"italianpens" On Ebay - What's Your Experience?

[trickydicky]

Typo ... I meant ID cards. I had one missing and one pencilled in with the number (old number crossed out), which was apparently a problem with the distributor. doesn't make you feel good about the purchase.

[MikaLa]

http://domn.sopca.com/files/No_Soup_For_You.png

 

"No soup for you ! For one year !" :roflmho:

 

Seriously now, I bought a Visconti Homo Sapiens from him about 5 months ago, all was fine.

 

I won a Homo Sapiens from him for 404USD. Having seen this thread I am now anxiously waiting for it to arrive :hmm1:

[asiow]

My HomoSapien came after 3 weeks and it did not have the sweating problem.

The Pallidium nib was as expected - great writer

 

There was once my Delta took more than 3 weeks to arrive and when i sent him a msg

he promptly replied that he was waiting for the Delta FP to come instead as the one he

had in stock was a mistaken Rollerball version.

That came after another 2 weeks, all well and good

[Caneta]

I have bought several pens from this seller with no particular problems. Now states UK excluded from "worldwide" postage,seems odd?

 

update

exclusion list may be a mistake as i have just emailed seller to ask about shipping to UK and they have replied quoting the usual international shipping cost.

Edited March 6, 2011 by Caneta

[mississippimark]

Just bought a Vicsonti Homo Sapiens from him for a great price. It arrived within 5 days. Couldn't be happier.

[garm]

Bought a Visconti Kakadu, no problems, fast delivery. Got the nib I wanted.

[Pharmer]

I was bidding on an item from Italinapens today and noticed something strange. Most of the people bidding on items from this seller have a very high percentage of bids to this seller. For instance the high current bidder has bid on 104 items and 100% are with that seller. Another bidder has bid on 383 items and 67% are from this seller. Many more are between 70% and 98%. I find this very fishy and am inclined to believe that he/she uses shills to increase bids. Why not just put a reserve for gosh sakes. Seems underhanded to me.

 

Rob

[wspohn]

I was bidding on an item from Italinapens today and noticed something strange. Most of the people bidding on items from this seller have a very high percentage of bids to this seller. For instance the high current bidder has bid on 104 items and 100% are with that seller. Another bidder has bid on 383 items and 67% are from this seller. Many more are between 70% and 98%. I find this very fishy and am inclined to believe that he/she uses shills to increase bids. Why not just put a reserve for gosh sakes. Seems underhanded to me.

 

I have no idea if he is or isn't indulging in that sort of activity, which while it would save him a higher fee for having a reserve, would also be against Ebay rules.

 

It really doesn't matter, though because if you bid the way you should, at the last possible minute, he wouldn't have the chance to bump the bid along the way. If there has been shill bidding earlier in the auction to try an move some other bidder along, you just have to decide at the end of the auction whether the then current price is worth it to you.

 

There are a couple of sellers in Thailand that routinely do this and Ebay doesn't seem to catch on, so I just lay in wait and hit it at the last minute. If they do happen to have time to stick in a bid after mine, I get a second chance offer which I invariably decline. Ebay is apparently not going to do anything about sellers like this, so it is up to you to bid so that you don't allow them to take advantage.

 

Basically, if this sort of thing horrifies you, stay off Ebay. If it doesn't, and you want to bid, make the system work in your favour.

[Pharmer]

What you say is very true. I am not that experienced of an eBay buyer. I usually just "buy now" for things I may find at a good price. In the end the pen I was bidding on went to someone who did just what you suggested from what I can tell from the bid history. For the price he paid I would have spent another $25 and ordered from Bryant.

 

Rob

[Pharmer]

What you say is very true. I am not that experienced of an eBay buyer. I usually just "buy now" for things I may find at a good price. In the end the pen I was bidding on went to someone who did just what you suggested from what I can tell from the bid history. For the price he paid I would have spent another $25 and ordered from Bryant.

 

Rob

[ianyer]

Shill bidding can only work if you are influenced by other bidders. If you set your maximum price and stick to it, shill bidders will never ruin an auction for you. I agree that you should wait until the last minute. If the price is over your maximum at that time then don't bid. If it isn't, take a shot but stick to your maiximum if you are outbid. There is a tendancy to think an item is your only shot at getting it. The truth is that there are usually many opportunities to get a particular item and with patience you may get it at the price you want.

[Cliff O]

I have a search set up with "-italianpens". And that's the ONLY method I use to find my pens. I wont bid on anything from a dishonest seller. I'd rather pay $100 more and get it from somebody honest/reputable. And by the way, this seller and erfobay are very similar (ie shill bidders) and he's also filtered out of my searches.

Edited March 22, 2011 by Cliff O

[amble63]

After reading this thread, I made my first purchase from italianpens with more than a little trepidation. But the transaction went very smoothly and I repeated the experience a couple more times. Each transaction has gone equally smoothly and I have acquired nice pens at a very fair price. He even left me positive feedback! Just lucky I guess.

[yamborghini]

I know this is an old thread, but I'll leave my experience here for anyone searching it up like I am now.

 

I've won 2 auctions, a visconti divina and a visconti homo sapiens within a week of each other. Lou's dispatch date is said to be up to 10 days and apparently the Divina is in back order. I asked for an invoice over ebay explaining that I had won 2 items and if combined postage was ok and he sent me an invoice with MORE postage than I should have paid. Subsequently I gave him an email to his website email address, and he replied promptly and reduced the invoice to $10 for shipping. I had to ask twice essentially.

 

As I haven't received the pens yet, I can't comment on them, but he does seem rather dodgey and is bad at communication. Oh well. I can't complain for the price. A brand new Divina and Homosapiens for 640 AUD shipped is quite good. He seemed polite though so basically keep your tone neutral and respectful and he'll reply.

 

I'll update this post when I receive my pens.

[pelicanachic]

I purchased aurora sole from him 5 years ago.

 

he said it was brand new but when I received the pen, there was ink residue on the cap and the nib and a crack was found on the barrel end.

 

I never bid on his item since then.

[sarahfar]

I recently bought a Visconti Romanic from him The price was absolutely spectacular it was a very smooth transaction. I would buy from him again if Bryant doesn't have something and the price is right.

[yamborghini]

Just an update for my post. I received both pens. The Homo Sapien was perfect, the Visconti Divina has a loose filling system This is really dissappointing.

 

I'm going to go to my local pen shop to see if they can fix it. If not its going to cost me $45 for postage for the pen to be sent to Visconti for warranty. Either way its gonna cost slightly more. It is however still less by about 50 bucks than most places around.

 

 

made a little vid for Lou. Hopefully I can convince him to just pay for it to be repaired. It took about a month to get here. I really don't want to wait any longer.

[True North]

Shipping charges are high but my experience was very straightforward and positive. I recently won a Delta Via Veneto for a very reasonable amount, which could be matched by any means by any other online or store vendors. Shipment was reasonably fast and the product was delivered as advertised. I have learned not to bid on any of his reserve items because the cost is too high. I only bid on some of his non-reserve items.

[kauloltran]

This guys auctions reek of shill bidding. I've reported this to Ebay. Doubt they'll do anything though.

 

Do you have any evidence? Just because you don't get to have the pen at rip off prices doesn't mean you can freely slander the seller. I am a frequent bidder in his auctions, since I am only interested in Italian pens. As a result, my bid percentage is more than 98% with this seller. If you study his auctions, he has the reserved bars set up for most high priced items.

Edited February 24, 2012 by kauloltran

[Doost]

Just an update for my post. I received both pens. The Homo Sapien was perfect, the Visconti Divina has a loose filling system This is really dissappointing.

 

I'm going to go to my local pen shop to see if they can fix it. If not its going to cost me $45 for postage for the pen to be sent to Visconti for warranty. Either way its gonna cost slightly more. It is however still less by about 50 bucks than most places around.

 

 

made a little vid for Lou. Hopefully I can convince him to just pay for it to be repaired. It took about a month to get here. I really don't want to wait any longer.

 

First time I bought Aurora Europe Pen set (fountain pen with F nib and ballpoint), the seller send me Afrika instead (with M nib). I have to send it back and I decided to change pen to Visconti Divina (Afrika was too short for me).

The seller send me Visconti Divina and it has the same problem - loose filling system. (the filling system works, it's just uncomfortable to use it)

I Live in Russia and I didn't send the pen back because it will take too much time.

 

Some time ago I won an auction for Visconti Homo Sappiens and I've just got it. The pen is broken! It has no rod in power filler so I cant use it at all... I suppose that I will send it back for exchanging. But it's my money and time (It take more than a month to deliver pen from Russia to USA)

 

So no one of 3 my purchases was satisfactory. There are a lot of auctions from this seller, but I will no take part in anymore, there's no warranty the pen will be good.