Fake Parker Vector: Satan's fountain pen...

[Jonah79]

Looking for a masochistic experience, I ordered a real fake Parker Vector from China. 

 

1- Appereance and design:

I always liked the clean design of a capped Vector. But I never liked the section design, because it's way too slim and I hate metal sections. The sharp edge that separates it from the barrel is very uncomfortable. 2/5.

 

2- Construction and quality:

The real Parker Vector is a cheap pen, but older ones are of a decent quality. But this is worse. The edges of the clip are sharp, the threads are not very smooth. But the cap snaps on nice and the cap posts really good. 2/5. 

 

3- Weight and dimensions:

Just a light, thin pen. I like light pens. 2/5

 

4- Nib and performance:

The nib is marked as a fine and really is a piece of excrement. It scratches, skips etc.. On closer inspection: almost no tipping on the right tine. Because I had a spare Jotter nib in medium, I replaced it. Not a very reliable nib either, and it is as broad as the Mississippi. I dislike broad nibs. 0/5

 

5- Filling system:

The pen comes with an excellent Parker slide converter. It functions great. But this pen does not accept regular Parker cartridges, because the section is too thight. 1/5

 

6- Cost and value:

Believe it or not: I paid $6.66 for this pen (shipping and taxes included). A 10 cent ballpoint writes way better. 0/5

 

7- Conclusion:

I contacted the seller and he refunded me. Avoid this pen. 1/5. 

 

[txomsy]

Interesting. And unsurprising. The price difference in these models is often due more to quality control than to brand name. If (like in this case) you are unlucky, you may need to try several to skip the bad ones. Whether that makes economical sense is for each one to decide.

[inkstainedruth]

@Jonah79 -- Thanks for the heads up.  Is the pen in the photos actually marked as to where it was made?  

I LOVE my Parker Vectors, but most of mine are UK production, with one or two US production pens, and one of the French-made re-issues from a couple of years ago.  

I have not tried any of the Vectors made under contract to Parker by Luxor -- although I do remember seeing one on eBay a while back that supposedly was COMING from China instead of India; I passed on that one because I could NOT get a straight answer about where it was made from the seller.... There's a Luxor-made model that is a really cool design, but apparently was ONLY made for the Asian market, and most of the sellers on eBay who list it are not only in India, but ALSO do NOT have 100% positive feedback ratings....  There was one seller who supposedly was in the US, but after accepting my offer reneged on the deal; I found out about it from PayPal getting the refund BEFORE I heard from the seller -- OR eBay, for that matter.  And when eBay's response was that I couldn't provide feedback on the experience?  I basically told THEM "Hold my beer!"  Because *I* didn't cancel the transaction -- the seller did!  Which means, as far as I can tell, that EITHER the seller got a better offer after accepting mine OR never had the pen (or the second one in a different background color) in the FIRST PLACE. 😡  Of course I should have considered that Jamaica, Queens is apparently now the "Little India" neighborhood of NYC -- and looked at the seller's OTHER listings before hitting the "buy" button.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Jonah79]

It says France, but also includes a date code. And French Parkers do not have a date code.....

[inkstainedruth]

Really?  Because my main source for all things Parker Pens, www.parkercollector.com, suggests otherwise in the article about date codes.  According to that, date coding for modern Parkers for both the UK and France was started up in 1980 (1979 for the US) and ran until at least 2011; while the original date codes with numbers -- and/or dots marking the quarter -- ended around 1955.  

What exactly *is* the date code for your pen?  Because you should be able to check the article link: http://parkercollector.com/codekey.html and find it.

I would suggest you might also want to go on Parker's website and contact them directly.  Because if it says "Made in France" it should BE a French production pen (of course I have a Hero 616 (a knockoff of a Parker 51, which someone in my local pen club ordered a bunch of a few years ago and handed them around to anyone who wanted one -- and, well, I'm half convinced that *IT* is a fake -- because it writes like the $1 US pen the guy paid apiece for the lot.  Meaning that it's likely a fake of a knockoff.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

The vendors on the web are getting more resourceful to cheat your money. I won an auction from the UK, a Parker 17. According to messages from the Mail postal service of the UK, the pen was supposed to arrive days after the New Year, then more than a week after I sent a message to the seller and he answered that it was delivered.  I asked the security company of the building to look at the tapes of that day and in the register that they keep for all the packages that go into the building. Then the seller sent me two different recipes with two different delivery dates. Until today I haven't had any news for the giant auction company. An expensive lesson.

 

[Jonah79]

10 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Really?  Because my main source for all things Parker Pens, www.parkercollector.com, suggests otherwise in the article about date codes.  According to that, date coding for modern Parkers for both the UK and France was started up in 1980 (1979 for the US) and ran until at least 2011; while the original date codes with numbers -- and/or dots marking the quarter -- ended around 1955.  

What exactly *is* the date code for your pen?  Because you should be able to check the article link: http://parkercollector.com/codekey.html and find it.

I would suggest you might also want to go on Parker's website and contact them directly.  Because if it says "Made in France" it should BE a French production pen (of course I have a Hero 616 (a knockoff of a Parker 51, which someone in my local pen club ordered a bunch of a few years ago and handed them around to anyone who wanted one -- and, well, I'm half convinced that *IT* is a fake -- because it writes like the $1 US pen the guy paid apiece for the lot.  Meaning that it's likely a fake of a knockoff.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Hi Ruth, Parker stopped using date codes when production in the UK ceased. French made Parkers do not have a date code. I just checked a Waterloo Blue Jotter I bought to give as birthday gift. The fake French Vector was marked Q II. 

 

I knew it had to be a fake when I bought it. I don't feel scammed.

[txomsy]

4 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

The vendors on the web are getting more resourceful to cheat your money. I won an auction from the UK, a Parker 17. According to messages from the Mail postal service of the UK, the pen was supposed to arrive days after the New Year, then more than a week after I sent a message to the seller and he answered that it was delivered.  I asked the security company of the building to look at the tapes of that day and in the register that they keep for all the packages that go into the building. Then the seller sent me two different recipes with two different delivery dates. Until today I haven't had any news for the giant auction company. An expensive lesson.

 

Have you considered the possibility that the parcel may have been misplaced by the postal service? Or maybe delivered to the wrong address? I would first check with the post office to make sure what happened before blaming the seller.

[jchch1950]

Yes check it was not delivered in a different building or the say it didn't. 

[Junebe]

5 hours ago, Jonah79 said:

Hi Ruth, Parker stopped using date codes when production in the UK ceased. French made Parkers do not have a date code. I just checked a Waterloo Blue Jotter I bought to give as birthday gift. The fake French Vector was marked Q II. 

 

I knew it had to be a fake when I bought it. I don't feel scammed.

Hi!

These 5 pens say FRANCE on the cap and have date codes. I am certain they aren't fake, they were bought in serious brick and mortar stores. The 3 Vectors in El Corte Inglés and the 15's in a local stationary-bookstore.

I bought them several years ago, at least 7.  What year did they stop using date codes?

 

 

[Jonah79]

It appears it was 2011 when the stopped using the date codes (see website mentioned by Ruth. I have seen several contemporary Parkers without a date code.

 

[Junebe]

Yes, sorry, I saw the link but forgot to mention it. At the start It says "updated Oct 2011", so we know they use date codes up to at least 2011, but that doesn't mean they stop there. For example one of the Vectors date code is IIIL, which according to the link means 1993. But this particular pen should be much younger (I have older ones, but this isn't one of them), my guess is 2013. That's my guess given that some codes repeat after 10 years.

[Junebe]

Forgot to mention that I also have a Vector XL without date code, I think I bought it a couple of years ago. And this one doesn't say where it was made either.

 

Just found this video, but I don't know how reliable it is.

 

 

 

[Jonah79]

4 hours ago, Junebe said:

Forgot to mention that I also have a Vector XL without date code, I think I bought it a couple of years ago. And this one doesn't say where it was made either.

 

Just found this video, but I don't know how reliable it is.

 

 

 

The Parkers I saw the last few years, made in France, had no date codes. Anyone here with a new 51? If there is no date code on it...

 

[inkstainedruth]

I just now checked my pen inventory files and I have a French production Vector -- yes, made *in* France (supposedly a re-issue of the model); and the date code on that suggests it was made in the 3rd quarter of 1997.   So yes, made in France and yes, has a date code and no, I don't think it's a Chinese fake.

Although the Hero 616 that someone gave me after ordering a 10 or 12 pack online just MIGHT be a fake since that pen writes like it's only worth the dollar apiece the guy paid for them, just to see what they were like....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

[bugsydog55]

The sad tale of the mysterious Vector is something that people need to be informed about so they can avoid wasting their money.  I purchased one of the Chinese clones several years ago just because it was extremely cheap and it said Parker.  That didn't make any sense at all.  Well, when the pen arrived, it proved that there is validity in that old maxim" You get what you pay for".  It could have been a toy if there weren't so many sharp edges.  The clip was so useless you could bend it with a hard look.  Threading on the barrel wasn't particularly snug so the pen would loosen up over the course of time.  The converter did work but that really wasn't put to a test because the nib bent trying to get the pen to write!  The nib wasn't much more than glorified "foil" and could be bent with my bare fingers.  Couldn't even use the pen as a dart!  Salvaged the converter and tossed the rest.  So much for the made in China version.  The Luxor, made in India, version seems to be a slightly better pen.  It is not of the caliber of the older models but is a lot better than that waste of time I got years back.  If you have to get a cheap Vector, then get the Indian variant.  And if you are doing that, put the few extra dollars with it and get the Indian made Parker Frontier.  It's a step up.

[Jonah79]

The nib made of glorified foil: good description!

[Mercian]

Wrt the quality of modern, made-under-licence Parkers, my 2019 Luxor-made all-steel Vector is well-made.

Its quality is at least as high as that of my 1994 Newhaven-made Vector in black plastic.

 

Wrt date-codes on modern French Parkers, my four 2010s first-series Urbans all have date codes stamped on them, and I know that the pens in the first production run of the modern 51 bore the ‘QIII’ PDC that corresponds to Q1 of 2020.

 

The Luxor-made Vectors are (here in the UK at least), priced very ‘affordably’ - even when the vendor has imported them from India and is selling them at double the Indian RRP.
The pens are genuine (made under license) Parker products and, despite my Yorkshire blood, I don’t begrudge the vendors the 100% mark-up.
I expect that there are expatriate-Indian vendors in the USA who do the same.

 

In contrast, I execrate the UK-based vendors who are selling the fakes, some of which are unbranded.
These vendors could make 100% profit for themselves by importing & selling the licensed Luxor pens, but they instead try to pass-off the shonky knock-offs.

 

Given the ready availability of the Luxor-made pens, I don’t see any justification at all for risking one’s money on the purchase of a fake (or ‘replica’) Vector - and the OP’s unhappy experience only reinforces that impression.

[inkstainedruth]

13 hours ago, Mercian said:

Wrt the quality of modern, made-under-licence Parkers, my 2019 Luxor-made all-steel Vector is well-made.

Its quality is at least as high as that of my 1994 Newhaven-made Vector in black plastic.

 

Wrt date-codes on modern French Parkers, my four 2010s first-series Urbans all have date codes stamped on them, and I know that the pens in the first production run of the modern 51 bore the ‘QIII’ PDC that corresponds to Q1 of 2020.

 

The Luxor-made Vectors are (here in the UK at least), priced very ‘affordably’ - even when the vendor has imported them from India and is selling them at double the Indian RRP.
The pens are genuine (made under license) Parker products and, despite my Yorkshire blood, I don’t begrudge the vendors the 100% mark-up.
I expect that there are expatriate-Indian vendors in the USA who do the same.

 

In contrast, I execrate the UK-based vendors who are selling the fakes, some of which are unbranded.
These vendors could make 100% profit for themselves by importing & selling the licensed Luxor pens, but they instead try to pass-off the shonky knock-offs.

 

Given the ready availability of the Luxor-made pens, I don’t see any justification at all for risking one’s money on the purchase of a fake (or ‘replica’) Vector - and the OP’s unhappy experience only reinforces that impression.

There's one design of the Luxor-made Vectors that I have just coveted -- but most of the sellers on eBay are in India, and do NOT have 100% positive feedback.  There was one a couple of years ago where the seller was (allegedly) in the US, AND had 100% positive ratings, and (also allegedly had more than one).  Only then, just a few days after agreeing to my offer, the seller reneged on the deal; I heard about it from PAYPAL (with the refund) BEFORE I heard from the seller; and eBay's attitude was "Well, you got your money back, so you can't file a dispute with the seller...."  Only I was sufficiently PO'd at that point that I basically said, "Hold my beer!" and did it ANYWAY....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[bugsydog55]

My favorite of the inexpensive lot was the Luxor Frontier which caught me off guard by being better than expected.  The Indian Vectors I have write quite well but the Vector has never generated much love in my inky heart.  The point is that it can be difficult to determine if the pen you see on Ebay is a Luxor made Vector or a Chinese clone.  That Luxor will come in a cellophane wrapped card meant to hang on a store rack.  Retail packaging versus the Chinese pen condom.  The sellers only let you know so much.