Milligram is having another sale; some offers on LAMY fountain pens are decent I guess

[A Smug Dill]

Milligram sent another marketing email today to let me know it's offering a “further 20% off” items on clearance in the outlet section of its website/business. In Kaweco I'm not really interested (unless the effective price is ≤25% of the local retail price, and with free delivery or in-store collection), but I suppose some of the offers on LAMY fountain pens are decent. For example, I see a LAMY 2000 in brushed stainless steel for AUD $239.60 (and qualifies for free delivery within Australia). I haven't been tracking the prices of and offers on LAMY Dialog 3 models, but $287.60 with a choice of finishes and nib width grades would be among the lowest from authorised retailers of the brand in Australia, I guess?

[Jamerelbe]

I spotted this deal too - I thought I got a pretty good deal on a Dialog cc a couple of years back, when I snagged it for ~AU$330 - they're usually closer to the AU$400 mark if not higher.  And $240 for a 2000 stainless steel is pretty unbeatable - though (I think?) you have to order with a B nib for that price, which I know about 5 nib sizes too big for you, @A Smug Dill 😉!

[A Smug Dill]

14 minutes ago, Jamerelbe said:

And $240 for a 2000 stainless steel is pretty unbeatable - though (I think?) you have to order with a B nib for that price, which I know about 5 nib sizes too big for you, @A Smug Dill 😉!

 

I already have two LAMY 2000 (including a Blue Bauhaus LE) that I don't use…!

[A Smug Dill]

A-ha! I knew there had to be a catch.

 

 

I never knew (or noticed) they are US date format users!

[lascosas]

Thank you for the heads up!  As someone in the US I found the price for the upper end Lamys to be excellent.  Not that I needed them...but I purchased 3 for $560 USD including shipping. 

[Jamerelbe]

I *might* have picked up a Lamy 2000 in stainless steel... 

[Jamerelbe]

Hmmmm, not sure how *that* happened!

 

[Yes, the top one is a Jinhao - and yes, I bought the bottom one from Goulet Pens several years ago - I have Milligram to blame for the *other* two though...]

 

[lascosas]

Did you get both of the Milligrams from the current sale?

 

My order arrived yesterday, and I put in the order a week previously. Seven days from Melbourne to California.  EMS, my favorite international carrier.  Flat rate of $16 USD regardless of what you purchase.  Pretty awesome.  The box was 15" x 10" by 4.5".  Lamy is usually so good about using minimal packaging, but on the Imperium & Dialog they go with a hugely oversized, and ugly box. 

 

 

 

 

 

[lascosas]

A Smug Dill-

I really appreciate it when you post these Milligram sales.  I've tried subscribing to their mailing list, but they send too many emails when all I care about are the 20% off on clearance items sales.

[A Smug Dill]

13 hours ago, lascosas said:

but they send too many emails

 

… that Outlook often just throw into Junk Mail for me, even though from time to time I'll rescue them and choose “mark as not junk”, without adding the sender as a known contact. After three or so weeks, Milligram's marketing emails just end up in Junk Mail again.

[Jamerelbe]

16 hours ago, lascosas said:

Did you get both of the Milligrams from the current sale?

 

I got the stainless steel (with B nib) from the current sale, and the makrolon (with BB nib!) a few weeks earlier from a previous sale.  With various add-on discounts, I go the makrolon for AU$170 (~US$110), and the stainless steel for $215 (US$144).  I don't think I've seen prices that low on a new Lamy in a decade or more - made it hard to resist.  I don't normally opt for nibs that broad and gushy, but they're a delight to write with.

[lascosas]

So a question for you Milligram experts...

How often do they have sales?

[Jamerelbe]

10 hours ago, lascosas said:

So a question for you Milligram experts...

How often do they have sales?

 

It's a bit unpredictable - and I don't always pay close attention.  Probably once every few months?  The real value deals, though, are when they add a sale on top of an existing discount.  I've gotten a few more mid-range Lamy pens (Scala, ideos, Studio, and now a couple of 2000s) for well below market value, just by keeping an eye on their 'Outlet' section, then waiting for advertised sales to pounce.

[Jamerelbe]

Maybe it's worth adding: when I first started collecting fountain pens, 10+ years ago, the Australian dollar was much higher, postage costs were lower, and it was almost always cheaper to buy from the US, UK or elsewhere.  As the Aus dollar has weakened relative to other currencies, the incentive to buy local has become much greater.  An advantage (for me) is that Milligram offers free postage to Australian postal addresses above a certain amount - whereas almost any international purchase has to add a price for delivery.  That means I keep a much closer eye on local sales, and pay less attention than I used to when US-based retailers drop their prices...

[A Smug Dill]

On 9/20/2024 at 3:10 AM, lascosas said:

How often do they have sales?

 

Milligram has a campaign once every few weeks. Usually it isn't even worth a glance; 15% off a high retail price is not enticing, and these days Milligram's range is extremely limited, having rid itself of ink brands such as Kobe INK Story and Robert Oster.

 

Like @Jamerelbe said, it usually takes compounding a campaign discount with an ‘outlet’ clearance price to makes any particular offer from Milligram worthwhile. I managed to pick up two Kaweco Supra pens very cheaply that way; but such offers tend to be flashes in the pan, with only one or two units dug out under the dust in the corner of the warehouse floor to sell. If you're not looking on the site within 2 hours of the marketing email announcing the campaign and/or discount code going out, that clearance stock will usually be snapped up by someone else before you have a chance. Furthermore, the discount codes usually become effective and posted on Milligram's website prior to the email going out, so if you “know” another campaign is coming or due, then checking Outlet offers at 8AM Australian Eastern Standard Time (for Melbourne and Sydney) that day would give you a head start.

 

13 hours ago, Jamerelbe said:

An advantage (for me) is that Milligram offers free postage to Australian postal addresses above a certain amount - whereas almost any international purchase has to add a price for delivery.

 

The latter is not true for me. Cult Pens in the UK, EndlessPens in the US, Pensachi in Japan, Pen Gallery in Malaysia, Fontoplumo and Appelboom (and now-defunct La Couronne du Comte) all used to have reasonable “free international shipping” thresholds. Finding (say) A$250 of (discounted) stuff to buy from any of those sites was easier than finding A$60 of discounted stuff from Milligram's limited range of Outlet clearance items, to attract free (international and domestic, respectively) shipping. However, I've now written just about all of them off, except Fontoplumo (with a limited range) and perhaps Cult Pens.

 

These days I mostly buy on Amazon.com.au, and shipping is almost always free for Prime members where the items are sold and shipped by Amazon Japan, Amazon Germany, Amazon UK, or Amazon US.

[lascosas]

Thanks for this information.  I think I'll ignore Milligrams unless one of you kind Australians list a sale under Marker Watch.