This is just a question to all you Parker buffs, I have just bought a Parker Sonnet Silver plated Limited Edition, or so the advert said on ebay, however I wondered if Parker make pens in a number of countrys, I dare say that they must, but is Pakistan one of them, I recieved my pen today, but notice that the convertor that comes with it is a different shaped plunger in it a conical shaped one, it is marked Parker, as is the pen nib etc, but the box looks substandard and I just wondered if there are Fake Parker Sonnets out there, I thought that it was only the high priced pens like Mont Blanc pens that were copied and faked, not the humbal Parker, I can not find anything, but I just have this feeling that somthing may not be right, It writes fine, infact smoother than my stainless one, is it possable that it could be a copy?
Bob

Hi,

Can you post some photos please?, J.M.L.

As far as I am aware all Parker Sonnets are manufactured in France - perhaps J.M.L. could confirm this.

There are plenty of counterfeit Parker Sonnets around, unfortunately. Photos of your pen would help to identify whether your pen is genuine but you may also find the following article useful:

Fake Sonnets


G.

P.S. If you bought the pen from lewertowski you have nothing to worry about!

This is the ebay photo

Click to view attachment

I have added the ebay photo and will try to manage to take some others somehow but I can't get detailed shots but will try I don't have a camera that will do any close up work.
Bob

Difficult to tell from the photo whether or not the pen is genuine but the box looks like a counterfeit.


G.

That was my first suspision also the conical tiped convertor
Bob

Just a further note on the box.

I believe it is a copy of a genuine, albeit less common, Parker box.

Of note are the following:

- the poor finish where the material does not fully cover the hinge/rear of the lid.
- the type face used in the word PARKER. All genuine boxes I have seen have a fine line on the upward stroke of the A with a thicker line on the downward stroke. Similarly the upward (/) stroke of the letter K is finer than that of the downward (\) stroke.

This can perhaps be better illustrated in the link below showing a Sonnet which I also believe is suspect. Of note here is this seller's poor feedback.
Ebay item

If there is sufficient interest, I will add a picture of what I believe is the v. similar genuine article.

G.

You know, maybe I'm just a Noob out of line here, but geez, if this doesn't fall into the "if it looks too good to be
true, it probably IS too good to be true" category, I don't know what does.

A Gold Sonnet NIB for $40 US BIN?

Come on.

With gold at near $1000US/oz the scrap value of a real 18kt nib alone is prolly worth that $40.

If the listing were, "Some kind of Parker fountain pen I found in a desk I bought, I don't know anything
about pens, blah, blah," it would at least be remotely fathomable, but for someone listing it that actually
knows it's a Parker Sonnet (and therefore would likely know the usual legit retail pricing)...

Maybe the fakes write fine and look fine, but for how long?

Just too much here that screams STAY AWAY!

Bruce in Ocala, FL

Hi,

I think that the box is a fake, they have forgotten the r for registred in front of PARKER:



A lot of fakes SONNET are sold in this box made in CHINA, J.M.L.

Post removed - poor illustration.

Hi,

Just to add to the pot, the box is a fake for sure. I buy some of these boxes from Sanford andthe Geniune as Lewe said, has an r at the top right of the PARKER word.

I have seen these boxes before, most come from China or India.

Hope this helps

TonyD

I think this particular model (Tartan, I think) should come in solid silver, not silver plating. I would think a fake.

Hi,

In this old post http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/in...showtopic=18572
I had a collection of photos of fake and genuine boxes... Yours looks fake.
If you tell me the name of the ebay seller, I might be able to give you more info.
I could also test your pen in my lab (gratis of course )

Antonios Z.

Fake and genuine

This is an interesting thread. I was at Office Depot earlier in the week and they did have some Parker penboxes accessible. I flipped it over and it said "Box Made in Thailand".

The opinion by most is that the pen is fake, yes I agree, I am quite new to the fountain pen collection scene, OK I have been a fool, I have been conned, I accept that,
I will have to clock that up to experiance,
Red faced
Thanks
Bob

The TARTAN is SILVER PLATED not STERLING SILVER, Only the CISELE (and the CROCODILE) are sterling silver, J.M.L.

Hey. Lesson learned. No worries.

If there is still time, open a dispute against the seller, stating the item is counterfeit.

There is a good chance you will get your money back if you paid using Paypal.

G.

Cathy, I may be mistaken and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I am, but I think I read in past posts somewhere that Parker's
more inexpensive pens were being made in the far East. Only the higher ends are still made in France.

Bruce in Ocala, FL

Bob, I wouldn't be so hard on yourself. The Sonnet counterfeiters seem to have gotten pretty good at it
I would think that unless someone really knew what to look for they might easily mistake a good fake for real.
The fakers also seem to be learning and improving, ie; changing the nut and bolt inner cap attachment to the
correct rivet method. Do a search here on "sonnet" and read all the posts on fakes. There have been a few that
were done so "well" that the only way to really tell was to pull the nib and test it for content. That is certainly not
something anyone but a more skilled pen person would ever do to a pen they bought. There was also a recent
post where an apparent reputable Ebay seller who specialized in pens thought one of his fakes was real but
wasn't. So, you are far from alone here. From what I can see, the fakes on Ebay seem to come in waves. There
are several there now that look suspect to me (and I am by no means that knowledgable).

Woe be to any product the counterfeiters chose to target. It also doesn't have to be somewhat higher ticket
items like the Sonnet. I've read that the lowly Sansa USB drive is so often counterfeited that Sansa redesigns
their packaging every few months just to try and stay ahead of the fakers. To me it says something about the
quality of the real Sonnets that they are the ones being faked.

I agree also on putting a complaint/claim into ebay and/or paypal on the seller. If you per chance used a
credit card for the purchase, I'd dispute the charge.

Bruce in Ocala, FL