Jump to content

Regarding Possible Fakes: S T Dupont


praxim

Recommended Posts

Having a mild interest in adding another Classique to my S T Dupont pens, I came across an advertiser in the land of Oz, offering a Classique and a Montparnasse, as well as a whole bunch of other much more expensive pens.

 

The advertiser has a good seller rating and many followers. He offers a 30-day money back guarantee, and said that all goods were owned by him, collected over many years. However (and leaving aside all matters of price), my caution came from the fact that the "Montparnasse" is quite obviously not.

 

Neither pen comes with box or papers, yet of the "Montparnasse" (it looks to me like a Classique) he said it had been dipped only, never used. This seemed odd. If you buy a pen and dip it only, it seems less likely to me that you would also discard or lose the box and papers. I wrote and asked about this. While I was at it, I asked whether my Waterman converter would fit or whether I would need an international converter *. This was the reply, which I think it reasonable to publish here:

 

"I have no idea if the converter will fit or not. It takes common cartridges so writing with it is no problem.

I used to travel a lot when I was working overseas. Every time I was near a duty free e.g. Hong Kong, Schipol in Amsterdam etc I tended to pick up a pen as I did collect them. In a hand luggage that would have been the first thing to throw away the box.
I never thought I would sell my pens so they have been in a display case for years. Now I am old and have no use for them. I know they are genuine because they were mostly from authorised Airport Duty Free shops around the world.
Hope this clears."

 

I do not intend to buy from this seller. I have better options, assuming I do anything at all. However, I am interested in considered views. Reputation and story on one hand, obvious error and the explanation on the other.

 

* I am quite aware that Duponts up to the Montparnasse take neither of these converters.

 

edit:typo

Edited by praxim

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 4
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Freddy

    2

  • praxim

    2

  • jar

    1

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

The Classique may have been faked even more often than Montblancs. And he very may well believe what he has was real but the story simply stinks. When putting stuff in hand luggage the last thing I would do is throw away protective boxes.

 

My Website

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I have no idea if the converter will fit or not. It takes common cartridges so writing with it is no problem.

I used to travel a lot when I was working overseas. Every time I was near a duty free e.g. Hong Kong, Schipol in Amsterdam etc I tended to pick up a pen as I did collect them. In a hand luggage that would have been the first thing to throw away the box.
I never thought I would sell my pens so they have been in a display case for years. Now I am old and have no use for them. I know they are genuine because they were mostly from authorised Airport Duty Free shops around the world.
Hope this clears."

Smells like fecal matter.

Fred

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if one were to discard boxes to put pens in a display case, would one also discard all the papers for authenticity, being a display-collector rather than a user-collector? Rhetorical question.

 

Not knowing about the cartridge converter type for either pen, then identifying one of two "Classiques" as a "Montparnasse" also seems less than collector-ish. Neither advertisement mentions any cartridge or C/C at all. The same advertiser has quite a few much more expensive pens for sale.

 

The promise to refund no-questions-asked in 30 days is merely consistent with Australian Consumer Law (except there is no time limit) yet, perversely, would probably help nefarious activity. If discovered one simply says "sorry, no idea how that happened, here's all your money back" while expecting to profit over all.

 

Proving the pen in question is not a Montparnasse (misrepresention) is trivial. Proving it is a fake (passive fraud) may be possible. Proving active, persistent fraud would require specific investigation and monitoring, which may be considered to have a low payoff for the size of the crime, if such there is.

 

I have elected not to tell the seller I know it is not a Montparnasse. If their behaviour is not innocent then I can not readily stop it so should do nothing to improve their approach; better to leave the flag up.

X

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Most Contributions

    1. amberleadavis
      amberleadavis
      43844
    2. PAKMAN
      PAKMAN
      33494
    3. Ghost Plane
      Ghost Plane
      28220
    4. inkstainedruth
      inkstainedruth
      26624
    5. jar
      jar
      26101
  • Upcoming Events

  • Blog Comments

    • Shanghai Knife Dude
      I have the Sailor Naginata and some fancy blade nibs coming after 2022 by a number of new workshop from China.  With all my respect, IMHO, they are all (bleep) in doing chinese characters.  Go use a bush, or at least a bush pen. 
    • A Smug Dill
      It is the reason why I'm so keen on the idea of a personal library — of pens, nibs, inks, paper products, etc. — and spent so much money, as well as time and effort, to “build” it for myself (because I can't simply remember everything, especially as I'm getting older fast) and my wife, so that we can “know”; and, instead of just disposing of what displeased us, or even just not good enough to be “given the time of day” against competition from >500 other pens and >500 other inks for our at
    • adamselene
      Agreed.  And I think it’s good to be aware of this early on and think about at the point of buying rather than rationalizing a purchase..
    • A Smug Dill
      Alas, one cannot know “good” without some idea of “bad” against which to contrast; and, as one of my former bosses (back when I was in my twenties) used to say, “on the scale of good to bad…”, it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. Whereas subjectively acceptable (or tolerable) and unacceptable may well be a dichotomy to someone, and finding whether the threshold or cusp between them lies takes experiencing many degrees of less-than-ideal, especially if the decision is somehow influenced by factors o
    • adamselene
      I got my first real fountain pen on my 60th birthday and many hundreds of pens later I’ve often thought of what I should’ve known in the beginning. I have many pens, the majority of which have some objectionable feature. If they are too delicate, or can’t be posted, or they are too precious to face losing , still they are users, but only in very limited environments..  I have a big disliking for pens that have the cap jump into the air and fly off. I object to Pens that dry out, or leave blobs o
  • Chatbox

    You don't have permission to chat.
    Load More
  • Files






×
×
  • Create New...