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Thoughts On Places To Buy Pens


iram

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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?

Welcome iram....Re above citations.....they appear not to be pillars of fountain pen sales.....

I see you have three pens..Montblanc 144..Jinhao 159..Noodler's Ahab with the famous ersatz flex....

 

Let the good folks know what you are lookin' for and at which price point.....

Then folks can help you......

 

Fred

and remember, positive mind, positive vibes, positive life.

 

Also good friend of Satrap the most excellent..............

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Thank you

 

Im still at the beginning of experimenting with fountain pens starting with that Montblanc 144 I found

 

My funds a limited so the Noodlers which was $23 on Amazon is most likely the top price I can afford right now

 

spending most of my time researching and following various Utube and vendor sites

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lots of good options here and I especially like Goulet and Vanness for most of what is available in regular retail. For other harder to find items I have had excellent experience buying from Regina Martini / Martini Auctions. Happy hunting!

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I have bought from Levenger, Farhneys, and Pen Chalet for pens. All good sellers that stand behind their sales. I have and will purchase ink from Amazon, but only because it is a an item which requires limited to no customer service and is typically a nominally priced item. The truth is Amazon's website is lousy. It sells products cheaply, but is so poorly organized and presents them in such a poor way, with minimal pictures and information as to make shopping on it annoying and burdensome. Plus some times it's products are NOT cheaper than the other sites mentioned by me and others. I expect pretty soon someone will match their prices and provide a pleasurable shopping experience and they will disappear in half the time they appeared.

Edited by Parker51
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Lots of good sites have been mentioned. The best advice I have is once you know the pen you want, check lots of sites for best price.

 

Some sellers will price match if you supply a web address where you found the better price.

 

When you can afford higher priced pens, the already mentioned Chatterly Luxuries is an excellent site. I use their pentime.com web address which redirects to Chatterley Luxuries. I’ve found the best prices for internal filler Visconti pens there. The site owner is fantastic with communication.

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Thank you

 

Im still at the beginning of experimenting with fountain pens starting with that Montblanc 144 I found

 

My funds a limited so the Noodlers which was $23 on Amazon is most likely the top price I can afford right now

 

spending most of my time researching and following various Utube and vendor sites

 

Wow..you found a Montblanc 144..good for you. Since you can only afford no more than $23..

consider a Camlin 47..piston filler..hooded nib..excellent pen..cost $10-$15 usd.....

 

I'm sure other folks can give you some more input re Pens costing no more than $23 usd.

 

Good luck..

 

Take care.

 

Fred

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  • 2 months later...

Hi! I'm new to the site and fountain pens as well. I only became hooked in October. This seems like a great place to learn.

 

I think I may have done a silly thing. I like the Lamy Safari colors and saw someone had a petrol color and a dark lilac color (which I haven't been able to find anywhere). I became so excited that I purchased them both. The prices seemed to be around the MSPR I'd seen elsewhere. Since then I found out that there are a lot of knock-offs of these pens. I purchased them from Goldspot pens which I recently found out sells pens on Amazon as Marketfair Stationary. Is this a reliable place if they also sell on Amazon?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

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Many recognized Sellers regularly sell on other sites, Amazon or even Ebay. Peyton Street Pens & Chatterley Luxuries are both Sellers that are greatly valued & both regularly offer merchandise on Ebay.

 

I would not worry about Goldspot Pens selling fake merchandise, their reputation as a Seller would be worth much more than the profit they could realise from such activity. I have had numerous purchases from them & always found their quality & service as advertised.

 

ALTMAN LUGGAGE, a store that has been in business in New York City since 1920, also carries a nice selection of fountain pens in their store & also sell on Amazon. I believe it is just another way to increase sales for business that do so, not an attempt to sell lesser goods than offered "in house."

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You are most welcome!

 

Just enjoy your pens; I have purchased from almost everyplace I can locate the pen I want @ a price I feel is within my budget. I trust certain places when spending more money for a pen, but have found several Sellers on Ebay that are also very reliable, that often sell pens not easily found, @ sometimes very reasonable cost. I suppose you just become more trustful when you have had transactions that were reliable.

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I'm a big fan of Bertram's Inkwell, but cannot speak to their mail-order side, as I live six (long) blocks away from Bert's B&M store - literally walking distance. I much prefer going to Bert's, particularly on Saturday when a lot of pen folk hang out there (and I bought a Pelikan 400 there yesterday), over Fahrney's, the other B&M in the DC Metro area, a fine store, but not a welcoming experience in-person - I can't imagine hanging out there for 3 or 4 hours.

 

Mail order, I highly recommend Anderson Pens and Goulet Pens, both newbie friendly,

 

Others:

 

Birmingham Pens (their prices on cheap Chinese pens are a few bucks higher than on eBay, but he tests the pens and makes sure they write OK, well worth the extra buck or two), also carry Knox, Nemosine, and Pilot pens in your general range, and TWSBI, a hair above your limit, in addition to Chinese pens.

 

Fountain Pen Revolution (specializes in pens from India, many of which fit your price range) are two other places I've been happy with.

 

Have fun with what you've already got!

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  • 5 months later...

Ive heard all the horror stories about eBay. What about amazon? I get the sense that I can buy new pens off amazon and not get ripped off.

Edited by FOUR X FOUR
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I recently bought a TWSBI Eco from amazon. TWSBI was listed the fulfillment source. I’ve also bought a Pilot Plumix there.

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does any one know about buying pens from amazon? is it pretty safe?

On Amazon, or specifically from Amazon, as in merchandise that are 'Sold and fulfilled by Amazon'?

 

I bought a Pilot MR Metropolitan that was sold and fulfilled by Amazon. It arrived with a dented tin 'gift box', because the retail package just got thrown in a whole lot of hardcover A5 journals, with nary a piece of void fill or bubble wrap inside the shipping carton. I complained about that, but I also told them the pen itself was fine. Amazon promptly issued me a full refund of the US$12 or so I paid as its purchase price.

 

I also bought a Platinum #3776 kanazawa-haku pen that was sold and fulfilled by Amazon, in a completely different price range. The paulownia gift box that held the pen was streaked with dirt, and the cardboard box outside of it was ripped and torn, even though again the contents inside the gift box were new and perfectly fine. I complained, and at the end of the conversation Amazon issued a 17% refund of the purchase price.

 

Is it safe? I'd say yes. Are you going to get a satisfactory experience as a customer who is prepared to pay the asking price, in exchange for a retail package in perfect condition? Personally I don't trust the folks at Amazon's warehouses to be careful about the merchandise, even when we're talking about 'fine writing instruments' with prices in the hundreds of dollars. My experiences buying (>$30) pens on eBay and Rakuten Global Market have been far better.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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Goulet Pens

Pen Chalet

JetPens

Birmingham Pens

I ordered several pens on Amazon that were filled and sent directly from TWSBI. Good experience.

I have never had a single problem with any of the above online sites.

Lorraine

I have not failed. Ive just found 10,000 ways that wont work.

Thomas A. Edison

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On Amazon, or specifically from Amazon, as in merchandise that are 'Sold and fulfilled by Amazon'?

 

I bought a Pilot MR Metropolitan that was sold and fulfilled by Amazon. It arrived with a dented tin 'gift box', because the retail package just got thrown in a whole lot of hardcover A5 journals, with nary a piece of void fill or bubble wrap inside the shipping carton. I complained about that, but I also told them the pen itself was fine. Amazon promptly issued me a full refund of the US$12 or so I paid as its purchase price.

 

I also bought a Platinum #3776 kanazawa-haku pen that was sold and fulfilled by Amazon, in a completely different price range. The paulownia gift box that held the pen was streaked with dirt, and the cardboard box outside of it was ripped and torn, even though again the contents inside the gift box were new and perfectly fine. I complained, and at the end of the conversation Amazon issued a 17% refund of the purchase price.

 

Is it safe? I'd say yes. Are you going to get a satisfactory experience as a customer who is prepared to pay the asking price, in exchange for a retail package in perfect condition? Personally I don't trust the folks at Amazon's warehouses to be careful about the merchandise, even when we're talking about 'fine writing instruments' with prices in the hundreds of dollars. My experiences buying (>$30) pens on eBay and Rakuten Global Market have been far better.

 

I haven't bought pens through Amazon. I did have problems with the delivery of a couple of CDs (the 3rd party delivery service apparently had no comprehension on how to use either a street map or something like Google Maps, and I ended up making multiple phone calls to Amazon going "Where are my CDs? You said they were being delivered within the hour at 2 PM -- it's now around 5 and I know where the local distribution warehouse is! It's just across the river from me and about a 20 minute drive in non-rush hour...." As a result, I got the purchase price refunded and that credit was then used to purchase a couple books for a scavenger hunt I was running at something in June (making it way under the budget I was allotted. :thumbup: Also had no problems this past week ordering edible gold and silver leaf for a project (third party vender, but fulfilled by Amazon) -- in fact the package came yesterday (original ETA was Friday) so the package contents are now safely in my house in a ziplock bag -- not floundering around on my porch or mailbox, getting rained on before my husband gets home from work). And the price made it eligible for free (non-Amazon Prime) shipping but was still a better deal than other vendors for the amount you got and the size of each sheet.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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