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I ordered this on ebay from this listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/134662348427 I had it shipped to a family member to bring it down, they are not familiar with this sort of thing. Has asked for a few pictures, and the thing that threw me off was the curved nib sticker on the body, so I got on a video call and thad them take a few more pics, not tech savvy either but I managed to get a few better pictures. I also have them run a phone flash light along the pen body and cap, it glowed red. To me everything seems ok except that sticker. Should I be worried? I have to just accept what it is at this point, don't want to bother them any more about this.

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie here and I'm seeking some advice regarding the authenticity of recently made 164 BP. A friend of the family is offering to sell me a 164 (2866) gifted to him upon his retirement , and the warranty states the pen was sold in April 2022, so pretty recently. Of course the pen is in mint condition, but one detail caught my attention. On the underside the clip didn't have the mention PIX but simply "Made in Germany" and "Metal". I found it of course pretty odd. Would this be a red flag or is it simply the latest version of the pen? Many thanks for your help!

I've found this paper called "Petals withered" that the seller claims is 52 gsm paper made by Tomoegawa intended for fountain pen writing, good for bringing out sheen and shimmer, etc. with many supporting pictures. In other words, per the listing online, it seems an awful lot like Tomoe River paper. Except for few things: "Petals withered" is the product name, not "Tomoe River", the packaging, including the cover sheet, has a very similar design but not the same, there is a lot of information on the actual Tomoe River cover sheet that does not appear on this one, the price is low - about $6.20 USD for 100 A4 sheets, shipped to me in Thailand, (but, then again, it's not a lot lower than the price in Japan), and the paper ships from China. While I think it is very likely that it isn't actually real Tomoegawa paper, curiosity won the day and I went ahead and ordered a pack. Does anyone have the real scoop on this paper? I'm supposed to receive it by May 17 and, when I do receive it, I will report back. (That said, Thailand has a temporary hold on international shipping as they are controlling a covid outbreak, so it may be longer than that.)

On Amazon there's a seller called "YIFAN TOYS CO,.LTD" that's selling a 10 pack of Hero 616s for a quite low price. Some commentators say they're selling counterfeits, others say they're selling authentic Hero 616s. There's no feedback rating on Amazon, so all I have to go on are the comments. And then there's "yespen" on E-Bay who's selling 10 packs of Hero 616s for about three times what the guy on Amazon i selling them for. The E-Bay guy has some negative feedback too. I would much prefer to try the lower priced amazon seller, but neither seller is looking great. I'll note for perspective on this that I once bought three Hero 616s from a U.S. vendor for $5 each, and I appear to have gotten three counterfeits there. All three pens leaked and two literally fell apart. Does anyone have any experience with either of these sellers? Yeah, I know, for some folks these are such low prices that it doesn't matter, but for me it matters. Thanks for any information that may help me on this.