Pilot Plumix Discontinued?

[Nosferatualso]

Hi I work in the NHS with paper based notes and often give colleagues Plumixes as they are great for our cheap paper. Has anyone else noticed that they are harder to buy in the UK?

[Mercian]

Lots of things are difficult to get here.
A good example in the context of your question is that Pilot refuse to sell their excellent water-resistant blue-black ink in bottles here. In other countries it can be bought in 350ml ‘tankers’, as well as in 70ml glass bottles.

We are only allowed to buy it in Pilot’s proprietary cartridges.

Which is particularly annoying when one considers that UK/European version of the company’s ‘entry-level’ pen - the ‘Metropolitan’ (called the ‘MR’ here) - is chambered for short international cartridges. I.e. Pilot’s proprietary cartridges DON’T fit in to it.

I emailed their official UK distributor to complain about the inability to buy their blue black ink in bottles here. I told them that I wanted to use it in a Pilot Custom Heritage 92. They replied to say ‘you can buy it here, in our cartridges’. The CH92 is a piston-fill pen. At that point I decided that there wasn’t much sense in talking to the distributor.

 

We (UK fountain pen users) are not a high-priority market for Pilot.

They will let us buy their luxury ‘Iroshizuku’ inks, or the 60ml bottles of Namiki-branded blue and black, but they do NOT distribute their full range of pens here.
Their ‘big’ market here is gel pens, ballpoints, etc.

 

Pilot do still sell the disposable ( ) ‘V pen’ here. Those might be ok for your purposes.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Mercian

[A Smug Dill]

Has anyone else noticed that they are harder to buy in the UK?

 

Harder to buy than where else? Or just becoming harder to buy compared to previous stock availability?

 

I haven't been able to buy Pilot Plumix pens locally in Australia (including by online order from local sellers) ever, and always had to import them. Luckily, Amazon Australia now gives me access to some options sold and shipped by Amazon US. I recently bought and received two sets of three ('Enso' hand lettering kits) with different nib widths; and I see that (for now) the sets of three Plumix pens all with Medium nibs are available on Amazon.com.au again.

 

But I just went and had a look on Amazon.co.uk (and set my delivery postcode to match Glasgow). I had no idea the Plumix is available in so many colours, or with so many different nib width grades. Even though I've browsed US and Japanese sites often, I've never come across the majority of those options. So I daresay it's easier to buy Pilot Plumix in the UK than just about anywhere else.

Edited May 21, 2020 by A Smug Dill

[Karmachanic]

Hi I work in the NHS with paper based notes and often give colleagues Plumixes as they are great for our cheap paper. Has anyone else noticed that they are harder to buy in the UK?

 

Pluminix in the UK

Edited May 21, 2020 by Karmachanic

[Nosferatualso]

Thank you everyone. I might get some dollar pens

[Mercian]

 

I just went and had a look on Amazon.co.uk (and set my delivery postcode to match Glasgow). I had no idea the Plumix is available in so many colours, or with so many different nib width grades. Even though I've browsed US and Japanese sites often, I've never come across the majority of those options. So I daresay it's easier to buy Pilot Plumix in the UK than just about anywhere else.

Interesting.

 

I just looked on Amazon.co.uk and every colour bar one (Turquoise, M) is listed as ‘sold out’. Whether I search for ‘Plumix’ or ‘Pluminix’.

Most of them have the additonal caveat “Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.”

 

The ones that don’t say that say “Temporarily out of stock. We are working hard to be back in stock. Place your order and we’ll email you when we have an estimated delivery date.”

 

I wonder how Amazon decide to display search results.

From our contrasting results, I would guess that they may be displaying search results based on the I.P. address of the searching device. I.e. that the legal entity Amazon.co.uk thinks that it can source Plumix/Pluminix pens for delivery to Australia without any issues, but cannot get them for delivery in the UK.

[dapprman]

Pilot have changed their strategy recently in Europe (UK market uses the European distributor) so we do now get a number of their more premium pens such as the 823. Had not noticed their cut back at the cheaper end though. Perhaps it might be worth looking at the Platinum pens at that end of the market - they have three or four models in the sub £20 market.

[A Smug Dill]

I just looked on Amazon.co.uk and every colour bar one (Turquoise, M) is listed as ‘sold out’. Whether I search for ‘Plumix’ or ‘Pluminix’.

Most of them have the additonal caveat “Currently unavailable. We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.”

It seems to be currently available in black as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plumix-Fountain-Medium-Feather-Cartridge/dp/B0021U9HMY/

 

I wonder how Amazon decide to display search results.

From our contrasting results, I would guess that they may be displaying search results based on the I.P. address of the searching device. I.e. that the legal entity Amazon.co.uk thinks that it can source Plumix/Pluminix pens for delivery to Australia without any issues, but cannot get them for delivery in the UK.

Actually, if I make the (region of the) delivery address Australia, I don't see any results except for some weird listings with titles in Polish(?), and get only a product image and no other content when I go to the respective product page. That's because Amazon.co.uk haven't accepted orders with Australian delivery addresses, as a matter of policy, for nearly two years now. If I'm already looking at the product page for the one (that is available) in turquoise, then change my delivery address to Australia, it will then tell me no seller is shipping to Australia. (Not so if I change the delivery address to United States.)

 

By the way, I was using a VPN coming out of an exit point in Western Europe, so apparent geolocation of the IP address isn't the issue.

 

As for the different messages of unavailability, I think "temporarily unavailable" is for items sold by Amazon (but just not in stock), and "currently unavailable" is for items only sold by third parties on the Amazon platform.

[Nosferatualso]

Interesting.

 

I just looked on Amazon.co.uk and every colour bar one (Turquoise, M) is listed as sold out. Whether I search for Plumix or Pluminix.

Most of them have the additonal caveat Currently unavailable.

We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.

 

The ones that dont say that say Temporarily out of stock.

We are working hard to be back in stock. Place your order and well email you when we have an estimated delivery date.

 

I wonder how Amazon decide to display search results.

From our contrasting results, I would guess that they may be displaying search results based on the I.P. address of the searching device. I.e. that the legal entity Amazon.co.uk thinks that it can source Plumix/Pluminix pens for delivery to Australia without any issues, but cannot get them for delivery in the UK.

[Nosferatualso]

Thank you for looking, I have an absolute love of italic pens. We also use a lot of highlighters and I thought if I bought highlighter ink and plumixes then we could stop buying disposable highlighters. I will look at alternatives