Hi everyone (especially in the UK)

I placed an order with Pendemonium for a Pelikan M200 with left oblique nib recently, and while I was about it I thought I'd get a Pelikano. I've heard them talked about a lot over the years, but never been able to find anywhere in the UK that stocks them.

So I've been having some fun this evening with my new orange Pelikano and a bottle of PR Orange Crush ink. Ink and pen are not the same shade, but they're in the same tonal range, I think! First impressions are that the steel nib is remarkably smooth, but perhaps a little 'slow' if you know what I mean. Pretty good for the money, though.

Anyway, my wife (who's a headteacher) thought the pen was great, and even expressed an interest in having a few of them (with different colour inks in) herself.

Googling yet again to see if I could find a UK online source, I actually came up with one at last - Cult Pens (http://www.cultpens.com/). They're knocking them out at £6.99 each, which is pretty reasonable. For those who want different colour inks but don't want to use a converter, they also have Pelikan cartridges in a fair range of colours @ £1.20 for 5.

My apologies if this is old hat, or if everyone but me has been buying Pelikanos in the UK for years.

Btw, they don't have the orange one.

Good find, Col. Browsing the site, I found they also supply the wonderful Fountain Pentel disposable. I haven't seen one of those in years.

Ray

Indeed, Ray; did you also note the Faber-Castell E-Motion with the pearwood barrel? They have a slightly curious collection of stuff, to be sure. Their Vanishing Points aren't all that cheap unfortunately - you'd still be better off going to a US source for those.

You want orange ones? We'll get you orange ones
Fine nib Pelikanos due soon, plus Pelikan converters.

Followed a referring link back and found FPN, which seems a useful place.

We can source anything and everything Pelikan, though I would confess we're not fountain pen experts. If we have 'a slightly curious collection of stuff', that's because it's a rapidly growing collection and currently growing in the direction of the most supportive and least-represented manufacturers. Our aim: to stock absolutely every decent quality pen, pencil and refill available in the UK, plus a bunch of stuff that isn't (eg. we've started importing a few non-UK Pilot products). We put the entire Pilot UK product set online in September, are working on Faber-Castell, Staedtler, Uni-Ball and Pentel, with all the rest to come over time.
In the meantime, we'll always try to supply any special requests.

re: VP prices. We have the best prices and biggest range in the UK (including spare nib units), but the £:$ exchange rate is pretty favourable for imports at the moment, so there's not a lot we can do about that. The flipside is that we export a ton of Pilot G-Tec-C4 to the US
Anyone in the UK wanting a Vanishing Point (aka Capless) in the next few weeks could do worse than drop me an email - we have a bunch on special from Pilot that I could possibly do a deal on

Cheers,
simon

-- CultPens --

Hi,

Tell me when you bring in the Pilot Vortex. And Pilot Capless Decimo. I always buy my pens from the UK.

Dillon

I think the real problem behind the Pilot VP prices in Europe is the regional marketing of Pilot. They seemingly do 'position' the VP in a higher 'premium' price range than in the U.S. or Japan. A MSRP of about 200 Euros in Continental Europe is IMHO inappropriate, and the dealers in Europe can't do much against that. If an official U.S. Pilot dealer can sell the VP for $80, Pilot can't hide that in a Global Village and pretend innocently the European price is justified

I shall make enquiries..

Regards,
simon

-- CultPens --

I wouldn't argue with that analysis. Pilot UK really don't know how to deal with their products over £10. It's extraordinarily hard work just trying to buy the full range of Capless from them
But then, so is trying to buy the complete range of Pelikano. In both cases it's easy as a retailer to buy assorted displays to stick on a shop counter but trying to buy specific barrel/nib combinations is like pulling teeth, or more accurately, like trying to extract the wisdom teeth from an unsedated polar bear.

Cheers,
simon

-- CultPens --

(Slightly OT) Yes, I know exactly what you mean. The concept of a customer wanting anything other than a medium nib seems almost alien to them .

Martin