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Amazon Basics Fountain Pen: Harbinger Or One-Off?


Retro-user

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https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2020/2/15/first-impressions-the-amazonbasics-fountain-pen-is-surprisingly-good

 

The Gentleman Stationer has posted a review of Amazon Basics' new medium-point fountain pen, offering a largely positive assessment. I wonder how serious Amazon is about getting into the high-end stationery game? Can we expect to see equivalents of Tomoe River, Crowne Mill or Leuchtturm paper?

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https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2020/2/15/first-impressions-the-amazonbasics-fountain-pen-is-surprisingly-good

 

The Gentleman Stationer has posted a review of Amazon Basics' new medium-point fountain pen, offering a largely positive assessment. I wonder how serious Amazon is about getting into the high-end stationery game? Can we expect to see equivalents of Tomoe River, Crowne Mill or Leuchtturm paper?

 

On the paper side? Kind of doubt it, not as easily marketable as a one-off (and probably wouldn't be enough of a price drop with prime shipping to make it worth compared to getting it from the source). Amazon seems to go cheap when it comes to the consumerable side of products.

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https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2020/2/15/first-impressions-the-amazonbasics-fountain-pen-is-surprisingly-good

 

The Gentleman Stationer has posted a review of Amazon Basics' new medium-point fountain pen, offering a largely positive assessment. I wonder how serious Amazon is about getting into the high-end stationery game? Can we expect to see equivalents of Tomoe River, Crowne Mill or Leuchtturm paper?

 

Not sure I consider this "high-end" in the context of stationary or pens. This is just another garbage chinese product that amazon is slinging under their name.

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Interesting -- the F nib version is $0.12 LESS

 

Competition for the bottom end Levenger True Writer models?

Edited by BaronWulfraed
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https://www.gentlemanstationer.com/blog/2020/2/15/first-impressions-the-amazonbasics-fountain-pen-is-surprisingly-good

 

The Gentleman Stationer has posted a review of Amazon Basics' new medium-point fountain pen, offering a largely positive assessment. I wonder how serious Amazon is about getting into the high-end stationery game? Can we expect to see equivalents of Tomoe River, Crowne Mill or Leuchtturm paper?

"The Gentleman Stationer is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and its international equivalents, an affiliate advertising program designed to allow participating sites to earn from qualifying purchases made by visitors. Amazon and Amazon logos are the trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates." (see link above)

all välgång
Alexander W.–G.

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"The Gentleman Stationer is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and its international equivalents, an affiliate advertising program designed to allow participating sites to earn from qualifying purchases made by visitors. Amazon and Amazon logos are the trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates." (see link above)

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One thing, this thread wasn't started by G.S.

 

Sean :)

https://www.catholicscomehome.org/

 

"Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven." - MT. 10:32

"Any society that will give up liberty to gain security deserves neither and will lose both." - Ben Franklin

Thank you Our Lady of Prompt Succor & St. Jude.

 

 

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I am not sure that "this could easily pass to the casual observer as a Cross or Waterman pen that sells for $100 plus"

the casual observer is not usually prepared to spend $100 on a fountain pen any more (and quite a few casual observers surf taobao today...)

it does look very much like a Chinese made pen, the one thing to praise is at least they made an attempt at smoothing out the step down which in these brass pens is usually painfully sharp...

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I am not sure that "this could easily pass to the casual observer as a Cross or Waterman pen that sells for $100 plus"

the casual observer is not usually prepared to spend $100 on a fountain pen any more (and quite a few casual observers surf taobao today...)

it does look very much like a Chinese made pen, the one thing to praise is at least they made an attempt at smoothing out the step down which in these brass pens is usually painfully sharp...

 

Agreed, my first impression seeing the boxed photos is that it's not that far a cry from thinking of those Sheaffer "Learn Calligraphy" kit pens you see at the crafting store. The clip/cap alone screams that to me.

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Not sure I consider this "high-end" in the context of stationary or pens. This is just another garbage chinese product that amazon is slinging under their name.

 

Agree on it not being "high-end" but wasn't sure what to call it.

IDK Maybe call it the "journaling hobby market."

Edited by Retro-user
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Here's another review by a more impartial source. He says the link is not an affiliate. I hope the thread isn't locked.

Edited by Retro-user
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Not sure I consider this "high-end" in the context of stationary or pens. This is just another garbage chinese product that amazon is slinging under their name.

 

I kinda disagree with everything here.

 

We are far and away into the "ultra luxury" range of the hobby. If you asked the vast majority of people if $11 was a lot for a pen, they'd say that's more than they'd ever consider spending these days. Back in the 70's and even 80's, it wasn't uncommon for someone to be given a nice pen, but nowadays, people just don't want to spend more than a couple bucks, if anything at all (most people live off of free/stolen pens)

 

I got a bunch of stainless parker jotters on amazon black friday for like $4 each and gave them to all my coworkers at the ER I work at. Not a single one of them uses it at work because they're too afraid to lose a $4 pen "because it's too nice"

 

If amazonbasics starts making good FP friendly paper (I don't care about the brand name) in its notebooks as a result of this, I'd be super happy.

 

And what makes this "garbage"? The reviews I've seen have been positive, it doesn't look like any jinhao or hero that I know of with the "made in china" sanded off. It is likely chinese made, but there's nothing inherently wrong with that. The cross peerless 125 is made in china.

 

If it works well, writes well and doesn't dry out, $10 is perfectly reasonable. The only thing I don't like about it is the chrome section and lack of nib options.. I hate that design choice, as it basically makes it unusable for anyone with oily fingers.

Edited by Honeybadgers

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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I've read a number of reviews (the first was from The Gentleman Stationer) and they've both been impressed, especially for the cost - I agree very much with Honeybadgers' sentiment on this as well. I'd be tempted but alas it's not available on amazon.co.uk

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I don't have a problem with it. Almost all of my 'daily writer' fountain pens cost less than $15 new - that includes my Parker Vectors. I agree with Honeybadgers (in my own way)- the people here are frequently pen/ink snobs, disdaining any pen that costs less than $50. I'm personally baffled at those people dropping $680.00 at JetPens for a Pelikan, or $620 for a Vanishing Point.

 

The bulk of people out there that I run into are used to paying $15 (at best) for a 24 pack of Pentel pens, which they use and throw away - and they're usually bought by the office manager. The concept of paying $40 for a pen that they don't throw away, but refill, is foreign to them.

 

Right now, the biggest bottleneck to simple acceptance of fountain pens back into the market (to me) isn't so much the pen, as it is the ink. Sheaffer, while no longer being its own company, still has a huge hold on the beginner calligraphy market. However, the cartridges costs one to two dollars _each_, which means that a pack of cartridges costs more than buying a handful of coloured random gel pens.

 

If Amazon manages to be successful at selling a basic 'gift' type fountain pen, and people buy it and ink, then I'm all for it. Heck, I have a Daiso $5 pen in my car that writes very nicely. (I like exceedingly wet medium lines. It chews through cartridges pretty quickly.)

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The Pentel Fountain Pen I have that the Amazon pen reminds me of is a good pen, well made and all metal. It uses international cartridges and I have nothing bad to say about it.

My thought was simply that Amazon might have turned to Pentel to make the pens for them given that Pentel does not have much of the market for Fountain Pens in the US. It appears that Pentel focuses on its Liquid Gel Pens, it's Mechanical Pencils, it's Ballpoints and Roller Ball pens here. I remember when I was a youth that Pentel become the Mechanical Pencil of choice at my school and and later their other products took the niche above BIC for throw away ballpoints.

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Pentel mechanical pencils are still among the most popular with a huge variety of models. Graph Gears 500 and 1000 are extremely popular, P200 Sharp series is a reliable classic used for many custom pencil brands internals, and OrenzNero is the current popular high end auto advancing mechanical pencil.

“I admit it, I'm surprised that fountain pens are a hobby. ... it's a bit like stumbling into a fork convention - when you've used a fork all your life.” 

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An entry level pen that inspires "what could be" with a fountain pen, yet reinforces what is wrong with entry level:

  • Metal section
  • Thin section
  • Chinese steel nib (China is in fine print on the pocket clip, fyi)

I bought and still have a Pilot Metropolitan - nicer than this because no metal section - and used it for about 2 weeks until I started to upgrade my fountain pen collection.

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