The State Of Counterfeiting Of Chinese Brands

[arcadeflow]

 

Actually, that isn't what the title of your post suggests. It suggests you are talking about the counterfeiting of Chinese brands, which is different. Jinhao is also a Chinese brand and I must admit I wasn't aware that they were faked.

 

I was aware that Hero pens are faked. However, I agree with 'dcwaites', that it's far better to buy one $5 pen than 5 $1 pens.

 

Yes, Chinese pens, and Hero pens. My point still is that this thread is not about Western pen fakes made by the Chinese industry. What is not clear about that?

[RomellESC]

I buy my chinese fp's on aliexpress and there is one store i trust that sells genuine jinhao pens, never recieved a counterfeit jinhao from them. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/1920745?spm=2114.12010108.0.0.TXpIdN

If you're going to buy Jinhao fountain pens on this website, you can trust this store.

[virgilio]

Over the past few years I bought around 6 packs of 10 pcs of some Hero 616s that were obvious fakes. Price was only $8 on amazon. The metal sheath of the aerometric filling system was made of extremely flimsy metal, and the pens were rather dry writers, altho I had no trouble adjusting them and polishing the nibs to make them write well. I really got them because the barrels and caps were so well-made, and happened to fit exactly my Universal Scolasticas (my favorite pen) with a diameter of exactly 1 cm.

 

A few months these packs ceased to be available on amazon, and were replaced by 10-packs of Hero 616s at $17 apiece, sold by the Chengyida Shanghai Pen Co. I got some of these out of curiosity. they are much better pens, and appear to be genuuine, much better than any of the Hero 616s I used to get from US vendors. They are a little thicker than the fakes, with much sturdier aerometric sheaths, and above all they write VERY well, wet and smooth after only pressing down slightly on the nib once or twice when you first ink them up. Very close in quality to a Parker 51... and for only $1.70 apiece. The handwriting is on the wall for Western makers of fountain pens...

[CJZhang]

I have brought 2 Jinhao pens (159 & X450) at the price less than 6 USD in total via the Chinese online-market Taobao, and never found any fake one during the searching and shopping process. I tend to believe no counterfeit of Jinhao at the market at the moment due to low price.

[ian1964]

I don't wish to be controversial, but how can you tell a fake Chinese pen anyway and does it really matter? I bought (according the the Lamy experts) some fake Lamy Safari pens for $9 each. Had them 2 years now. One was a dud but the other 4 are fabulous. I would never have guessed they were fakes unless it was described in micro details. But, for $9......I don't really care anyway.

[Mech-for-i]

Well I suppose for a fake to be viable, it need to be selling in some quantity, and can be faked at a much lower manufacturing cost; and that; pretty much limit the number of models that would be or could be faked. Say sure I am aware of fake Hero 616, and 100, but equally I had yet to encounter or even heard of a fake Hero 329-2 or Hero 007. One of the fact regarding Chinese Pens is that very few model actually made the list of being so famous and well endowed that the market would be ripe for a fake. Not even Jinhao would made the list.

 

I wager even the 616 fake is going away gradually since Hero was still making this pen and it had not seen any price hike for literally decades. As market economic goes, its not a viable candidate any more. And I believe the fake sector is more moving towards faking import ( and expensive in their home market ) models like the Lamy Safari. I myself am ( personally ) against buying fakes as it encourage bad business practice and ultimately it get back and hurt consumer , that's us.

[Stefan-Ionut-Marius]

I think I have a fake Jinhao X450 , i just bought it and i have another one bought earlier but they does not look the same .

 

The real one have the central band with jinhao and X450 written on it , the nib have jinhao, jinhao logo , and 18K GP stamped on. The nib is in two-tone and it feels very smooth .

The fake one have the central band to but there's nothing written on it , the nib have iridium point germany, stamped on . The nib is in golden and it feels some what scratchy.

Edited March 28, 2017 by Stefan-Ionut-Marius

[DeanKW]

I think I have a fake Jinhao X450 , i just bought it and i have another one bought earlier but they does not look the same .

 

The real one have the central band with jinhao and X450 written on it , the nib have jinhao, jinhao logo , and 18K GP stamped on. The nib is in two-tone and it feels very smooth .

The fake one have the central band to but there's nothing written on it , the nib have iridium point germany, stamped on . The nib is in golden and it feels some what scratchy.

 

 

You probably do! Whether you want to call it a "counterfeit," I won't say, as it doesn't SAY Jinhao X450 on it. As such, one could make the claim that it isn't attempting to pass itself off as a Jinhao X450.

 

However, I also have a glossy black "X450" without the cap band markings. Just as you described, the nib does not say Jinhao and is a generic Iridium Point Germany nib. When comparing it to my genuine X450s (of which I have many), several other differences can be found. The grip is not as "triangular" or indented as the genuine x450s. A standard international cartridge doesn't fit securely in place. If you place the counterfeit's cap on a genuine x450, it doesn't click securely into place. A genuine x450 cap doesn't fit over the counterfeit's grip.

 

The first time I used the pen, I put in a standard international cartridge and the lack of it being airtight led to an inky mess. I don't get this issue when I've used the included converter. I haven't used the pen a ton as I don't want to cause any messes. I certainly wouldn't use any archival inks again.

[richardandtracy]

Sounds pretty convincing that there are now X450 & X750 fakes. Is there any way you can take photos & we can use them to identify the fakes?

 

Regards,

 

Richard

[Seele]

Richard,

 

So there's the report on the 2017 revision of the X450, with some differences from the previous model; could that be a more plausible explanation?

[mke]

I don't know how to link to my comment on the forum, so copy and paste.

 

regarding fakes

 

In the last few days, I looked a bit closer at the "fakes" situation of Jinhao pens. I don't think any one will ever be able to find out if a product is genuine or not.

My impression! is that most Jinhaos are order-produced or license-produced by other companies. As long as no detailed information is available with the pen, you will have no idea where it comes from

On Alibaba you see the title Jinhao but in the details you see as brand name another name. Now is this a fake or not? Or do these companies just license the rights of producing this pen from Jinhao and can sell it under the name Jinhao?

[DeanKW]

I don't wish to be controversial, but how can you tell a fake Chinese pen anyway and does it really matter? I bought (according the the Lamy experts) some fake Lamy Safari pens for $9 each. Had them 2 years now. One was a dud but the other 4 are fabulous. I would never have guessed they were fakes unless it was described in micro details. But, for $9......I don't really care anyway.

Lots of exposure to both reals and fakes, is what makes it possible to tell. It matters when people who are buying a single pen want it up to a certain standard. It matters when people who use a fake product give bad reviews. Counterfeiting hurts companies and individuals in lots of ways.

 

 

Richard,

 

So there's the report on the 2017 revision of the X450, with some differences from the previous model; could that be a more plausible explanation?

 

There were reports of a clear feed for the 599, but I haven't heard anything about a new x450. However, the pen I am referring to was from the beginning of 2016.

 

 

 

 

regarding fakes

 

In the last few days, I looked a bit closer at the "fakes" situation of Jinhao pens. I don't think any one will ever be able to find out if a product is genuine or not.

My impression! is that most Jinhaos are order-produced or license-produced by other companies. As long as no detailed information is available with the pen, you will have no idea where it comes from

On Alibaba you see the title Jinhao but in the details you see as brand name another name. Now is this a fake or not? Or do these companies just license the rights of producing this pen from Jinhao and can sell it under the name Jinhao?

 

You absolutely can tell. When parts are not interchangeable, it is trivial to do so. Especially when they are parts as basic as a converter. Of course lots of exposure to both reals and fakes helps.

 

Also, Jinhao will produces pens FOR other companies, not BY them (Goldspot, for example). Though there are models of theirs (most notably the 599, 599A, 599-1) that likely share parts with other pens and are sourced from outside their company. For example, there are 3 or 4 Chinese pen companies that sell a Safari clone with the 599-style clip. I would assume there is some sourcing from the same place. The Jinhao 911 likely sourced parts from the same place as Hero's 388. These is my hunch, but I don't know how business works in the PRC.

Edited April 1, 2017 by DeanKW