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I have purchased four pilot fountain pens from a Rakuten seller(Voice). It took me forever to make the decision buying the first one because lots of horror story I found while Google Rakuten's review. Rakuten is not an auction site like eBay. Nor is it like Amazon because Rakuten does not regulation sellers. If you deal with dishonest seller Rakuten won't even accept your complain, don't think about Rakuten will help you solve your problem. On the other hand there are honest sellers. If you can find them the benefit is great. Using Sailor 1911 MidSize(Japan called Standard size) 14k Music nib as an example, nib.com price is US$156. I paid "Voice"(the Rakuten seller) 8433JPY(US$72) plus 1500JPY(US$13) and received it in less than 72 hours. You do the math. :-) Let me outline how to buy from Rakuten, 1. Find a honest seller. I will only buy from Voice. You will be safe if you buy from him since I already bought four Sailor 1911 from him. BTW, I have no affiliation with Voice. (feel like I have to say it). Following is link to his pen store on Rakuten. http://global.rakuten.com/en/search/?sid=voice&tl=100926 2. Find a pen. It is almost impossible to search on Rakuten with key words. Most sellers specify the manufacture model number. 3. Make a purchase. At this point you have not committed to buy. This is so the seller can contact you and tell you the shipping cost. If you reject or not response, the deal will be off. No harm to either side. 4. Wait for seller to email you the invoice with shipping cost. 5. It is also OK to contact the seller directly and ask for pens not listed. They can buy pens from all major Japanese brands and get back to you with pricing. I purchased a bottle of Iroshizuku with the Sailor 1911 Music to save on the shipping. Voice had no problem emailing back and forth with different number of items till I finalize what I wanted. 6. Seller email you the final invoice. 7. Pay with Paypal. Do not pay with credit card directly. Paypal protect you from all fraud if you specify this is a purchase, not gift. You can get your money back if anything goes wrong. Paypal does not charge currency exchange fee nor transaction fee. These fees are usually around US$10. 8. Ask seller to confirm they've received your payment. They don't always automatically tell you they receive your money. Also, ask for EMS tracking number. Japanese EMS tracking numbers are always good, not like many Chinese tracking numbers. Hope this info helps some.