In recent posts, we've seen some interesting posts regarding some bad pen sellers to avoid, and some seeming ok sellers only to find out they can get rather ugly with shill bidding and poor and/or nasty communications. We need a few good recommendations, now, too. Perhaps we should list those we know of under some categories of distinction:

The Good: Those ebay sellers we have never had an issue with or know to be very reputable. The sellers we know, have dealt with repeatedly, may be pen enthusiasts here, and have never presented any problems with shipping, shilling, communications, or end products. You'll go back to them, even if their price might be a little higher, simply because you know you'll have a good experience and your faith in online selling/buying is renewed with any business dealings with them.

The Bad: Avoid like the plague at all costs. Known for never sending mechandise or taking several weeks to send anything, never communicating, sending fakes or not-as-described pens and merchandise, and generally leaving a really bad taste in one's mouth after having dealt with them. They make one want to swear off any more online dealings for a really bad transaction.

The Ugly: Somewhere in between The Good and The Bad. A seller who has been shown to provide a good product - most of the time - but is inconsistent in their ways. Erratic communications, problems with shipping, and the wrong item being sent and having to be swapped out. Transactions likely to be difficult, but you might consider going to them again if they have that one item you really, really want.

I haven't bought many pens off Ebay. Only four, actually. One was not so good a deal, but there wasn't any misrepresentation, I was just new at the whole pen collection thing. Two pens were a set. Both in very nice shape, but again, I was new and the price was probably way more than I should have paid. The fourth pen I purchased at what I felt was a very fair price, and I purchased from a dealer's online store after I'd bought from them previous from their website. The first two were one-time transactions. I can't even remember who they are. The third I will shop with again.

My short list with a brief why for each:

The Good

ujuku123 - Japanese Ujuku Store. I bought two pens from their website and one from their ebay store. I know I'm getting what I'm paying for and I'll get it fast. They don't speak English well, but they communicate fast and amicably.

operadoc - Our own winedoc. I haven't purchased from him except in the Marketplace here, but I know to trust him and I'm getting the item just as described for a good price and quickly sent/delivered.

I have only bought a couple of Chinese pens off eBay. However, the seller was prompt, shipping was immediate, and feedback was given right away.

So, gotoschool goes in the "good" list for me.

The good: rhondaspens - interesting variety of vintage, fast, tons of pictures, and a real sweet heart.

The Good: speerbob, prahaBLEU, lewertowski, kamakurapens, castle98 (eBay account for pensinasia.com)

The Ugly: Montgomery_stationery, outletline

Here is an easy target!

BAD and ugly ! Benz collection: 8time2live Descriptions are bizarre, value overrated, poor communication, don't dare ask a question of any sort of you will be chastised and banned.

Ugly: finegrafics (failed to disclose that 18k nibs had been substituted with steel nibs). Only not listed in bad because others have had good experiences.

Good: melpens, gotoschool888, akideal

I think this thread is a good idea. Maybe the person who lauch it could edit the first message and update the good/bad/ugly sellers list ?

That's a good idea. If only posts could be edited for longer than one day, then it would be perfect.

Perhaps I've been lucky, but despite the embarrassing number of pen purchases I've made on ebay I've had only one bad experience, courtesy of a seller who goes by the name thisolhouse/Ray Crisp (USA). The (vintage) pen arrived in excellent aesthetic condition but with an unusable nib (contrary to the photo and description). He let me return it and offered to replace the nib. I returned the pen, he received it, and I've not seen the pen since (this was almost a year ago) despite numerous emails.

I've also had one bad experience on martiniauctions via a seller named ko-mio (in Germany); pen arrived with a hopelessly misaligned nib, he agreed to let me return it for a refund, I returned the pen, he received it and... no refund despite endless emails and even the intervention of the site's owner.

So avoid those two....

Simon

Not just Good but GREAT!
l.v.vandyke
Great communication and very accurate descriptions. Does a gorgeous job of restoring vintage pens.

I had a great experience with sakura_zeppelin when I bought my Decimo a few months ago.

I've had EXCELLENT experiences with these eBayers: engeika and his other ID japan_antique, judperl, sbroglia, robmorrison, snav1517, lewertowski, tokyo_russ, labeo, ontine, win_world_jp, penkalapens and our very own operadoc .

My one bad experience is with this Italian slimeball kanojowa. He never sent the pen I've won on Christmas 2006 And I was then too new (and naive) on eBay to send him cash!!

Nowadays only a credit card-powered Paypal will do for me. I will not bid on items sold by sellers not accepting this form of payment unless he/she is agreeable to a COD


Shahrin

Wonderful idea..just what we needed.

Good: winedoc, speerbob,lewertowski, doboantiques, tokyo_russ,

BAD: outletline

I have only bought pens from one Ebay seller, Gotoschool 888, based in Kowloon and selling Chinese pens at a low price (4 for $20 including shipping) prompt service and good to deal with.

It may be a good idea for some form of database on this topic?

From my experiences....

good: prahableu, outletline, pen_lover2000, melpens, drshopper3, judperl, speerbob, pens.plus, masterpiece139, einsamarkenshop

ugly: classicpencases, itoverstock -- either of which I'd deal with again with some caution, finegrafics (already mentioned), might deal with again but only with great caution

bad: none

I've been lucky so far and not had any negative experiences, one or 2 were a little slow with shipping, but thats not a very big deal to me.

The good ones that stand out in my mind are Pharableu, judpearl, vintagedelights001 and thisoldhouse among several others

POE

No bad experiences - yet.

Good: speerbob & judperl.
I shall see if gotoschool888 is good in a couple of weeks.

Regards

Richard.

Mostly very good experiences in over 200 purchases in the last four years. The bad ones have been: classicpencases (who openly insulted me and threatened legal action when I complained about the poor quality of the pen), cristco (who sent me a used and slightly damaged pen when he stated it was new, then insulted me), and montgomerystationery (who sent me a completely different pen from the one I ordered and threatened violence against me when I complained). The ugly: outletline (fast shipping but the item is usually poorly packed and the box very worn), ckap11 (same as outletline), penman1986 (rarely replies to messages).

I'm glad it wasn't just me with classicpencases -- I'd ordered while their eBay store said they were on vacation, then I waited two days to pay (until they said they were back). For that, I got neutral feedback. No thanks.

Good to read two positives for Judperl, as I am must about to send him a payment!

If someone (in a week, for example) make a list and send a nice PM to a moderator, the first post could be edited easily.

BTW, shouldn't this thread belong to the Market Watch forum ?



And to contribute : I've had an excellent relation with Melpens. Not through ebay but since the ebay seller and the website are the same person I would definitely buy from Mel!

[size="6"][/size]good: finegrafics on ebay // found rare nature pen by Marlen that I have only seen in japan (not same version as US market). got is for under $80 i think. bargain even without a gold nib. same pen in japan pen show goes for over $200. other items I got from this seller are xxi and a telemachus roller. also got a rare double broad journal marlen, this time with gold nib. cos over $120.[/b]

I can add another plus for speerbob and lewertowski........ No negatives to report.

Wow, that's sad to hear about Montgomery Stationery... I bought one of my first fountain pens from them. I think it was my marble green Phileas. Then I went back and bought something else. Can't remember what, but I gave them two feedbacks in my eBay profile... but they're old enough now that I can't track them down. I don't recall anything negative at all. Maybe I got lucky. I also bought a nice Waterman Harmonie from penseandleather who were nice to deal with.

Got my Parker 51 from melenaus7957, and have been in extensive email conversation with him about an Esterbrook DJ and some NOS nibs. He's a restorer, and is doing one special for me by request, and is including it in my shipment at no extra shipping charge... just an extra paypal payment. We'll see how that goes. I'll let you all know when I receive the goods.

ditto here for melpens--fabulously fast shipping, very sturdy packaging, and their price (for the M1000) and their flat rate of $16 fedexed to anywhere in the world just can't be beat!

Good: judperl (already mentioned) speerbob (likewise) operadoc (also prior mention - I have purchased from him in Marketplace, and on eBay) taylorsintherockies (paper, esp Apica) lewertowski (previously mentioned) classicpencases, wkiffin, thepencase, temecula53 (great place for Parker low end pens and gel refills), goldquills (formerly known as akideal) waimar

The Bad: None having to do with pens, except one, whose name I cannot find as it is over 90 days ago, and no description of the item in the feedback. He described a Sheaffer with a cracked barrel as a Parker 51, and the photo was fuzzy enough I didn't catch it.

The Ugly: None, at least not so far.

Donnie

Most of the bad experiences I've had were with inexperienced sellers or fly-by-night sellers. I recommend never buying from someone with very little feedback, unless you get thorough and considerate replies for inquiries (even still, don't chance it with an expensive purchase).

Some of the best experiences I've had are with sakura_zeppelin, soundboy_jp, lewertowski, gidania, penprinzess, ujuku123, barowason (stan), kamakura-pens (Ron), and Tokyo_Russ (although he embellishes his auction descriptions too much).

I had a bad experience with Puget2005 that was really shady, although it looks like he has improved in his integrity over time.

Outletline is touch-and-go. Same with Judperl. They seem to do high volume and thus make mistakes or omissions from time to time. Judd always replies very briefly with insufficient information, but his prices are usually low so it's a kind of "lottery." Yet, his pens are almost always containing dried ink or in need of some maintenance to get it to work right.

The good: Gwachen (PR ink) Levenger Outlet.

Don't want to add any bads because my situation
with two sellers could well have been anomalies.

The ugly one I would have really warned about is no
longer a registered user as of last week; thankfully
they only got 5.00 of mine. (judging from the feedback
before their account was closed mine was 5.00 out of
a minimum of over 1300.00 they cheated folks out of-
I was lucky)

Buy alot of Japanese pens MYU?

The GOOD: I would second all those above and add..... erfobay, posarro and penkalapens. All great communicators, honest and know their pens.

Rick

A good one that I don't see mentioned already:

pokydady

The one I'd have to warn about is gizmotango. Sells a lot of vintage pens. I bought two in close succession, and they both had significant undisclosed defects (pearl ring Vac had no nib! - photo was taken from underneath and rear of the feed, covering up this defect, I forget what was wrong with the other pen, but it was similarly gross). Actually, I had bought three pens by the time the second defect showed up, but I canceled the third purchase.

I couldn't agree more. I bought a pen from him once and was MOST impressed with his work. One of not many people I'd buy from on fleabay otherwise than as a gamble.

Oh a few. But you as well, Rick? I saw a 'talkingheads' eBay member buy a few short pens just recently.

I saw OUTLETLINE is bad/ugly/good.... May i know from who said he is BAD why they think so?
I read this thread with the purpose to have some feedback on him

I've watched his auctions on fleabay several months back and noticed that if a buyer starts the bidding early,either he
or someone else will shill bid the price up to what he thinks the pen in the auction should go for. If that doesn't work,he
may attempt himself to shill bid the price up,or just start bidding with someone to excite uninformed buyers into thinking
if they don't get a bid in,they will lose the opportunity to win said pen.

If you're serious about buying from him,I suggest that you watch some of his auctions to see if there's a pattern of shill
bidding(i.e.,pushing up the price)and then consider if you want to buy from him.

John

Good: Judperl, tbickiii

Ive used judperl too. Very pleased!

I've bought dozens of fountain pens, dip pens, nibs, and inkwells on eBay, and have never had a disaster. Somebody up there must like me.

Hey, I bought something from Ray Crisp, too. I bidded on a snorkel after his assurance that the pen worked. But it didn't work. I didn't know much about FPs at this time so I thought maybe I was just using it wrong. So I had Farhney's look at it, and sure enough, it didn't work. Eventually I returned it and got a refund.

Ugly: justreallygoodstuff999 bought a parker 180 described as excellent condition bit clip separating from the cap, I kept the pen and repaired it but it could have been described better.
victor_velasco also known as gravures06 deregistered after I had a winining bid luckily I didn't pay right away as I always do and didn't lose any moey but I guess you do have to be wary of sellers that have a couple of IDS.

Penman1982 deregistered last week when I won the item on auction. His aggressive emails suggested that I send him the money, as his paypal account was down. I think that I was really lucky here.

Unperturbed, I then bought a Visconti from PrahaBleu, who has seemed much more customer-friendly. Apparently it was shipped yesterday, so am eagerly awaiting the delivery of my new arrival, which incidentally is much nicer than the pen I would have bought from penman1982 anyway!

BTW - I think that this is a great thread. I am relatively new to FPs and this kind of information is invaluable.

printhardcopy

This is a first rate ebayer. I'm in the process of a second transaction with him, and he is stellar (and cheap) to say the least.

John,

I agree with you on what he does. I have bid on a few of his items to see the price automatically go up but not move after I stopped bidding on the item. Most of the time the reserve prices are amazingly high also. I bid on an item for the price an online store was selling the same item for and ebay said my reserve was not met! I've bid on enough items from Outletline to never bid on something from that seller again!

Mike

The Good: prahaBLEU, engeika

The Bad: Montgomery_stationery

I wouldn't say Mongomery Stationary are bad - just UGLY. They really screwed up my order (I ordered a Pilot Crystal silver and a Watererman converter and got a Waterman Kultur Silver) but I think it's just because they are sloppy or too busy. Also two of the items I used BIN on were out of stock. The refunded the first immediately but then had to be told to refund the other - again, just sloppy. They fixed the order without complaint though so can't really say it was a negative experience just unnecessary hassle.

Interesting stuff on outletline. Have just bought from them, waiting for pen and now crossing my fingers.


on the good side, Posarro (although they have seemed a little quiet of late), penkalpens, weltpens, all seem to know their stuff.

The good
lewertowski, castle98

No bads or ugly (yet, thankfully)

Placed an order with goldquills but not recieved it yet so too soon to day

That can actually happen when anyone has a higher bid. If I bid $150, and the opening bid is $25, ebay will only go to the minimum required. If you then bid $30, mine auto goes to $31, etc, until either you stop, and nobody else bids, you exceed my max bid, or the auction closes. What you describe is not necessarily evidence of shill bidding.

It is true that his reserve prices appear to be all over the map, though.

Donnie

goldquillls used to be called akideal. I bought several pens from akideal in the past, and service was good, pens were as described.

donnie