Which Of These 2 Pencases Should I Get? Same Seller, Different Price

October 8, 2019

Alright, so originally this was going to be a question for all of you fine people here. Which one should I buy? I've decided to go with the expensive one. I've done some research and this is what I came up with:

https://www.amazon.de/F%C3%BCllfederhalter-Tintenroller-PU-Leder-Stifte-Braun/dp/B07VCRK3MG/ref=sr_1_75?keywords=case&m=A1ZKU0MQBS8OBB&qid=1570490073&s=merchant-items&sr=1-75

https://www.amazon.de/Federm%C3%A4ppchen-Rindsleder-verschiedene-Stifte-Kaffeebraun/dp/B07VCPK6K6/ref=sr_1_11?keywords=case&m=A1ZKU0MQBS8OBB&qid=1570490106&s=merchant-items&sr=1-11

One is about 22 euros, the other is 34 euros. I've seen these go for 14 euros.

I already have the 34 euros one in black. I showed it to a few people and they said it is good quality. It's supposed to be cowhide. I think it's pressed leather and just a faux leather on the outside.

The only difference I see is one is PU leather and the other is apparently cowleather. I really only care about protecting my pens. Would the cowleather be better?

The above quote was my original question. I was mostly confused about why these 2 identical cases have a different price. The only difference I could see was that the zipper on the expensive one has a little lanyard attached to it. More than 10 euros for a little piece of rope?

So I already have the expensive one in black. I like it. It's nice. People tell me it's nice. But people tend to tell you stuff is nice because that's what people do...

Then I looked at the other amazons: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowhide-Leather-Fountain-Various-Display/dp/B07VHT8VBK and https://www.amazon.com/Cowhide-Leather-Fountain-Various-Display/dp/B07VBF5HK9/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

This looks NOTHING like the case I have. Most of the reviews are for the PU leather case, the cheaper one.

The first thing I noticed, besides the zipper thing, is that the cheaper one has an edgy spine, kind of like as if there's badly folded cardboard under the spine. My expensive one has a smooth spine.

The second thing I noticed was in one reviewer's pictures, the elastic bands had been destroyed. I immediately checked my case to see if I could wear them down, stretch them out, etc. No such thing on my case. In fact, the PU leather case has simple bands while the cowhide case has bands that seem to have a reinforcement on the sides.

The third thing I noticed is that the reviewer pictures show a badly glued together inner divider. I looked at my case and saw a nice smooth divider. Then I noticed the cheap ones have a huge bezel/seam sort of thing while the expensive one doesn't. I can see that seam causing microscratches. Maybe it's just me.

The last thing I noticed is that the reviewers of the cheap one pretty much always store ballpoints and cheapo pens in there while I have Lamy's, TWSBI's, Parkers, Moonmen, JInhaos, Viscontis, Schaeffers and Pilots in there. Allow me my smugness when I say that these are not the type of people who tend to go for quality.

So if I get one, I'll get the expensive one because it seems to be much nicer than the cheap one. I'm actually holding off on ordering it because I want to see how my current black cowhide case evolves over the next few months.

So I hope my odyssey into which pen case to get was helpful.

If anyone knows of good large pencases in Europe, preferably good quality, please let me know. I don't like paying the import duties. Customs generally tends to make me pay even more. I rarely get lucky. So I'm trying to find something from within Europe.