Thoughts On Places To Buy Pens

[iram]

If this is not the right spot to post this my apologies....I hope moderators can move it if needed

 

 

My most recent purchases have been via Amazon

 

 

I see other sites such as Aliexpress and DHgate.com and I'm sure there are others I'm not familiar with

 

Wondering as to any thoughts or comments on these or any other sights one may mention if allowed

 

Has anyone used these? and if so are they safe sites to purchase from?

[Henricum_Tropen]

Hello and welcome to FPN, from Cape Town, South Africa.

[praxim]

The pens you are most interested in buying may affect which sites work best for you. There are also questions around what risks you are will accept happily. I have never bought pens from Amazon nor anything from the other two sites you mention, so can not help you there. Have a look around FPN for other sites mentioned, or at the FPN classifieds.

[ParkerDuofold]

Hi Iram,

 

 

I see you live in the States... that makes it easy for me.

 

I have bought pens from a few of Japanese sellers... through Amazon... with complete satisfaction. They are:Sukiyaki, Japanese Samurai, J's Import Shop and Rainbow Color.

 

Here in the States, I have purchased pens on e-bay through Speerbob, Streetfair, Montgomery Stationery and a few others.

 

I have also had great online purchases from Goulet, Pen Chalet, Fountain Pen Hospital, Birmingham Pens, Federalist Pens, Vanness Pens, Fountain Pen Revolution, Jet Pens, Peyton Street Pens and a few others.

 

Hope this helps you out. Be well and enjoy life.

 

 

- Anthony

[ParkerDuofold]

Just to follow-up... the two you mention specifically... I have NOT used, so I cannot comment, either.

 

- A.C.

[mitto]

The DHgate.com is a Pakistani online company that sells mostly dresses and shoes. I haven't seen pens listed on their site. Aliexpress, however, sells cheap Chines pens. I also often see products listed on their site that look (to me as) counterfeit.

[iram]

Thank you to admin for moving post to correct forum and thank you all for your opinions

[Chrissy]

I have a favourites list that includes some that haven't been mentioned, and as you're in the US I won't mention those in Britain, but here are some that you might see mentioned on FPN:

 

Appelboom, Bertram's Inkwell, Chatterley Luxuries, Dromgoole's, Fahrney's, Goldspot, Indy-pen-dance, La Couronne du Compte, Main Street Pens, The Nibsmith, Pendemonium.

 

There are probably others that I've missed for which I apologise. My favourites list isn't exhaustive, especially for US pen sellers.

[corgicoupe]

I clearly don't buy as much as Anthony, but have been very happy with 1 from SpeerBob, a few from PeytonStreetPens, and a handful from Gary Weimer of MidnightPens on Etsy [Esterbrook & vintage Parker]. I'm not in favor of antique malls primarily because I don't want to restore pens. If I stumble on one that I really want, it gets sent to Danny Fudge for restoration.

[Cordovian]

If you're looking to buy online, a couple of off the grid sources that I trust are jomashop.com, grayandsons.com and therealreal.com. I've made several purchases from each and have been satisfied with every purchase.

[kiavonne]

When I first started with fountain pens, I actually went looking online for places to buy them, since I wan't finding anything beyond a Cross inside Staples. It led me here, and from here I looked at the market place, while also looking for custom because of my eccentric ways in addition to my physical needs.

 

I bought a lot of pens based solely on reviews and recommendations and reviews from FPN, as well as joining in on the group buys collaborated through FPN.

 

While here, I was able to watch the upstarts Brian Gray and Brian Goulet grow their respective businesses. I also found myself dedicated to Noodler's Ink through this forum. To this day, my first online pen stop for shopping is Goulet Pens, as all three of these American entrepreneurs are bundled within.

 

If I'm unable to find what I want from Goulet Pens, I hunt here and do a lot of google searching and researching before I buy. There are other good online stores as well. I like checking in on Pendemonium for vintage finds, in example. But honestly, all my places of shopping preferences were found by checking here, on FPN, first.

[kiavonne]

sorry for the double post

 

Sorry, I also did not address, aliexpress, amazon and the like.

 

I personally tend to shy away from buying pens from anyone who mass produces other products or indeterminately distributes products and does not concentrate on pens and pen paraphernalia. I would rather buy from an established pen company or online seller rooted in the pen business. That said, early on I did have a few missteps of my own until I knew more about the pen world in general.

Edited February 15, 2018 by kiavonne

[inkstainedruth]

I have seen bad reviews on eBay about Aliexpress. Have not used them myself. As for eBay in general, I have mostly had good luck (but have been burned -- badly -- a couple of times). To the point of I will no longer buy ANYTHING from one specific seller previously mentioned -- Montgomery Stationery. I have had good experiences with Streetfair, which I believe is the eBay arm of a pen shop in Detroit (sorry, spacing on the name at the moment -- is that Pen Chalet?).

As for regular retailers, I have had nothing but good experiences with Goulet Pens, Anderson Pens, and Vanness Pens (and also the late lamented isellpens). No experience with the others for online, but some of them (like Indy-Pen-Dance and Federalist Pens) I see at pen shows. As for Birmingham Pens, I've never ordered anything from their, but have been in their B&M store a few times (and keep hoping they find another location SOON!)

As for me, I have bought pens (or had repairs done at shows) from the aforementioned places. Since I'm looking at vintage pens for the most part, I tend to buy pens either on eBay (although I do ask lots of questions), at pen shows, and in the wild (mostly at antiques shops, although I did find a Parker 41 at an estate sale a couple of years ago, at the bottom of a shoebox full of mostly ballpoints and pencils).

I haven't bought any pens on Amazon, although I look every now and then (ditto for Etsy).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Driften]

I really like gouletpens.com as well as Pen Chalet. But it depends on what I want to order. I also buy from Amazon. If you want a higher end German pen that is cheeper from Europe then Missing-pen.de and Cultpens have things like Pelikan and higher priced Lamy much cheeper then here in many cases.

 

For Japanese pens (Pilot,Platinum, Sailor) Amazon from Japanese sellers can be good or eBay.

 

If you want ink samples gouletpens.com is always the first stop.

[Tasmith]

In addition to the retailers already listed, I'll add Anderson Pens http://www.andersonpens.com .

[Runnin_Ute]

I have purchased from the following:

 

isellpens.com (feel same as Ruth on this one. Bought my TWSBI 580 from them)

Amazon - two different Japanese sellers. (NAGASAWA - Stationery Store [Kobe in Japan] and ENDLESS JAPAN) Both have B&M locations in Japan.

Goulet Pens

EBay- I have been pretty lucky so far. No bad experiences to date. (cross fingers for continued good fortune)

I have bought things from Anderson Pens, but no pens. (ink, repair supplies)

The Writing Desk in the UK

Levenger is another I have purchased from

Edited February 15, 2018 by Runnin_Ute

[corgicoupe]

Another one came to mind for vintage and some new pens: TheSouthernScribe.com I met Rick Horne at the Atlanta pen Show last year, when I purchased a lever-fill carmine Sheaffer fountain pen from him. One local restorer told me when he ran into something he couldn't fix, he would send it to Rick Horne.

[ParkerDuofold]

I clearly don't buy as much as Anthony...

Hi CC,

 

Few do.

 

Thanks for reminding me about Gary and Midnight Pens... I haven't bought anything from him yet... but I plan to,... eventually. Pajaro loaned me three Esties... trying to convert me to the dark side of Esterbrook... ...it might be working... they're great little pens... I really like the J.

 

 

 

...I have mostly had good luck (but have been burned -- badly -- a couple of times). To the point of I will no longer buy ANYTHING from one specific seller previously mentioned -- Montgomery Stationery. I have had good experiences with Streetfair, which I believe is the eBay arm of a pen shop in Detroit (sorry, spacing on the name at the moment -- is that Pen Chalet?)...

Hi Ruth, et al,

 

Sorry to hear you had bad experiences with Montgomery... to be upfront... I've only bought two or three pens from them... they carry some brand new OOP models that no one else has seems to have. But I generally only use them when my back is against the wall because I think their pricing is on the steep side... unless they have a sale going.

 

Actually, Pen Chalet is based in Mesa, Arizona, IIRC.

 

Streetfair is aka "iPenstore"... which started out as Ever's Stationery Supply on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 1932. What their physical location is now... I don't know... but it might be Detroit, IIRC, they do say Michigan on their e-bay sales... but why would anyone want to move from Chicago to Detroit???

 

Oh, well,... such is life.

 

One thing I can say... I've bought a lot of kit from them and it's always been a great experience.

 

 

Be well all.

 

 

- Anthony

[sansenri]

I have bought both from Amazon and Aliexpress.

 

However I am in EU, and pen offer on Amazon in EU is less varied vs Amazon.com. Prices are usually reasonably good, lower than retail shops, offered pens are usually only some models from very well known brands. A few years ago I bought a couple of Parker Centennials on Amazon.it at much cheaper prices than in retail shops, today value of those pens is double.

Viceversa, buying from US Amazon is not a good idea for us living on the other side of the world, as besides shipping cost, import tax is very high, and you often only find out when goods are delivered.

 

Aliexpress is a good place to buy cheap chinese pens. Shipment is usually included. On low priced items there is no import tax. Classic brands like Jinhao and Hero are usually within the few dollar cost. When you go to higher quality chinese pens, Crocodile, Picasso, you can end up paying 20-30 usd or more, which is still affordable, were it not for the fact that if you check further (often on ebay) you can find the same pens at half the price... which means Aliexpress is getting rich on western clients who don't know the real cost of their chinese purchases...

If you know chinese (regretfully I don't) I seem to understand you can find local sites where the same pens are sold at even cheaper cost.

As far as Aliexpress is concerned my purchases from some of the sellers there have always been fine, without issues and pens have always arrived, although after about a month waiting time or more.

[inkstainedruth]

Actually, Pen Chalet is based in Mesa, Arizona, IIRC.

 

Streetfair is aka "iPenstore"... which started out as Ever's Stationery Supply on Michigan Avenue in Chicago in 1932. What their physical location is now... I don't know... but it might be Detroit, IIRC, they do say Michigan on their e-bay sales... but why would anyone want to move from Chicago to Detroit???

Thanks. My problem is that I get them confused because I think I get email ads from both places.... Have not ordered from them directly; only, as I said before, through Streetfair on eBay.

I should also point out a couple of other eBay sellers, both of whom I've had several good experiences with. One is Rolf Thiel (missing-pens) and the other is a guy in the Netherlands who's screen name on eBay is m9199. I would not hesitate to send people to either of them, if they had what people wanted, both for prices and the overall experience (the issues over getting multiple Vectors in a "Second Chance" offer was NOT with m9199 in any way, shape or form -- they were with poor IT on eBay's part, and the poor guy and I spent most of the day messaging each other back and forth with me going "I can't get this to work! [expletive deleted] eBay!")

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth