shop as far as international sales goes, due to the pandemic, or at least scrapped the free international delivery. No good prices, or no items for sale, on so many eBay or Amazon.com listings.

 

When things die down I'll return to Asia promptly anyway, and I'm due a short vacation in Japan too.

[Honeybadgers]

you can probably get an 823 cheaper on ebay too. But Tokyo Quill shop is a fantastic source for the 823+FA nib combo that is not commonly available anywhere else.

 

 

Minor correction - It's not "not commonly available anywhere else"

 

It's literally unavailable anywhere else.

 

Anyone else offering it is either reselling a used one that they got from tokyo quill shop or one that they customized with the nib from a 743.

 

Yaz is the only retailer in the world authorized by pilot to order the 823 from them with the FA nib. So as a result, sending pilot back an 823 with an FA nib would seriously risk warranty work not being done if you didn't have a receipt from tokyo quill.

 

Also, the majority of retailers for most pilot products are contractually obligated to charge the price pilot corporate sets with only small wiggle room for sales, lest they jeopardize their continued ability to sell pilot products. This keeps undercutting at bay and keeps the price up (it's common and legal as long as groups of retailers aren't collaborating to increase the price together. that's price fixing and very illegal)

 

Lamy apparently doesn't seem to do that, because their pens like the 2000 or dialog 3 or imporium can vary WILDLY in price from their authorized retailers. Endless pens routinely has a dialog 3, imporium, or 2000 at a discount wildly below any other retailer on earth, and yet they remain an authorized retailer (and keep me a happy customer since their service is honestly really good)

Edited October 21, 2020 by Honeybadgers

[Karmachanic]

https://www.pensachi.com/collections/pilot-custom-823-fountain-pens/products/pilot-custom-823-fountain-pen-special-nib-brown