Jinhao A10- New Colorways

[J120]

If Jinhao releases a pen we have come to expect to see a rainbow of colors. The A10 proves to be no different with 3 more arriving but not yet available colors starting to appear in various shops on Taobao. $8 for the black and white and the candy colors are around $10. 

 

The independent sellers on Aliexpress and other sites are going to mark these up. It's worth what you will pay for it but be informed it is still a Jinhao. You get the high low bar of a working writing retractable but not at name brand prices. The independent sellers are charging Majohn prices for Jinhao's but it appears the western market is happy to pay. 

 

I am certain more colors will follow. Still no nib variety but a man can dream. (HONGDIAN HELP US)

 

For the eagle eyed among us, yes those do look like Pilot Decimo shots but alas, not decimo size for those.into that sort of thing. The Xerox remains strong with our Eastern pen lord Hero. 

 

I am waiting in on my bulk shipment to arrive from Taobao in a few weeks and I will upload pics with work reciews from the new office. 

 

Side note: How lazy is A10? Majohn was presumably going to make it with different materials  or more versions based on Pilot versions someday and old Jinhao just cut in with their chariot and said "Hello." (Adele voice) 

 

 

Food for thought: Majohn is a tribute band using autotune (same tooling) and Jinhao has started dropping remakes singing a capella after years of sticking to the oldies and show tunes we were accustomed to (CC). Yet if you want a broad nib or any other variety outside EF/F you still have to shop at the original bands store (Pilot). 

 

One question Pilot forgot to ask years ago: Harvey Dent(Shanghai Hero Pen Co), can we trust him?

 

 

Happy hunting to all. 

 

 

 

[mke]

6 hours ago, J120 said:

Xerox

The process:

1) https://vi.aliexpress.com/category/200138007/3d-scanners.html

2) change created virtual model slightly

3) CNC

 

result (see pictures 3-5)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYdeqsPvL-4/

(the addresses on the pictures are not valid anymore)

[J120]

@mke

It is the same factory as the originals. Some manufacturer orders fruit loops and then some enterprising individual makes a batch of fruity O's, tropical circles, green forest circles, etc. 

 

Make it one place, assemble in another,retail as made in ______.

 

[mke]

6 hours ago, J120 said:

same factory as the originals

You mean original Pilot pens?

[Jamerelbe]

That red version looks pretty great...

[J120]

Just the tooling. You will never convince me they went through all that trouble to reverse engineer someone else's design. At that price point they would have made their money either way. You do not financially go through all that trouble and just change the center band. 

 

[J120]

The piano, red, white, and blue all arrived in less than a week.

 

I will wait for the matte black shipment to arrive later this week before comparing it with the Pilot or the Majohn models. 

The first impression is that it is a Jinhao for all that means. The pen writes and it is well built. 

Jinhao got the presentation all right but wasted all that box space with no accessories. It is early, they may match Majohn on the accessories down the line but imagine them adding the Majohn cap, catridge, converter, and pipette and maybe pre-loaded ink cartridges into all that box space. Nonetheless, you get a working retractable that can be nib swapped with Pilot's variety or Majohn's nibs if you're into that sort of thing. 

 

Now we wait. Jinhao is going to colorway this pen into oblivion, possibly give us a M nib, but it being Jinaho, will they go that extra step that Majohn has not gone yet? 

 

This is being sold for $10 on Taobao. I buy in bulk and shipping was $15. $60 for four pens. I bought 8 of the matte black finally and shipping was the same. If you can avoid the price gouging on AliExpress please be patient. Just like with the A1, the price will come back to the pack because they are making tens of millions of these pens as there will be an abundant supply in a month or so. 

 

 

 

[J120]

The Jinhao A10 comes in four packaging options: 1) Plastic pen bag 2) Large box 3) Acrylic Case 4) Cardboard box 

 

The simple Jinaho box makes more sense considering they are not adding accessories to any of the larger packaging options. It is not worth the extra dollar and shipping to have more boxes unless you are gifting these pens but who is going to miss the box? 

 

The matte black version is as outstanding as other colorways. The EF and F nibs are smooth out of the box. It's Jinhao so I should not be shocked their nibs are better than Majohn.

 

No we are in the waiting game to see how crazy Jinhao will get with this pen. Majohn was the leader in price point pressure because they were giving you more exotic filling systems at school pen prices. Jinhao can match them on volume and cut the price in half. (It's all HERO at the end of the day but I digress) Wing Sung and Majohn are better at accessories. Jinhao is better at nibs and colorways. It's going to be an interesting fall and winter. 

[J120]

Three new colorways have started appearing on Taobao. The price is still $8.94 per pen. The pen with inks are a couple more dollars shipped from Taobao.  

Matte Black 

Gradient Blue 

Agate Red 

[Dan Carmell]

I like the pinstriped matte black model, but I can’t get with the gradient colored one. 
 

The cheapest price I’ve seen on AliExpress is $13. The more typical prices are within a couple of dollars of the Majohn A1, so you either have to determine which model you prefer, or with the additional colorways (I’ve seen more already), select the model by your preferred colorway. 

[J120]

@Dan Carmell

 

That is true. 

 

This is what someone found on Reddit. Jinhao is staying true to form and there will be no shortage of colors or model options. 

 

The nib by default is better than the Majohn but whether they will match the nib packet options or just offer some form of nib variety remains to be seen. 

 

[mke]

I should not check on Aliexpress.

[J120]

5 hours ago, mke said:

I should not check on Aliexpress.

@mke

 

The independent sellers just add shipping to the wholesale price so the buyer has to ask themselves do they want the middleman/woman/person charge to avoid the hassle or would they rather get more pens in bulk for the same price. 

 

My position is the latter. I've also been able to get the inks shipped with the pens at their regular market price compared to the uncharge for getting ink out of China. 

 

You have to look for a seller offering the combo on Taobao. The Jinhao storefronts are good for including 30-60ml bottles with the pen for a couple dollars.  

 

The Aliexpress sellers also sometimes buy out the flagship before the pen is even launched so it remains a random game of who has it first. 

[Dan Carmell]

5 hours ago, mke said:

I should not check on Aliexpress.

I’ve seen one of the new colorways on AliExpress for $23. 

[J120]

41 minutes ago, Dan Carmell said:

I’ve seen one of the new colorways on AliExpress for $23. 

@Dan Carmell $23 for a 8.49 pen is quite the markup

[Dan Carmell]

10 hours ago, J120 said:

@Dan Carmell $23 for a 8.49 pen is quite the markup

More than you’d pay for an A1! 
 

Name of the game on AliExpress is to double overcharge for new colorways. I just found a blue anodized Ti 136 for $124… photo and link in a new post.

[J120]

Jinhao is doing a colorway dump before the Chunese new year apparently.  

 

All I want for Christmas is a Chinese 1.0 nib option. I would settle for a realistic M or fude at this point. 

[mke]

6 hours ago, J120 said:

colorway dump

 

 

 

I bought the gold one. I already have Majohn silver and black lines.

 

[J120]

@mke

 

Buying them all from Taobao for cheap shipping. Great stocking stuffers and a bulk of the black stripped for office use. 

 

 

[mke]

10 hours ago, J120 said:

@mke

 

Buying them all from Taobao for cheap shipping. Great stocking stuffers and a bulk of the black stripped for office use. 

 

 

 

Certainly much cheaper - but actually I want to reduce the number of my pens. However, occasionally, I can not avoid straying from my decision to reduce. 

I wanted to buy a gold Pilot VP a few years ago. But it was sold out before I heard about it. It was $500, afair. Now this one at $18 is certainly cheaper.