Search the Community

I added one of these to my shopping cart, so that the total value of the products would go past a particular threshold to trigger a discount offer and qualify the order for free shipping. It wasn't exactly cheap, but also not anywhere near expensive for a 256-page A5 notebook, and it was listed at a lower price (than it is now) at the time, with further stackable discounts plus a 15% cashback offer through a third-party site in play. If it promises to be resistant to line width spreading and ink bleed-through, how bad can it be? When it finally arrived and I took it out of the consolidated shipment from AliExpress (which is getting to be messier with almost every package I receive), the notebook flopped in a way I've never seen a ≥200-page notebook with 80gsm paper flop. I didn't even have to take the item out of its (torn) plastic sleeve to know I've been scammed. (That's a downsized version of the image I sent AliExpress as supporting evidence for the dispute I raised. I got issued a full refund reasonably promptly, and they told me not to bother with returning the item in the post.) So, buyer beware.

The current version — or at least the new retail packaging — of the Indonesian-made MUJI Planted Tree Paper notebooks, which I've complained about (and got MUJI to refund the purchase price of the summarily rejected goods), However, I decided to give this other MUJI Planted Tree Paper product (Japanese Article Number 4550002571153) which the label states is “bleed proof”, a fair go all the same. A$3.95 for 200 sheets would be pretty decent, if the paper is fountain pen-friendly, or at least can take a wet line or splotch of fountain pen ink and actually resist bleed-through somehow (even if there may be feathering, show-through, etc.). The whole pack is going back to MUJI tomorrow for refund. (Disclosure: Yes, the inks used and shown here were selected from those that have proven to bleed-through on an earlier test sheet. I had to be selective in picking just a handful of them, because I also wrote the same on a sheet of Rhodia DotPad 80g/m² paper, just so I can show the MUJI staff an example of “bleed proof”, and prove that those inks are specially formulated to bleed through every type of paper they encounter.)