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Doesn't Pilot Sell Fountain Pens Overseas?


greciacret

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I think the problem with Pilot has been laid out very well by several posters from Europe, but somehow it's still not entirely grasped what the problem is for us European consumers....

You're conflating two different things.

 

The O.P. asked a question that presupposes Pilot Corporation does not want to sell its fountain pen products outside of Japan. Of course it (still) does — on its preferred terms, not the O.P.'s, not yours, not mine — and we have proven that presupposition to be false, by showing that Pilot fountain pens are in fact being sold by authorised retailers and dealers in multiple continents.

 

As for you (and other European consumers) not being able to get what you want on your preferred terms — including pricing and breadth of the available product range — that's a different issue, and a values conflict between you and Pilot Corporation. I'm sure you really see a "problem" from your perspective and experience the resulting frustration, but that isn't a problem that other consumers have to feel they share or ought to take up the fight against. I don't want to go all "meta-discussion" here as I've been told before that it's against the rules, but if someone argues for "a perfect world" that require changes that benefit them and give them more of their way and what they want, I also need to entertain other changes that allow other entities (e.g. corporations and governments) to get more of what they want from those individuals in exchange, such that those individuals gain nothing at others' expense thus making the world less "perfect" than ever for those others. I'm not taking either your side or the corporations'; if you want a change in the way things are, I look at it from the point of view of how a different compromise could be struck so that you don't get to unilaterally "win" without forgoing or sacrificing something else you have and care about in the status quo.

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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well let's not just widely jump on the conclusions

each of the Japanese big three has a wide variety of products now you wouldnt want to see Pilot Jewelry now pop in your in country would it?, or Sailor's Robotics division.

 

all in all even if for example Pilot wants to sell its other products for example its still up for the distributor to accept what is acceptable in the local markets even if I kinda want to say buy a Pilot Automac but couldnt because I limit myself to the local markets and its an exclusive JDM product,

 

and let's not get even started with Sailor's ink line up... <_< which is like holy cow how do you even bother to find these places

Edited by Algester
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The majority of consumers will use legitimate sources if they are available, even it it's more expensive. Most people are now paying a Spotify subscription rather than pirating music. Torrenting films and TV shows dropped with the advent of Netflix, but now that every media company and their mother has decided they want their own streaming subscription service, it's on the rise again.

 

Most EU consumers will prefer CultPens or Fontoplumo to Tokyo Quill, which they'll prefer to "J Random Japan seller" on amazon or ebay, which they'll prefer to a package reshipper. It's Pilot's policies that drive them down that chain, not cost primarily, even though the costs suck - it's actually not much more expensive to order from a USA retailer and pay VAT, customs and transatlantic shipping than to buy from a European retailer.

 

It's puzzling that the eu distributor only sells one colour each of the custom 74 and custom heritage 92. Surely they've realised it's an easy way to sell multiples of the same pen to the same customer?

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Every time this has been brought up to the Pilot USA distributor, they say that Pilot Japan decides which models & colors each distributor can provide to each global region.

 

It seems to me that this is just the way they want to do business, and they aren't going to change just because the Internet makes it easy to buy things overseas via mail order.

 

And so it's up to us to be resourceful if we want to buy pens that aren't normally available in our region, regardless of the wishes of the parent company.

Scientia potentia est.

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I own a Pilot Custom 74, like it, and would be interested to try out the 742/743/823/912. But if Pilot, for whatever reason, doesn't bring these within my (European) reach, as seems to be the case, so be it. In that case my curiosity moves on to other interesting brands and pens. For me it's that simple.

Italix Captain's Commission F – Italix Parson's Essential F – Kaweco Dia2 EF – Pilot Custom 74 SF – Sailor 1911 Simply Black F – TWSBI Classic EF – Rotring Altro F

 

“As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome’: You may definitely hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’”

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I own a Pilot Custom 74, like it, and would be interested to try out the 742/743/823/912. But if Pilot, for whatever reason, doesn't bring these within my (European) reach, as seems to be the case, so be it. In that case my curiosity moves on to other interesting brands and pens. For me it's that simple.

 

I live far from a metropolitan area. Many of my purchases, pens and inks included, are made over the 'net. Retailers don't bring these things within my reach either. The pens you mention are easily purchased from Japan in the same way.

Add lightness and simplicate.

 

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