Cartridge Pen For £0.59 In A Uk Bricks-And-Mortar Store!

[Mercian]

Hi all,

today I was in my local branch of the UK chain of discount stores ‘Home Bargains’.

 

I chanced to walk past their stationery section, where my eye lit upon a sales pack that contained a cartridge-fill fountain pen and two cartridges, for the price of 59p

For those of you who do not live in the UK, that bricks-and-mortar store price of £0.59 includes my country's sales tax of 20%.
At today's exchange rate, £0.59 = 0.69€ = $0.77.

As a ‘purchasing power’ comparison, at the time of typing this the price of a 2-pint bottle of whole milk in my local supermarket is 80p.

The ‘huge’ investment outlay gets you a "MADE IN CHINA" transparent plastic pen that has a completely-unmarked nib (which I assume is steel and ‘medium’), and also two cartridges of ink that the packaging describes as black.
The cartridges are slightly shorter than standard ‘Short International’ cartridges (I measured them at 34mm long, whereas an SIC is 38mm long), but their nipples look like they might be the same size as those on a SIC.

 

The pen's grip section looks as though it might be slightly too-small for my paws (I am 6'1" tall), but I am certainly curious enough about it to ‘risk’ the sum of 59p to find out

 

Bon; after I have run some dish-cleaning water through it to remove any manufacturing residue, I shall run one of its cartridges through it, and then some Waterman ‘Serenity Blue’ for comparison, and a SIC of ‘WH Smith’ branded black ink too.
Once I have collected and collated all this ‘data’, I shall post a review of it on the relevant board here.

After all, I wouldn't want to inadvertently be the cause of any FPN user ‘wasting’ their hard-earned 59p on one of these if it turns out that the thing doesn't write very well

Cheers,
M.

[Repeatedly edited to correct FFE's ]

Edited April 10, 2019 by Mercian

[Paul80]

The mind does boggle at just how low a price something made on the other side of the world can be over here, given production, packing, shipping, distribution, import duty and charges, profit for the maker, seller and every one in between, how do they make any profit, let alone enough profit to make producing something like this even worthwhile. How many millions must they plan on selling worldwide just to make the few pence profit worth the production run.

 

Will be waiting for you review though just the same.

 

Paul

[almoore]

Nice bargain

 

Next time I pass one of those stores I'll pick one up, very interested to see your review. I wonder if with a little silicone grease if it could be eye droppered.

 

Al

[Bo Bo Olson]

Near as good as a 'free advertising' ball point.

A 'free' advertising fountain pen could be right around the corner.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Hi all,

today I was in my local branch of the UK chain of discount stores ‘Home Bargains’.

 

I chanced to walk past their stationery section, where my eye lit upon a sales pack that contained a cartridge-fill fountain pen and two cartridges, for the price of 59p

 

For those of you who do not live in the UK, that bricks-and-mortar store price of £0.59 includes my country's sales tax of 20%.

At today's exchange rate, £0.59 = 0.69€ = $0.77.

As a ‘purchasing power’ comparison, at the time of typing this the price of a 2-pint bottle of whole milk in my local supermarket is 80p.

 

The ‘huge’ investment outlay gets you a "MADE IN CHINA" transparent plastic pen that has a completely-unmarked nib (which I assume is steel and ‘medium’), and also two cartridges of ink that the packaging describes as black.

The cartridges are slightly shorter than standard ‘Short International’ cartridges (I measured them at 34mm long, whereas an SIC is 38mm long), but their nipples look like they might be the same size as those on a SIC.

 

The pen's grip section looks as though it might be slightly too-small for my paws (I am 6'1" tall), but I am certainly curious enough about it to ‘risk’ the sum of 59p to find out

 

Bon; after I have run some dish-cleaning water through it to remove any manufacturing residue, I shall run one of its cartridges through it, and then some Waterman ‘Serenity Blue’ for comparison, and a SIC of ‘WH Smith’ branded black ink too.

Once I have collected and collated all this ‘data’, I shall post a review of it on the relevant board here.

 

After all, I wouldn't want to inadvertently be the cause of any FPN user ‘wasting’ their hard-earned 59p on one of these if it turns out that the thing doesn't write very well

 

Cheers,

M.

 

[Repeatedly edited to correct FFE's ]

 

I wonder if those are Hero brand cartridges? I bought a pen on-line a couple of years ago. It was, I think, a Hero 359. It came with what I'd assumed were short international cartridges. Turns out they were proprietary Hero cartridges. Those cartridges are longer than a short international cartridge and they have some little thing going on at the closed end. So maybe Hero is selling unbranded fountain pens in places around the world. My Hero 359 was all black plastic and was an attempt at a Lamy Safari knock-off.

 

The mind does boggle at just how low a price something made on the other side of the world can be over here, given production, packing, shipping, distribution, import duty and charges, profit for the maker, seller and every one in between, how do they make any profit, let alone enough profit to make producing something like this even worthwhile. How many millions must they plan on selling worldwide just to make the few pence profit worth the production run.

 

Will be waiting for you review though just the same.

 

What the so-called People's Republic of China is doing is amassing hard currencies. They want those currencies. If they have to discount their products to get some, even at a net loss, they do it, at this stage of their economic plans. And they are especially able to discount the labor involved in the manufacturing. They have no problem doing that.

[Karmachanic]

 

 

What the so-called People's Republic of China is doing is amassing hard currencies. They want those currencies. If they have to discount their products to get some, even at a net loss, they do it, at this stage of their economic plans. And they are especially able to discount the labor involved in the manufacturing. They have no problem doing that.

 

Not to derail the thread.

China, besides being the largest gold producer on the planet, is also a large purchaser of gold. China has been reducing its foreign reserves for the last eight years. The Chinese government has been encouraging the population to own gold for several years. They have a plan that does not include the fiat currencies of the West.

We live in interesting times.

 

Back to pens and cartridges!

Edited April 14, 2019 by Karmachanic

[Ink Stained Wretch]

 

Not to derail the thread.

China, besides being the largest gold producer on the planet, is also a large purchaser of gold. China has been reducing its foreign reserves for the last eight years. The Chinese government has been encouraging the population to own gold for several years. They have a plan that does not include the fiat currencies of the West.

We live in interesting times.

 

Back to pens and cartridges!

 

So they're on to the next phase now? One wonder why they're still following the old practices, in that case.

[1nkulus]

The mind does boggle at just how low a price something made on the other side of the world can be over here, given production, packing, shipping, distribution, import duty and charges, profit for the maker, seller and every one in between, how do they make any profit, let alone enough profit to make producing something like this even worthwhile. How many millions must they plan on selling worldwide just to make the few pence profit worth the production run.

 

I have seen similar pens on a few occasions between £0.79-1.39 in different stores. Never tried one.