Stipula Etruria Magnifica Fountain Pens on Amazon

[Theroc]

8 minutes ago, lascosas said:

Since I was the one who first created confusion in this thread with the mention of 20% discounts, only to have several people say they didn't see the discounts, I simply wanted to put out there that these discounts are not universal.  For example, I don't have it available to me.  I can get the $217 (which is a wonderful price) as a "deal" but with no

additional discount:

Completely agree with you on this. In fact even if you happen to have a coupon, it's fleeting. It's still worth mentioning the possibility of a coupon, however.

[lascosas]

This is slightly off-subject, but when I see large discounts (15-20%) on fountain pens, they are overwhelmingly pen makers either owned by Yafa (Monteverde & Conklin) or distributed by them (Stipula).  I, for example, very much like some of the big pens made by Conklin and Monteverde, and in the last couple of months many items have showed up at excellent prices with added discounts.  This week I bought 3 Conklin Herringbones, each for under $20.  Everyone else is selling them for $76, which means those retailers are paying considerably more to purchase these pens wholesale from Yafa than I am paying retail.  Which means Yafa is dumping these pens on Amazon.  And lately I see this over and over again.  I would not be a happy retailer buying from Yafa.

[Theroc]

I don't know. All the Yafa pens that have been discounted on Amazon have been sold by Amazon directly. Yafa has no control over their pricing. I am not prone to defend Yafa, as I've had unpleasant experiences dealing with them directly, but I suspect they are as unhappy about theses prices as the their retailers.

 

Amazon's gargantuan operation does not care about losing money on inventory that's scheduled for clearance. It happens all the time. There was the Staedtler Corium Urbes run* some years back, for example. $250 Staedtler fountain pens selling for as little as $40.

*That's still going on, btw, albeit through Amazon's Global UK store.

[Susanna]

About Stipula Etruria Magnifica, Stipula recently changed it, and increased its price.

Same look, but different filling system.

 

My video in YouTube

My reel in Fb

[lascosas]

Susanna-

Thank you for your video.  The version Amazon has been selling for the last few months includes the o-ring.  I have three of them, each purchased from Amazon for less than $100, each with an o-ring. 

 

I find it funny when the marketing department of companies have fancy names for old fashioned concepts.  I would simply call this a 3-in-1 system: eyedropper, cartridge and converter.  The reason I hesitate to use this as an eyedropper is that while there is no metal where the feed connects to the converter/cartridge, there is a metal band near the end of the body which extends into the cavity of the pen.  Thus ink will sit on metal.

[Theroc]

Although not as tempting as earlier this year, Stipula prices still frequently drop to a fraction of retail on Amazon.

Here is a query for all of them.

The prices can become very tempting if you also happen to have a coupon.

[nm4]

Please be careful with the Stipula pens.  The quality is abysmal and Stipula and Visconti have the worst customer support of any business I’ve ever dealt with.  See my saga about the HS I sent to Visconti for repair.  Never repaired and will never be seen again.   
 

Despite owning 5 Viscontis and 3 Stipulas I would not recommend them.  Many of the Amazon ones have swapped nibs - you pay for gold and get a steel instead.  Ask me how I know…

 

N

[Theroc]

9 hours ago, nm4 said:

Please be careful with the Stipula pens.  The quality is abysmal and Stipula and Visconti have the worst customer support of any business I’ve ever dealt with.  See my saga about the HS I sent to Visconti for repair.  Never repaired and will never be seen again.   
 

Despite owning 5 Viscontis and 3 Stipulas I would not recommend them.  Many of the Amazon ones have swapped nibs - you pay for gold and get a steel instead.  Ask me how I know…

 

N

 

Yes, it is true that YAFA customer service leaves much to be desired. But you are buying directly from Amazon, and if its a lemon you can just return it.

I confess that the number of Stipula pens I bought from Amazon this year would qualify me for rehab. But none of the pens I bought were lemons or had the wrong nib.

The actual nib always matched the label on the sealed box, which matched the description on Amazon.

With one exception: I ordered one Etruria Magma with a steel nib and received one with a 14kt gold nib instead. This was an Amazon mix up. The label on the box matched the actual nib.

 

I would warn against buying Amazon Warehouse pens, however. I don't touch those. "Like New" is just as likely to mean completely broken. These are customer returns and Amazon does not put much effort into appraising the condition of the return.

I tried my luck with Amazon Warehouse pens twice. One was a Conklin Nozac, which had a broken piston mechanism. The other was a Stipula with a sprung nib. Both were advertised as "Like New".

 

[nm4]

I've bought new Stipulas from amazon that came with the wrong nib and others with knackered nibs.  Also the pen quality is very poor; the pistons are stiff and turn in the wrong direction; the glue used to seal the transparent ink window becomes easily stained and cannot be cleaned.  Keep in mind you'll have no support from Stipula whatsoever. 

 

Years ago I sent a brand new pen to them for a manufacturing defect and got a bill for repair that was >50% of the pen cost (mind you it had never been used or inked and was only a few weeks old).   These are NOT high quality pens and you are being fooled by the markdown from MSRP; the value proposition is false.   The $10-20 Chinese pens are better quality and the companies stand behind them better.  No one is buying these pens because the quality and support are abysmal - that's why the prices are so low on Amazon.

 

Over the years I've had some wonderful customer service experiences with Pelikan, Pilot, Montblanc, Lamy, and even Parker.  They stand behind their products and care about their customers.  The same simply cannot be said for Visconti or Stipula (I can't speak to the other Italian brands).

 

N

[lascosas]

Theroc said "I confess that the number of Stipula pens I bought from Amazon this year would qualify me for rehab." That makes two of us.  I have had every possible problem with my purchases, but all were evident when they arrived, and I just returned them to Amazon.  Problems included: various types of broken pistons (frozen or piston knob not connected to piston rod), lots of messed up nibs (many of which I could resolve) and several pens that were completely different from the description on the box (purple 22 when I bought an orange rainbow for example).  But...for those that were fine when I bought them, they have continued to be fine, and at bargain basement prices, these work for me.  But would I buy a Stipula from anyone other than Amazon?  Nope. 

[langere]

Stipulas used to be one of my favorite brands.  Then they got kind of old and not very innovative in their offerings. I especially don't like the different colored transparent bodies (also looking at you, Sailor), so I stopped looking for them.  I do like their Adagio series if you are talking about more recent pens.

 

So far, with 20 Stipulas, I have not had a single problem (other than one Passoporto breaking  at the collar), but then I have mainly older pens (2008-2012), when I guess quality control was better.

 

Erick

[Theroc]

23 hours ago, lascosas said:

various types of broken pistons (frozen or piston knob not connected to piston rod)

 

Oh, wow. Did you notice any correlation between failure and model? Was there a model that was more likely to have a broken piston than others?

 

[Theroc]

The only quality issue I faced was the midway rubber ring in the Suprema caps. Some Supremas had it, some did not. Those that did, were awful to screw on or off. I solved that with a film of silicone grease. But eventually that extra rubber ring will come off all together.

[lascosas]

I had 3 broken pistons, three models.  Jinhao and other large Chinese pen companies have quality control far, far superior to Stipula.  The worst?  A nib where one tine was crossed over the other one, and when you un-crossed them, the tines were different lengths.  All of these flaws would have been caught in a $10 Chinese pen.  I had never encountered a broken piston on a new fountain pen before.  I purchased an expensive LE 14k Stipula...with splayed nib! 

 

So every time a new Stipula arrived I would hold my breath.  What other pen maker, anywhere in the world, is that bad? 

[nm4]

Lascosas, I agree with you.  Some of the Italian companies have terrible quality and top it off with terrible service.  It's no wonder Stipula has a checkered past.  I would *love* for them to be successful...my FPN limited edition Modello T in Lapis blue is still one of my favorite pens to look at.  I hardly ever use it because after $100 in repairs (stipula) and tuning by one of the best nibmeisters it's still disappointing to use with too much feedback, no flex, and a constant fear that something on it will break again.

 

N

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, lascosas said:

So every time a new Stipula arrived I would hold my breath.  What other pen maker, anywhere in the world, is that bad? 

 

That's a good question, although I've read unflattering things about the Lanbitou (烂笔头, literally ‘poor writing’) brand.

[Theroc]

4 hours ago, lascosas said:

I had 3 broken pistons, three models.  Jinhao and other large Chinese pen companies have quality control far, far superior to Stipula.  The worst?  A nib where one tine was crossed over the other one, and when you un-crossed them, the tines were different lengths.  All of these flaws would have been caught in a $10 Chinese pen.  I had never encountered a broken piston on a new fountain pen before.  I purchased an expensive LE 14k Stipula...with splayed nib! 

 

So every time a new Stipula arrived I would hold my breath.  What other pen maker, anywhere in the world, is that bad? 

 

I've been unusually lucky, then. The only issue I had was with the Suprema cap's rubber rings.