Sailor Increasing Prices Of Gold-Nibbed Pens

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

https://sailor.co.jp/important_news/product-price-change_2022/

[A Smug Dill]

Thank you for sharing the information. I especially appreciate that you pointed us to the Sailor head office's announcement (in Japanese, which is no issue these days with all those free-to-use language translators), so that we know it isn't just the distributor in a particular regional market (e.g. the US) changing the pricing without it affecting the rest of the world. 👍

[A Smug Dill]

Here's the announcement in English, straight from the horse's mouth, but there is no link from it to the revised price list:

https://en.sailor.co.jp/news/【price-increase-notice】/

[MissCellany]

Welp,glad I got my Realo when I did.

[AlexLeGrande]

I just ordered a 1911 Profit 14K medium nib before the prices all over the internet go wild.

 

[Paul-in-SF]

4 hours ago, MissCellany said:

Welp,glad I got my Realo when I did.

Me too. It's due to arrive on Friday (from Japan). 

[sketchstack]

Google translate claims that part #11-3924 is a Realo and the current price is 38500¥. As of this writing that is ~$295US. So I'm assuming the price list is for Sailor's domestic market. 

 

Assuming that is all true, the new price will be ~$353US which is a 20% increase. 

 

Whereas part #10-9618 is (apparently) the standard Pro Gear KOP and it's going from 72,600¥ to 99,000¥. So that's a ~38% increase. 

 

 

[mke]

The new owner is probably trying to make Sailor profitable. 

 

A black CC KoP is now in the same price level as the MB piston fillers 146 or even 149. 🤔

 

Let me guess, it is just the beginning of a price increase tsunami.

 

 

 

[Karmachanic]

9 hours ago, mke said:

The new owner is probably trying to make Sailor profitable

 

Or reduce their market share.

[mke]

1 hour ago, Karmachanic said:

Or reduce their market share.

I think, Pilot and Platinum and ... will follow the lead - it will than be the same as before - on a higher level.

Perhaps they will sell less in general. Some people will also switch to used pens. But sellers of used pens will also increase their prices.

 

[Karmachanic]

All prices are increasing exponentionally, as incomes remain the same.  What fun!

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

 

[mke]

10 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

All prices are increasing exponentionally, as incomes remain the same. 

 

The consumer price index of Japan shows that there is a price increase in the making but there was a big one in 2013-14 (don't remember what the reason was).

 

In Japan, incomes generally stay the same - no real increase in the base salary if you don't switch levels. Even there is a slight decline after turning 50 years old.

Turning 60, your salary typically drops to about 30% of before 60. Not like in Europe (US, I don't know) where you get salary increases regularly and where you have the same salary until your retirement.

The average levels of salary in Japan is only slightly increasing between 2011 and 2020. But, if companies earn less, they will cut the bonus part by some margin, so people will actually earn less. Expect this for the next few years.

 

 

 

[sketchstack]

The Tokyo Inklings podcast hosts theorized that Sailor is trying hard to become profitable. And like everything from food to fuel, the cost of materials has gone up as well. 

 

One theory by the podcast hosts is that perhaps they will (or are) going stronger in the "lower end" market. More steel nib pens etc. If their high-end become even more prohibitive then they can offer less expensive, if less luxurious, to keep people buying the Sailor brand. 

 

I believe they had actually scrutinized the company financial report to make these guesses, so they might be on to something. 

[Topcat666]

I keep meaning to try a Sailor steel nib pen as I must be one of the few people underwhealmed by the Naginata Togi when I revisited it last year.

[A Smug Dill]

35 minutes ago, sketchstack said:

More steel nib pens etc. If their high-end become even more prohibitive then they can offer less expensive, if less luxurious, to keep people buying the Sailor brand. 

 

Sailor's steel-nibbed pen models that alluded to some level of quality, e.g. the Procolor line (by any other name) that is deemed good enough to bear the 1911 imprint/branding on the nib, were not cheap in the better part of the last decade anyway. For ¥5000+tax, you could get a ‘regular’ Procolor 500 (that isn't a limited, special, or exclusive ‘collaboration’ edition) with a steel nib, or a Platinum Vicoh PTL-5000A with a 14K gold nib, circa 2018–2019. Sailor Young Profit models weren't cheap, either.

 

While the ‘basic’ Profit Jr (and the more expensive Lecoule, which use the same type of nibs) is not a bad product or poor writing instrument by any means, there is a large difference in nib quality between them and the Procolor line. Whereas Platinum reserved the humblest nibs for the Preppy and Plaisir (and now Prefounte, too); the nibs on the ¥3000 Balance line are much better (even if I don't appreciate them very much personally). Pilot uses the same high-quality steel nibs in models ranging from the Kaküno to the Prera; the rather expensive steel-nibbed Custom NS is a recent thing.

[mke]

 

> Tokyo Inklings podcast hosts theorized that Sailor is trying hard to become profitable

Wow, a surprising insight. 😉

 

> perhaps they will (or are) going stronger in the "lower end" market.

Not, "lower end" market - just market. And I mean Japanese market. Working in a 300 people research institute, I saw a Sailor Promenade, a Sailor 1911S, an MB146 and a Pelikan 400. The rest of the people is writing with ballpens and pencils. This is where Pilot rules. Perhaps Sailor wants to attack this market. It would fit the image that I have of Plus (the new owner).

 

If only very few people write with Preppys why would they buy steel-nibbed Sailors?

 

 

 

[lascosas]

A couple of Sailor KOP profits, medium nib, are available as prime purchases on amazon.com for $396.  I doubt think we'll see that again.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001TCGP2U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[sketchstack]

13 hours ago, mke said:

If only very few people write with Preppys why would they buy steel-nibbed Sailors?

 

Only very few people write with the Preppy? 

[mke]

19 minutes ago, sketchstack said:

Only very few people write with the Preppy? 

I have never seen a Preppy in the wild in Japan or in normal stationary shops.