Pilot Disappearing From Amazon

[Olya]

I have noticed for about a month now that Pilot pens are disappearing from Amazon, on the German (.de) version, I checked the US version (.com) about a week ago and everything seemed normal there.

 

When eg looking for "Pilot Custom Heritage 91" only rest stock pops up, about three pens (eg medium, fine and fm) and each has an availability of about 2-5, in yama budo only (rest is either pulled or sold out).

 

Does anyone know what this is about?

Have I missed something? ie is something happeing that everyone knew about, but me?

[timarti]

I just got a Namiki branded Pilot Falcon broad nib from Amazon.ca. However, when I went to the Pilot website to look something up about the pen, I could not find any mention of the Falcon on any English language Pilot website in North America, Europe or Asia, except one red metal Falcon on the Australian site. Wondering if the Falcon is being discontinued?

[Algester]

stuff come and go so maybe lost of listing due to stocks CH91 is after all an import model

for the case of the falcon it is due to the fact it's called Elabo in Asia (mainly in Japan) but the US calls it Falcon this should not be confused with the flexier nib by Pilot that also goes by the same name Falcon

http://www.pilot.co.jp/products/pen/fountain/fountain/elabo/

as such is the case

Edited August 1, 2017 by Algester

[deacondavid]

If Pilot were offering its entire line in the United States I would never need to consider ordering from Amazon. As it is, they don't, so I have had to turn to Amazon to get things that the American retailers are not permitted to stock (the Custom 742, 743, the 823 in colors other than Amber, etc.).

 

A quick check of Amazon tonight did not reveal a shortage of models that I would be interested in, but your mileage may vary.

[Sasha Royale]

Sooooo, what is the translation of "Elabo"? I think "Erabo" is a surname.

[Driften]

Seems to me Amazon is grouping them more. When I select one of the few 742's it then brings up 14 nib choices. There was only once choice for the 823 but when you select it I see both transparent black and brown with all three nib choices. Transparent black in M is offered by 61 sellers.

[Bluey]

I've not noticed any decline in the numbers of Pilots on Amazon except the Pilot Elite 95s.

 

Sooooo, what is the translation of "Elabo"? I think "Erabo" is a surname.

Falcon, apparently. Edited August 1, 2017 by Bluey

[Olya]

Not quite, when you click on the links you'll see what I mean. Just as example I used the CH 91, and on German Amazon there's only the black bp left. On US Amazon everything is normal. When the disappearance act started, an incredible price hike took place (eg the CH 91 costing around €200), then the prices went back to normal but stock continued to disappear and now nothing's or barely anything's left.

 

https://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_9_10?__mk_de_DE=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pilot+custom+heritage+91&sprefix=pilot+cust%2Caps%2C162&crid=AUYQUG3BHUVY

 

vs

 

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_rsis_3_13?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=pilot+custom+heritage+91&sprefix=pilot+custom+%2Caps%2C610

 

I guess the best way to find out is what I initially thought to do: contact a seller and ask, but I'm not sure whether they'll give a straight answer..

Edited August 2, 2017 by Olya

[fjoly79]

have you considered eBay? I found many FP items on eBay that weren't available on Amazon...

[Olya]

I've bought most of my pens via Amazon, esp Japanese; though I have used ebay as well and had good experience with both. Certainly looks like I'll have to go the ebay route when I decide on another Pilot..

It's just I'm so used to Amazon and it's the whole habit thing

Edited August 5, 2017 by Olya

[Olya]

Update:

 

I messaged several sellers on Amazon and one of them was quick to reply, very nice of them. Here's the gist:

 

"The reason why we and other sellers removed Pilot products from inventory is
because Pilot warned us that we, amazon sellers do not have a right to sell their products in Europe."

 

That is incredibly disappointing by Pilot. The selection of products (esp fountain pens) available directly in Europe is very disappointing and Pilot really has the worst policies/ marketing/ business strategies I have ever heard of. Infuriating and confusing at the same time.

 

So I expect that Pilot will become/ is already unavailable via other amazon europe sites as well (.co.uk. ; .fr ; etc etc you know it).

Edited August 5, 2017 by Olya

[TSherbs]

corporate struggles with the multinational internet marketplace

 

not always pretty

[Tinjapan]

Ah! Pilot is not alone in this. Other threads in the past have touched on this in the past. To distill ot down to the most badic level, Japanese companies have their own way of doing things, itneed not make sense to anyone other than themselves and they like it that way.

 

That said, I am not so certain it so different with US companies. Try buying software for your English OS PC while living in Japan or buying music on iTunes from your favorite artist in the States, while living in Japan! Do not know the current situation but I had to switch to MAC from PC because liscensing issues prevented me from buying any software for my PC.

[Bluey]

Pilot makes many soft nibs and some European/American customers have previously bought them, and flexed the bleep out of them expecting to do ornate copperplate. Then complained about Pilot having problems with their feeds and nibs when they're designed to do the short strokes of kanji rather than the long strokes of copperplate.

 

Perhaps that's one of many contributing factors to their decision, but I suspect the majority of it is to do with licencing issues as stated by Tinjapan, above.

Edited August 5, 2017 by Bluey

[Olya]

Ah! Pilot is not alone in this. Other threads in the past have touched on this in the past. To distill ot down to the most badic level, Japanese companies have their own way of doing things, itneed not make sense to anyone other than themselves and they like it that way.

 

That said, I am not so certain it so different with US companies. Try buying software for your English OS PC while living in Japan or buying music on iTunes from your favorite artist in the States, while living in Japan! Do not know the current situation but I had to switch to MAC from PC because liscensing issues prevented me from buying any software for my PC.

 

On your first paragraph: I guess Japanese companies like to be mysterious!

 

It may not make sense to others except them, but imo this decision will hurt their sales, as Pilot pens now won't be available in Europe via Amazon from Japan and who knows, possibly ebay is next on their target list to restrict sales to Europe (what company restricts sales anyway?!). I rather import because it's much cheaper than buying Japanese fpens from Eu vendors, and I could switch, the problem though is that the offer is very limited. The Prera has been pulled from the market (and it used to cost 50GBP, which is too much for this pen and considering you can get it for half that from Japan), no Lucina, no Custom (Heritage) 74, 91 etc etc.

I am a great lover of Pilot's disposable (and also refillable pens that are cheap, we all know them, the V5, the Super Grip, BPS Matic etc etc) pens and these are luckily easily available here, but that's it. Anything fpen related is much harder..

 

On your second paragraph: that's a good reminder, I forgot about those restrictions.. Yes, incredibly frustrating when you can't even buy software, even though you have the money, just because you're not in a specific country and even though it's digital anyway (so nothing to ship and all that) or buy music, stream films... Or just simply bloody youtube videos not being watchable because of the geographical location.. Not being able to download apps because of it either, or watching BBC iplayer.. All very frustrating and beyond silly.

 

Everything's "global" and "globalized" and "at our finger tips! only one click away!" though sometimes it feels like we're in the dark ages with this silliness, might as well use horses and carrier pigeons!

[Algester]

well the best way to import stuff from Japan is go through Rakuten... that will be your best course of action, well I could understand how the licensing works, Europe is smaller than the US and who may or may not have looser laws concerning importation

Edited August 7, 2017 by Algester

[Bluey]

well the best way to import stuff from Japan is go through Rakuten..

Just curious but why would that be? I would think it was better to go through eBay or Amazon.

I was having a look on Rakutan and it seems very insecure. For example, many places don't allow you to pay via Paypal, won't accept returns, the English used is very poor, and so forth. It also seems set up better for the seller than the buyer.

Edited August 7, 2017 by Bluey

[Algester]

Just curious but why would that be? I would think it was better to go through eBay or Amazon.

I was having a look on Rakutan and it seems very insecure. For example, many places don't allow you to pay via Paypal, won't accept returns, the English used is very poor, and so forth. It also seems set up better for the seller than the buyer.

assuming import stuff is being lost in European Amazon and ordering from American Amazon may not be a cheaper option... while yes En Rakuten is shady (generally speaking Japan doesnt heavily use Paypal, as you would expect its a cashed based monetary society) and that translation is actually passed through bad machine translations and even then ordering from Rakuten may need for one to use proxy shipping services because not everyone there even exports outside Japan Edited August 7, 2017 by Algester

[Bluey]

It's a shame really as there are many exotic pens on there.

[Tinjapan]

When I wrote earlier that Japanese pen companies have unusual business practices, I wa refering only to their refusal to offer many of their popular models to overseas markets.

 

There is another facet of this issue that has not been discussed here. A reason for pens costing more from liscensed dealers is that the buyer is also paying for the servicing of the pen. While Pilot may have a warranty for their pens, it is based upon the fact that their pens are purchased through licensed dealers. When pens are bought from outside the official supply chain, Pilot loses money servicing them.

 

True, repairs must often be paid for even when purchased through a licensed dealer, but I am not aware of a two tiered price system for repairs, the lower priced one for pens purchased from licensed dealers and a higher one for those purchased elsewhere. Instead, what I see asked about on FPN is where a pen purchased outside the official supply channels can be serviced.

 

Additionally, buying from sources other than Pilot's licensed dealers hurt the dealers due to decreased sales and Pilot from unsurported repair costs and a tarnished brand image.

 

Pilot seems to be taking steps to limit its losses, financial and otherwise, caused by the unlicensed sales of their products.

 

We get what we pay for.