Pilot Varsity

[jsonewald]

This is purely an observation and question that has been commented on before, but, how can Pilot Varisty FP's be so good for $3? My 13 y/o daughter jsut handed me 3 of them that she found in a purse long abandoned. Judging by the body style two of them have been hibernating for about 3 years. All of them wrote instantly, and are really smooth. They are more reliable and smoother than some of my expensive, name brand pens. Some times I wonder what the use of buying a $150 pen is when I can get a $3 throwaway that writes as well.

 

(Edited typo)

Edited January 6, 2007 by jsonewald

[jd50ae]

scary ain't it....... :blink:

[guy]

Yep... I have loads of them around the house and at work.

They are my equivalent to disposable ballpoints. I have one in the car and even during the hot summer and the cold winter it never ever fails to start and work well.

 

For UK members, these are called "Pilot V-Pen" and are for sale in all PaperChase outlets.

[Col]

Some times I wonder what the use of buying a $150 pen is when I can get a $3 throwaway that writes as well.

Ah - but would you trade your $150 pen for 50 disposable Pilots? Depends on your life expectancy, I suppose.

 

---

Col

[BillTheEditor]

1. Every Varsity is identical to every other Varsity. No tooling changes, no variation in process, no changes in design. Saves lots and lots of money, makes for a wonderful ROI on their capital plant investment.

 

2. Pilot makes them by the millions and millions. After a while, even American manufacturers would get good at it.

 

3. The Japanese learned Statistical Quality Control from American masters (who were ignored in the United States ). Making millions and millions of the identical item is the perfect application for SQC. The Japanese are now the masters of that science (it is not an "art").

 

4. Because all the millions and millions of Varsity pens are identical, Pilot can buy the materials in mass quantities, inspect all incoming materials to ensure they conform to the same unvarying standards, and you better believe this brings their raw materials costs down to as little as possible.

 

All of this means Pilot can sell a reliable, if not high-quality, pen for $3 and make money on it.

Edited January 6, 2007 by BillTheEditor

[guitarman19853]

I find that they are hit or miss as far as writing goes. Maybe my first one was excessively wet, but I liked that style better than the drier writing ones i have now.

[marklavar]

This is purely an observation and question that has been commented on before, but, how can Pilot Varisty FP's be so good for $3? My 13 y/o daughter jsut handed me 3 of them that she found in a purse long abandoned. Judging by the body style two of them have been hibernating for about 3 years. All of them wrote instantly, and are really smooth. They are more reliable and smoother than some of my expensive, name brand pens. Some times I wonder what the use of buying a $150 pen is when I can get a $3 throwaway that writes as well.

 

(Edited typo)

Yep, good pens. And they work fine, as long as you're happy to use disposable sticks of plastic with pieces of steel on the end.

 

For many people plain functionality is not the main consideration when buying a fountain pen - and thank goodness for that!

[marklavar]

I find that they are hit or miss as far as writing goes.  Maybe my first one was excessively wet, but I liked that style better than the drier writing ones i have now.

Interesting. I've seen these pens in white barrels and grey ones. The white barrelled ones seem to have a less rounded point than the grey ones and are not as smooth.

 

The nibs are on the fine side of medium, like all Japanese pens, which is good for some users and not for others, and it is true that the quality varies from pen to pen. I have also found that the blue ink pens tend to write better than black ink ones - weird.

 

Also - they might be $3 each in the US, but in our poor overcrowded little island the price is around $5.

Edited January 7, 2007 by marklavar

[HDoug]

This is purely an observation and question that has been commented on before, but, how can Pilot Varisty FP's be so good for $3? My 13 y/o daughter jsut handed me 3 of them that she found in a purse long abandoned. Judging by the body style two of them have been hibernating for about 3 years. All of them wrote instantly, and are really smooth. They are more reliable and smoother than some of my expensive, name brand pens. Some times I wonder what the use of buying a $150 pen is when I can get a $3 throwaway that writes as well.

 

(Edited typo)

Yep, good pens. And they work fine, as long as you're happy to use disposable sticks of plastic with pieces of steel on the end.

 

For many people plain functionality is not the main consideration when buying a fountain pen - and thank goodness for that!

True. But what bugs some of us is how a $3 pen can have a functional superiority over a more expensive one. We'd expect an expensive pen to have AT LEAST the same functionality of a cheap one. Behind all this is the suspicion that our pockets are being picked. Well, okay, not MY pocket, but say... yours.

 

Doug

[marklavar]

I don't believe that these cheap Pilots are any better or any worse than more expnsive pens. They work OK, write acceptably well, but I wouldn't even begin to compare them to the best pens in my collection - not by a longshot.

Infact I cannot think of any expensive pen I own which writes worse than a Pilot Varsity - maybe as good as, but not actually worse.

Edited January 7, 2007 by marklavar

[jsonewald]

It appears that some may have the impression that I think the Varsity is just as good as a $150 pen overall. I don't think that. My collection has pens ranging from a few dollars to some in the several hundred dollar range. I enjoy using most of them, regardless of their price. Given that the fundamental function of a pen is to be a writing tool though, it often strikes me how good the performance of the Varsity is relative to pens that cost a hundred times as much. The overall writing experience with most of my good pens is better, and I will continue to buy more.

[WilliamK]

Where can you buy these in the US? I've seen them neither at Office Depot nor at Walgreen's, and both stores used to stock them.

 

OfficeDepot.com has them for $3.50/per, but having to order them is kind of a drag.

 

I used a couple of them several years ago and was kind of disappointed. For $3, they were acceptable, but if I had paid more, I would have been irritated. I'm willing to give them another shot.

[helius]

I've had a couple of bad copies, but most of them have been surprisingly good. As far as writing characteristics go, they actually come out better than the average pen in my collection.

 

My only problem with them is that I wish they'd modify the nib/ink so that all the colours flow at an even rate. I've found the purple (and to a lesser extent the turqoise) pens tend to much wetter than the black and blue.

[brh]

Does anyone happen to know if the blues are eradicable?

 

-b

[marklavar]

Does anyone happen to know if the blues are eradicable?

 

-b

Do you mean washable? There is no such word as 'eradicable'.

 

The Varsity comes in two shades of blue - a light blue and a dark one. The light one is washable, but I don't know about the dark blue one.

Edited January 7, 2007 by marklavar

[jd50ae]

Where can you buy these in the US? I've seen them neither at Office Depot nor at Walgreen's, and both stores used to stock them.

 

OfficeDepot.com has them for $3.50/per, but having to order them is kind of a drag.

 

I used a couple of them several years ago and was kind of disappointed. For $3, they were acceptable, but if I had paid more, I would have been irritated. I'm willing to give them another shot.

I have seen only two 3 pen sets in all my searching for FPs and ink. They were at 2 different Office Depots, one set each, and were almost hidden amongst the (shudder) ball points.

Edited January 7, 2007 by jd50ae

[pigpogm]

Do you mean washable? There is no such word as 'eradicable'.

 

Yes, there is. It's from the root 'eradicate'...

 

http://www.answers.com/eradicable&r=67

[guitarman19853]

I actually did do a water test with all 3 of my pilot varsities (Black, Blue, and Purple) and all 3 washed completely off the page. these are by no means permanant ink. I never posted it because in the end i decided that people probably wouldn't have been interested

[Emlee]

Yep... I have loads of them around the house and at work.

They are my equivalent to disposable ballpoints.  I have one in the car and even during the hot summer and the cold winter it never ever fails to start and work well.

 

For UK members, these are called "Pilot V-Pen" and are for sale in all PaperChase outlets.

Me too... these are all over my desk so that when my pens "walk" away, i don't care. Interesting though... they don't "walk" the way my BPs used to... I think US students are afraid of them!

 

I don't notice too much variation in flow based on color. I tend toward the purple ones but because i purchase them in the local Staples store (a blue, black, & purple for US$6), i have just as many blue & black as i have purple. Just acquired my first pink & turquoise, though.

[brh]

Do you mean washable? There is no such word as 'eradicable'.

 

Yes, there is. It's from the root 'eradicate'...

 

http://www.answers.com/eradicable&r=67

Thank you. 

 

And yes, I could actually care less if they're 'washable' or not, I was curious to know if anyone had tried eradicating the ink with one of those blue eradicator pens.. What would also help is if anyone knows if the normal blue Varsity is the same ink as blue Namiki ink in a bottle.. Any takers?

 

-brian