Parker Big Red Centennial For $224 On Amazon

[Penryn87]

Well my RMA has been created. Off to France goes my Duofold for an italic fine. Easy enough!

My new pelikan on the other hand.. ugh. The nib (EDIT) has some serious dryness issues beyond my current ability to rectify at the moment had some dryness issues that I managed to for now rectify with a little courage with some brass shims. Since this pen was purchased from ... Amazon Global Services UK.. I don't think Chartpak is going to be of any help. Ugh..

Parker seems to have an easy system of worldwide service.. but Pelikan?? Nope.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Penryn87

[Honeybadgers]

Do you know if pelikan requires a receipt? Not all retailers to (parker did for me but pilot and platinum and yafa and coles didn't) You could just lie.

Edited December 11, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Penryn87]

Chartpak asked for a receipt.. I sent them the amazon invoice and haven't heard back. Anyway.. it might not be necessary anymore since having a little more courage with brass shims appears to have gotten it working.. At least keep it working until I see a nibmeister at the ATL pen show.

Honestly the biggest issue was trying to get the new tine spacing to stick.. So a quick dunk in near boiling water seemed to have helped that out.. I'll see it if holds lol.

[Intensity]

Just to add, Lamy requires a receipt from an authorized vendor too, at least in USA.

[Vpen]

Well my RMA has been created. Off to France goes my Duofold for an italic fine. Easy enough!

 

My new pelikan on the other hand.. ugh. The nib (EDIT) has some serious dryness issues beyond my current ability to rectify at the moment had some dryness issues that I managed to for now rectify with a little courage with some brass shims. Since this pen was purchased from ... Amazon Global Services UK.. I don't think Chartpak is going to be of any help. Ugh..

 

Parker seems to have an easy system of worldwide service.. but Pelikan?? Nope.

I had a similar problem, I unscrewed the nib unit and cleaned with dish washing soap and it instantly became better.

[Newton Pens]

Just to add, Lamy requires a receipt from an authorized vendor too, at least in USA.

Whoa - since when? This has to be fairly recent.

[Intensity]

Whoa - since when? This has to be fairly recent.

 

Perhaps it's only for nib exchange, but it could be for service too if asking for part replacement. When I e-mailed Lamy USA / Bob Nurin a couple weeks ago about a nib exchange from a problematic EF to an oblique on a brand new pen, I got the following information (bold emphasis is mine):

 

"Can you tell me which authorized Lamy retailer you purchased your pen from?

In order to exchange a nib, we must be able to evaluate and certify that the nib is in new, unused, undamaged and unscratched condition.

If the nib meets those criteria, we can do a nib exchange.

The exchange fee is $25 plus shipping."

 

When I told him which vendor I got the pen from and whether I should forward my invoice, I was told to just do a return to the vendor instead, even though I specified that the vendor no longer had that nib type available.

 

(Also, I e-mailed about a damaged gold Z55 nib early this year and was told they don't repair those, and I could buy a new replacement for $124 + shipping.)

Edited December 12, 2019 by Intensity

[Honeybadgers]

Just got called by the retailer that my pen is done and waiting for me today. took about a month?

[Lloyd]

Just got called by the retailer that my pen is done and waiting for me today. took about a month?

I can't wait for your review of the needlepoint!

[Lloyd]

Just got called by the retailer that my pen is done and waiting for me today. took about a month?

Have you gotten it back? If so, how is it?

[WLSpec]

This offer is actually from Amazon Prime US. It's been frequently dropping to this price point since June 2019. See the green line:

Parker Big Red.png

Always temporarily out of stock at this price, but they will honor this price and ship eventually. That's how I got mine.

What is the reason for this? I've always been confused by these frequent drops on this one specific model and then the price going up so suddenly. I feel like I've seen a thread on this before but I can't find it easily... does anyone have the reason? Haven't really seen this with many other pens on Amazon (some weird stuff with Pelikans occasionally but otherwise this is all I've really seen)

[A Smug Dill]

Reason = Amazon's pricing algorithm, to which we as random consumers and casual observers aren't privy. Heaven forbid we can surmise or reverse-engineer that algorithm, so that we know just when to "hit" Amazon for the lowest possible price and maximum commercial advantage. I trust by asking for "the reason", you didn't actually mean how one could game the system as a purchaser?

 

I'm sure nobody in Amazon's management layer is deciding from time to time, arbitrarily and on a "one-off" basis in each instance, to offer specials on particular models of fountain pens (sold by Amazon US) as some sort of marketing push or stock clearance.

[WLSpec]

Reason = Amazon's pricing algorithm, to which we as random consumers and casual observers aren't privy. Heaven forbid we can surmise or reverse-engineer that algorithm, so that we know just when to "hit" Amazon for the lowest possible price and maximum commercial advantage. I trust by asking for "the reason", you didn't actually mean how one could game the system as a purchaser?

 

I'm sure nobody in Amazon's management layer is deciding from time to time, arbitrarily and on a "one-off" basis in each instance, to offer specials on particular models of fountain pens (sold by Amazon US) as some sort of marketing push or stock clearance.

Thanks. No, not trying to game the system. Pure curiosity here.

[Honeybadgers]

Have you gotten it back? If so, how is it?

 

I'm just a hair annoyed because it writes great, but has that same mini-architect effect of the lamy 14k EF. Not quite as pronounced (that nib wrote like a medium at times) but it kinda varies between a japanese EF and western EF/F.

 

If you write at a very high or very low angle it's fine, but at a normal 40-45 degree angle, you get an EF-F cross stroke and an XXF downstroke.

 

I'm probably going to have Gena Saloreno knock down that architect foot, and it should be a true XXF. For an extra $40, it'll be perfect, vut she could have just as easily done that to the F.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[Intensity]

I didn't care for the architect style grind of my new Lamy EF either, because it made my writing decidedly non-EF. I also hold my pen at a 45-degree angle. The Lamy pen is currently with a nibmeister to either (hopefully) turn into a very fine cursive italic, or if that's not possible a finer non-architect grind.

[Lloyd]

Thanks for the follow-up, HB.

[Honeybadgers]

I didn't care for the architect style grind of my new Lamy EF either, because it made my writing decidedly non-EF. I also hold my pen at a 45-degree angle. The Lamy pen is currently with a nibmeister to either (hopefully) turn into a very fine cursive italic, or if that's not possible a finer non-architect grind.

 

The parker is a little less bad but it's still very much like that in feel. I'm gonna just drop $50 and have Gena Salorino nip off the excess to get the cross stroke as tight as the down, and it'll be a perfect pen.

[Marioferu]

December 26th, this same link shows $222,77. Good deal

[A Smug Dill]

Parker in France managed to get my pen back to me on the very last day of 2019, without any communication from anyone that it was coming. It was sheer luck that I was home to receive it at the time.

I'm just a hair annoyed because it writes great, but has that same mini-architect effect of the lamy 14k EF. Not quite as pronounced (that nib wrote like a medium at times) but it kinda varies between a japanese EF and western EF/F.

If you write at a very high or very low angle it's fine, but at a normal 40-45 degree angle, you get an EF-F cross stroke and an XXF downstroke.

It seems to me that, as a consumer, I gave Parker yet another chance that it has proven not to deserve.

I asked for have the nib replaced with a Fine Italic nib, but if that nib is not available at all for Parker Duofold, then I'd take a Extra Extra Fine nib instead. The returned package contained a bunch of paperwork, including some on other customers' "repair" requests. It also contained everything that I sent Parker's distributor in Sydney in the first place — hard copies of the service request form, email correspondence, as well as the sheet of comparative writing samples I provided...

... and not a single word on which nib Parker actually fitted on my pen as replacement. There is no marking on the nib itself to tell me what it is, but the feed has "80" imprinted on its underside, which according to this (https://parkerpens.net/codekey.html) is a "Needlepoint" nib.

It writes at least at broadly as the original F nib, but wetter and, as Honeybadgers mentioned, exhibiting a little bit of "architect's nib" character — the opposite of an italic nib. That may be someone else's wet dream, but certainly not mine. As far as I'm concerned, it now has a worse nib than before.

Also, with the way it's fitted, the imprinted text on the pen barrel now faces down instead of up when I write.

The retail box, which I sent back in full including the white cardboard sleeve on the outside, now looks a little worse for wear.

I'm extremely disappointed, and while I will communicate that to Parker when its Australian distributor's office reopens in 2020, I'm not giving them yet another chance to waste my time without actually improving the nib performance (which I clearly indicated in the writing samples provided as to what I was looking for).

I don't care if Amazon's price for the pen drops to A$300; it simply isn't a pen (or brand) I will recommend to anyone in good faith. Yes, that means even if the pen could suit the particular user just fine, because I'd rather go by that user's stated requirements (instead of using the Duofold Centennial with F or Needlepoint nib as a "model" for a solution) and point them to more worthy brands such as Sailor, Platinum, or even Pilot and Lamy. I have no confidence in anything with the Parker name at all any more (and don't even mention vintage Parker pens, because "vintage" is a negative by default in my book, unless it's NOS that a collector has taken out of circulation in the market from the start and never inked).

[Driften]

I am still enjoying mine with it's M nib. Write nice, no issues with drying out, skipping, or anything else. I wish some of the other finishes were as low priced as Big Red. I would buy another one in a different finish especially if I could get a B nib standard for that price.