Pilot Pens in Europe?

[Bartimaeus]

Hi,

 

does anyone know where to buy Pilot pens in Europe? I'm specifically interested in their "Custom" line. At the Pilot Pen Shop or Andy's Pens or The Writing Desk I only find the VP, the Bamboo or the Knight.

I could of course buy in the USA, but I don't think you should pay custom for a Custom.

 

TIA and Merry Christmas!

[kernando]

Is the Pilot retail selection in Europe worse than in the US? American retailers don't get all the models through the Pilot USA distribution. I could think of Custom models 74 colorless and the 823 in amber and colorless. There could be something I haven't heard about being allowed in. Whom do you mean by Pilot Pen Shop? Americans buy secondhand or from Japan, or full retail from stores that import their own.

[Bartimaeus]

Is the Pilot retail selection in Europe worse than in the US?

Yes.

American retailers don't get all the models through the Pilot USA distribution. I could think of Custom models 74 colorless and the 823 in amber and colorless. There could be something I haven't heard about being allowed in. Whom do you mean by Pilot Pen Shop? Americans buy secondhand or from Japan, or full retail from stores that import their own.

Starting from the official Pilot site you get to Pilot Europe etc. and finally you can go to the German "Pilot Pen Shop".

http://www.pilotpen-shop.de//index.php?cat=c251_Sonstige.html

That's the pens we get besides VP, Decimo, Fermo (and some of the cheap pens).

It isn't much different for the British and French Shop - hence the question in my first post. ;-)

[kernando]

The US gets (by official retail) the Vanishing Point, Namiki Bamboo if there are any left, Pilot Knight. We don't get Capless Décimo or Capless Fermo unless something changed. At the high end there should be the Namiki branded pens.

 

As for Customs and Caplesses, do I have it right that Europe gets three models of Capless while we get one, but the US gets one color of 74 (we don't get black?) and two colors of 823 (amber regular, colorless higher price) while Europe gets none?

[TheHOINK]

Europe gets none of the customs.

 

And we only have, as fas as I know, two Décimos (pink and gray) and four VPs (red, blue, black, green) allwith rhodium OR gold trim.

 

But they sale for 200 to 250 Euros, which equals right now 285 to 325 USD, which is a lot lot more than in America.

 

The european product range is mostly half or less of the American market, even with Asian companies, but we pay 150 to 200% for what we might get.

[troglokev]

EU protectionist import duties are largely to blame. It just isn't worth their while to enter the market, when duties add 50% to the price of a pen.

[agchristie]

hmm but there are only 3% import duties on fountain pens in the EU which wouldnt explain the huge markup. Well you do have to add the usual sales tax of 19% but thats completely normal.