Uni Jetstream Hybrid Ink In A Parker G2 Refill - Now In The U.s.

[Drone]

Merry Christmas Everyone,

 

The Uni (Mitsubishi Pencil Co., Ltd.) SXR-600-X series Parker G2 compatible refills with Jetstream hybrid ink are appearing in the U.S. at the usual places. Amazon has them available in 0.38, 0.5, and 0.7 mm tip sizes for $9.99 for a four (4) pack. JetPens just added them to its online inventory in 0.5 and 0.38 mm tip sizes for $9.75 each. Both are black ink only.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L8MSQNR

https://www.jetpens.com/Uni-SXR-600-Jetstream-Ballpoint-Pen-Refills-Regular-Size/ct/5457

Yup you read that right, JetPens is almost 400% more expensive than Amazon. JetPens is usually over-priced, but not by this much. Maybe the new refills on Amazon are fake? Hmmm, it says "Sold by Mitsubishi Pencil and Fulfilled by Amazon" on the Amazon page and the Mitsubishi Pencil vendor page on Amazon looks legit. But you never know when it comes to Amazon!

The 0.5mm and 0.7mm have part numbers SXR-600-05 and SXR-600-07 respectively. I don't know what the part number is for the 0.38 mm tipped version.

It appears this refill is intended to fit a high-end Uni "Jetstream Prime Twist" ballpoint pen that retails on Amazon for $44.97 and comes in a fancy black gift box with a red band and gold seal bearing the Uni logo.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7YJFZK

I tossed a sawbuck at Amazon for a pack of four 0.7 mm Jetstream Parker G2 refills. We'll see how that turns out in two days.

Personally I prefer the likes of a Monteverde ceramic rollerball in Parker G2 format over anything else as far as the writing experience goes. However the rollerballs have two disadvantages: 1. They tend to leak, especially with pressure changes (e.g. when flying) and 2. rollerball ink is not as forgery-resistant as the Jetstream hybrid ink.

 

A pic linked from the Amazon sale page. Beauty:

 

 

Here's a YouTube video from Sept. 2018 of another fellow reviewing this refill:

 

Have Fun, David in Florida

[Bill P]

David:

 

Thanks for posting regarding Amazon.

 

Several months ago when the Uni SXR-600 was first introduced and it like $8.50/one refill on ebay, I emailed Jet Pens and asked if they will carry the SXR-600...they replied that they had no plans to carry it.

 

I refused to pay $8.50 for ONE refill on ebay.

 

Yesterday, I received an email from Jet Pens Customer Service saying they were now carrying the SXR-600...went to the Jet Pens website, $9.75 for ONE refill...I wrote Jet Pens back and told them thanks for the Excellent follow-up, but at $9.75 I won't be purchasing any.

 

And then hours later your Post appeared...PERFECT!! I have already ordered from Amazon and look forward to receiving them...at a MUCH MUCH BETTER price than Jet Pens or Ebay....4 for $9.99 on Amazon vs $9.75 or $8.50 for ONE at Jet Pens and Ebay.

 

Thank-you David.

 

Bill P.

[MYU]

I wish they'd take a cue from Pentel... I bought a 12 pack of the XLRN3 fine point refills for $10. Anyway, will look forward to seeing some reviews of this new Jetstream refill. Thanks for the heads up!

[Drone]

Well, Amazon says my Jetstream Parker G2 4-pack will arrive today (Friday, 28-Dec-2018) by 8PM EST at my local Amazon Locker. (Yeah right, Amazon is running around 10% failure rate on delivery to my local locker, I expect that failure rate to climb over the holidays.)

Anyway, yesterday afternoon I received an Email message from my local Office Depot store with the title: "Blowout Sale!". In it was a three-pack of three-color (red, blue, black) 0.7mm Uni Jetstream RT retractable pens for just $1.94 (usual price is $10.49). That's a steal indeed! Since all indications I've seen are that all the Jetstream pens regardless of the refill size/type have the same hybrid ink in them, if I have time I'll stop by my local Office Depot and pick these Jetstream RT pens up for comparison with the Parker G2 sized Jetstream refills coming via Amazon.

Note however in my experience with Office Depot/OfficeMax Email ads, if it seems too good to be true it probably isn't true once you get into the store. I bought a Canon PG-204XL inkjet cartridge at an OfficeMax store two days ago and the price off the shelf was around two bucks more than the price listed online at the Office Depot/OfficeMax Web site. The clerk at the register looked at the Web page on my hand phone and just took the price difference off my purchase right at the register. Sheesh it's only two bucks, but multiply that by a million victims and Office Depot is making a lot of money with their nefarious pricing.

Here's a lousy image scrape from the Office Depot Email I received with the $1.94 Jetstream RT 3-pack pen offer. What do you think - too good to be true?

 

P.S., I noticed an error on my O.P., JetPens carries the 0.7 and 0.5mm Parker G2 Jetstream refills, not the 0.38mm tip size. Amazon carries all three tip sizes.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Drone

[Drone]

David:

 

Thanks for posting regarding Amazon.

 

Several months ago when the Uni SXR-600 was first introduced and it like $8.50/one refill on ebay, I emailed Jet Pens and asked if they will carry the SXR-600...they replied that they had no plans to carry it.

 

I refused to pay $8.50 for ONE refill on ebay.

 

Yesterday, I received an email from Jet Pens Customer Service saying they were now carrying the SXR-600...went to the Jet Pens website, $9.75 for ONE refill...I wrote Jet Pens back and told them thanks for the Excellent follow-up, but at $9.75 I won't be purchasing any.

 

And then hours later your Post appeared...PERFECT!! I have already ordered from Amazon and look forward to receiving them...at a MUCH MUCH BETTER price than Jet Pens or Ebay....4 for $9.99 on Amazon vs $9.75 or $8.50 for ONE at Jet Pens and Ebay.

 

Thank-you David.

 

Bill P.

 

Hi Bill, Let's hope the Amazon refills aren't FAKES. Remember, these G2 Jetstream refills have been out in Japan since early 2018 and they're now only starting to appear here in the U.S. That's plenty of time for the Chinese to make a generic G2 refill look like the real Jetstream G2 refill and take advantage of high introductory prices in the U.S. from the likes of JetPens. All they have to do is load the Chinese refill with generic liquid/gel ink and change the sponge or screen-print mask to say "Jetstream" like the original. At that point it's going to be difficult for the casual user to tell the two apart

[Bill P]

No they aren't fakes.

 

I received mine yesterday from Amazon...

 

The seller is " uni - Mitsubishi Pencil Co Ltd...fulfilled by Amazon."

 

The boxes the SXR-600's came in all say Mitsubishi Pencil Co Ltd...with the SKU etc...the refills themselves also look and write like the real deal.

 

So...Amazon IS the place to buy them...again Thank-you david...

[Drone]

Hello All,

Today Amazon made good on the delivery of four (4) uni model SXR-600-07 0.7mm Parker G2 compatible refills containing uni's Jetstream type hybrid black ink. Here's the link, $9.99 for the 4-pack with Prime "free" shipping:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L8MSQNR

Here is a picture of the 125mm x 75mm package, front then back:

 

 

 

 

The reference to "JETSTREAM PRIME Twist Mechanism" on the sticker is referring to the relatively new Parker G2 compatible pen from uni/Mitsubishi (see my O.P. for more on this.)

Inside the package was a zip-loc bag containing the four refills plus a red colored "uni" brand sticker. The sticker is a bonus, there was no mention of it on the Amazon sale page.

Here are the refills:

 

And here is the 37mmW x 102mm "uni" sticker that came in the zip-loc bag of refills. The sticker has a matte finish and feels to me like vinyl, but it has no vinyl odor:

 

For comparison/verification purposes today I purchased a set of three brand new Uni Jetstream RT retractable pens, each containing a uni SXR-7 0.7mm hybrid ink refill. The package of three Jetstream RT pens was on sale at Office Depot for $1.94 USD (usual price $10.49). The package contains one of each color pen: red, blue, and black. Obviously I will use the black 0.7mm Jetstream RT pen for comparison with the 0.7mm black Parker G2 sized Jetstream refill. I was lucky to get the 3-pack of Jetstream RT pens from my local Office Depot, there was only one pack left and it was buried at the back of a wrong peg. Here is the Office Depot receipt for the 3-pack of pens:

 

 

Closely examining the SXR-600-07 Parker G2 sized refills, this is what's printed on the barrel:

JETSTREAM
uni SXR-600-07 JAPAN
JETSTREAM
ISO 12757-2 G2 [F] 18DK

Note: The [F] mark is actually a capital letter "F" surrounded by a line-box.

Note: ISO 12757-2:1998 (last reviewed 2015) "Ball point pens and refills -- Part 2: Documentary use (DOC)" seems to be the International Organization for Standardization's specification (in-part) for the generic Parker style G2 refill. I can't be sure though, like most things that get "Standardized" the information is locked up behind a CHF 38.00 ($38.61 USD) per-download paywall. Anyway, here's the Web page:

https://www.iso.org/standard/23718.html

I inserted a randomly selected SXR-600-07 refill into a Pelikan K600 ballpoint pen and compared how it wrote with the generic Jetstream RT pen. I used the Pelikan K600 pen because it was handy. The K600 ballpoint is a poorly designed pen - it's way too back heavy because of the metal twist mechanism.

Both pens wrote pretty-much the same to me. If I had to nit-pick I'd say the SXR-600-07 refill was slightly smoother than the Jetstream RT pen, but any difference is very hard to detect. I tried smudging and attacking the writing samples with water and 91% isopropyl alcohol. Both inks were fairly resilient in the same way.

Here's a writing sample:

 

 

It is my conclusion that the SXR-600-07 refills I received from Amazon are likely not fakes. Either that or the fakes are so good it probably doesn't matter. The Parker G2 compatible refills behaved just as I expect from a 0.7mm tipped Jetstream refill of any type. It is good to have this option available in the G2 size. Keep in-mind my tests were brief; only time will tell if the new refills hold up under use. Also remember, the test sample size is very small and tightly grouped temporally.

 

Now if only uni/Mitsubishi would release some G2 Jetstream refills in blue, then I could switch to them as my go-to ink for signing checks and contracts.

Note: As stated in my original post, in order to avoid being ripped off be careful where you buy these G2 sized Jetstream refills. Amazon's price is one quarter the price of a U.S. based vendor like JetPens. If these refills prove popular, the price should stabilize and availability will improve.

Have Fun David in Florida

Edited December 29, 2018 by Drone

[Drone]

No they aren't fakes.

 

I received mine yesterday from Amazon...

 

The seller is " uni - Mitsubishi Pencil Co Ltd...fulfilled by Amazon."

 

The boxes the SXR-600's came in all say Mitsubishi Pencil Co Ltd...with the SKU etc...the refills themselves also look and write like the real deal.

 

So...Amazon IS the place to buy them...again Thank-you david...

 

Thanks for the update Bill. I agree with you, the Amazon refills are not fakes. Take a look at my review here. How does it compare with what you received? Rgds, David

[Bill P]

I purchased the .5 and the .7....I have found the .5 to be too fine a line for my uses....The .7 works well, is smooth, and put down a nice line for me....

 

Upon sending my reply to Jet Pens regarding their price of $9.95 for ONE refill...they replied saying that as a result of my communication they lowered the price of the SXR-600 refill...I checked the Jet Pens website and they lowered the price for ONE from $9.95 to $7.25 for ONE refill...as compared to Amazon for $9.98 for FOUR Refills...

 

Bill P.

Edited December 30, 2018 by Bill P

[nyarla33]

I really hope these will be available for purchase soon in Europe with a decent price.

I like the Schmidt Easyfloww 9000 refills but they don't make them with an F tip and I've found that Parker Quinkflow refills are somehow patchy.

Edited January 4, 2019 by nyarla33

[Mongoosey]

Very Happy to see these on amazon finally at this price

 

Saved me a bunch of money.

 

And I love these refills. Besides my fountain pens (Rangas for the most part) I do use a Parker Jotter ballpoint as an EDC, as well as rOtring Tikky Ballpoints I find uber comfortable.

 

I do use Schmidt Easyflow9000's and love them,...

 

...but they bleed through my Tomoe River Paper! But the Uni Hybrid Jetstream Inks are much more tame and acceptable.

 

In fact I've kind of fallen in love with my rOtring_Tikky-SXR-600-07 combo in my Nanami Notebooks and have been wanting to stock up on these refills for quite some time.

[nyarla33]

On Amazon.com the price is now $19.99 for a four (4) pack.

And now this item does not ship to Europe.

 

I'm glad I ordered a pack when it cost $9.99. Though I had to add $4.61 for international shipping, the total was still fair (the same amount for 3 Parker Quinkflow refills here).

[Mongoosey]

Lucky find!

 

Glad I bought 3 packs