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Fake Parkers On Ebay


Fermata

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There are a large number of what I believe are fake Parkers being offered for sale on ebay and sold from China. They are described as real Parkers.

 

The style of the advertisements follows a previous wave of fake Parkers from earlier this year in which the seller typically offered a Sonnet for £5. The seller provided a tracking number which proved to be false and then failed to post the pen, perhaps hoping that the buyer would fail to chase up and claim a refund.

 

Best advice I can offer is to make sure that you are confident about the seller and the product.

 

 

 

 

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Do you bother submitting a Fake Goods Report to fleaBay to investigate?

 

 

Yes.

 

I also submitted a similar report to ebay on the last wave of fake Parkers on Ebay, Ebay took no action and allowed the many listings to remain in place.

 

I appreciate that English may not be your first language but there are more genial ways of opening a sentence than 'Do you bother'. At the end of the day I am only trying to give a heads up warning to those who may be taken in by these ads and expecting something different.

Edited by Parkette
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I wouldn't go around looking for superbargains on the internet, they don't exist.

 

The market has a lot more buyers than sellers, ebay is not a place where you usually put one over on a seller and the buying population.

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I wouldn't go around looking for superbargains on the internet, they don't exist.

 

The market has a lot more buyers than sellers, ebay is not a place where you usually put one over on a seller and the buying population.

 

Well, I've been burned on eBay a few times; and one of those times was from a MAJOR player with literally tens of thousands of past transactions -- and that was the *one* time I filed a dispute. The dispute was settled in my favor in a matter of hours: I got my money back AND was allowed to keep the pens; but I was NOT allowed to then give feedback (which makes me wonder how many OTHER people were like me and got screwed by the seller). But overall I have had good pen-shopping experiences on eBay, and there are several vendors who have gotten orders from me on more than one occasion (and if the Japanese seller where I got my grey Decimo from last year has what I'm looking for at a good price I would not hesitate to be a repeat customer as well).

Oddly, the *only* times I had bad experiences on eBay were in buying pens -- I've done okay for other purchases.

And while I haven't bought pens from (or through) Amazon, most of my other experiences (music, DVDs and books for the most part, although that was also the cheapest place to get replacement cartridges for the laser printer) have been pretty good as well. Although I sweat buckets about a CD I ordered from a third party seller in, IIRC, Austria -- because the seller did not allow returns, and I was worried that the CD would be damaged, or in some format I couldn't play (the way DVDs have different formats depending on the country); and it was not readily available otherwise -- it was something I never even found on vinyl, back in the day, and ONLY had as a cassette tape (found in a bargain bin in a store in a downtown urban mall in Bridgeport CT in the late 1970s....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Nearly all of my pen shopping on eBay has been for vintage pens, not modern ones; and the modern ones have MOSTLY been from reputable sellers.

Edited by inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Thank you so much, Parkette, for the thread. I have notice quite a few "fake" pens on eBay these days.

 

But, please also be aware that there are some legitimate sellers as well. I am one of them. I have my 1942 Parker 51 set (which is also here in the classifieds) on eBay as well.

 

I have sold hundreds of items (mostly not pens) on eBay over the years, and the one thing I have noticed is that eBay really does try to protect the buyer much more than the seller. But at this time of year, all of the scammers come out - both as sellers and as buyers. My brother runs an "eBay business" and has noticed that at the close of a transaction and after he has received "payment" and sent the item to the buyer, the buyer then disputes the credit card charge, or in many cases the credit card was stolen (but not yet reported). My brother then has to go through all kinds of hassle to get paid - both with eBay and the credit card company. And because of eBay's fee structure and eBay now taking taxes from the sale, his profit margin is so small that he is considering getting out. And he has a perfect rating with tens of thousands of transactions.

 

But, again, I really appreciate your comments and bringing this to our attention!

"Today will be gone in less than 24 hours. When it is gone, it is gone. Be wise, but enjoy! - anonymous today

 

 

 

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Well, I've been burned on eBay a few times; and one of those times was from a MAJOR player with literally tens of thousands of past transactions -- and that was the *one* time I filed a dispute. The dispute was settled in my favor in a matter of hours: I got my money back AND was allowed to keep the pens; but I was NOT allowed to then give feedback (which makes me wonder how many OTHER people were like me and got screwed by the seller). But overall I have had good pen-shopping experiences on eBay, and there are several vendors who have gotten orders from me on more than one occasion (and if the Japanese seller where I got my grey Decimo from last year has what I'm looking for at a good price I would not hesitate to be a repeat customer as well).

Oddly, the *only* times I had bad experiences on eBay were in buying pens -- I've done okay for other purchases.

And while I haven't bought pens from (or through) Amazon, most of my other experiences (music, DVDs and books for the most part, although that was also the cheapest place to get replacement cartridges for the laser printer) have been pretty good as well. Although I sweat buckets about a CD I ordered from a third party seller in, IIRC, Austria -- because the seller did not allow returns, and I was worried that the CD would be damaged, or in some format I couldn't play (the way DVDs have different formats depending on the country); and it was not readily available otherwise -- it was something I never even found on vinyl, back in the day, and ONLY had as a cassette tape (found in a bargain bin in a store in a downtown urban mall in Bridgeport CT in the late 1970s....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Nearly all of my pen shopping on eBay has been for vintage pens, not modern ones; and the modern ones have MOSTLY been from reputable sellers.

Good to see you fought back and got your $$$.

 

If I'm paying a reasonable market value for the product I'm purchasing, then it's bad news to get ripped off.

 

If I think I'm getting a legit MB Carnegie LE for $15....

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Yes.

 

I also submitted a similar report to ebay on the last wave of fake Parkers on Ebay, Ebay took no action and allowed the many listings to remain in place.

 

I appreciate that English may not be your first language but there are more genial ways of opening a sentence than 'Do you bother'. At the end of the day I am only trying to give a heads up warning to those who may be taken in by these ads and expecting something different.

Apologies if you inferred any slight to my reply/tone. :( Wasnt intended.

 

I do lurk on other hobby forums, some of which are similarly infested by counterfeit goods of potential value manifold in magnitude (koffkoff.swisswatches)

 

Common strategy there has been to postup the exact fleaBay auction link... and then all interested forum members all report the same listing multiple times in a short span of time.

 

Usually that results in the sale/auction getting pulled & disappearing.

 

Its a daily thankless task though. (Occasionally rewarded by laughs of whod be fool enough to think thats genuine :P but hey, they say theres a new one born every minute.

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people reviewing them have noted that for 5 bucks, they are pretty darn good pens though :lol:

Selling a boatload of restored, fairly rare, vintage Japanese gold nib pens, click here to see (more added as I finish restoring them)

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people reviewing them have noted that for 5 bucks, they are pretty darn good pens though :lol:

Today was digging out the dregs of desk drawer... discovered my 2 Baoer 388s right at the bottom. Havent seen them 12-18mths easy, if not much longer.

 

Started opening them up to add to Wash bucket... then noticed their converters were still 3/4 full 8) wow. 1 has Watermans Inspired, other was Serenity. A quick prime via the knob & they both started right up again - amazing.

 

By comparison... my genuine Sonnet dries out a full cartridge in mere weeks. :(

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people reviewing them have noted that for 5 bucks, they are pretty darn good pens though :lol:

 

while the $250 USD Sonnets can be a batch of lemons

 

:(

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I ran into a couple of counterfeit Lamy Safaris about five years ago. I posted about it here:
https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/267633-buyer-beware-lamy-safari-on-ebay/?hl=%2Bmelissa59%2C+%2Bsafari%2C+%2Bfake&do=findComment&comment=3008877

 

My claim was approved, I received my refund, then I promptly DESTROYED the fake pens. I'll admit that it was likely a wasted gesture, what with the amount of fakes still selling on eBay. The pens might have written just fine. And, by fountain pen standards, Safaris are cheap pens. But these pens were not knock-offs, like those produced by Hero or Baoer. They were outright counterfeits.

 

While I do not consider myself a collector, I still felt it was my obligation to see to it that those two counterfeit pens did not enter public circulation, even after my death. It saddens me to think others on this forum don't feel the same sense of obligation.

"You have to be willing to be very, very bad in this business if you're ever to be good. Only if you stand ready to make mistakes today can you hope to move ahead tomorrow."

Dwight V. Swain, author of Techniques of the Selling Writer.

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For as long as I have been on this site, I don't think a whole week has ever gone by without someone pointing out that - hard to believe as it is - there are fakes on E-bay.

 

As much as we are "shocked" that someone will fall for a $10 Sonnet (or what have you) there will never be an end to rip-off sellers and foolish buyers. Point out all the fakes we come across, and that particular one might go away, but another one or two will pop up and take its place.

 

Pretty much the same goes for all those "I am Mrs. Smith from Nigeria and I have $10,000,000.00 that I need you to keep for me". You'd reason that people would catch on, but I think not. Some people are just not that smart.

 

So, point out all the fakes we want, but the bottom line is, "buyer beware", and if you want to avoid fakes, avoid e-bay's deals that are too good to be true.

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people reviewing them have noted that for 5 bucks, they are pretty darn good pens though :lol:

 

Yup, and the person who bought it will then give it as a gift. A year later, that gift will be sold out of New York (or maybe Wisconsin) as the real deal.

 

To me, buying a fake is as bad as selling one.

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In my experience ebay do not remove 'fake' items. They state ONLY the official manufacturer can request the removal of the item(s)

 

From personal experience even that does not happen.

 

There are 2 ebay sellers who regularly list 'fake' Seiko Presage watches. So I notify SEIKO UK.

 

We have a specialist company working on our behalf who are at present looking in to this type sale, this will be a long process as they investigating many unauthorised sellers.

 

I have my own thoughts because some parts used on the 'fakes' look too good to be real fakes.

 

So I put it to SEIKO UK...

 

Are you guys seeing some original parts being used on these fakes (unauthorised Presages). I for one cannot see anyone reproducing the dial or even the case body to that exacting same quality for the limited numbers being marketed.

 

This email had no reply

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I think ebay is going to go the way of donedeal eventually. Donedeal is a free advert platform that operates through various parts of Europe and was excellent for the most part. In the last five or so years it has been absolutely flooded by fakes of every kind imaginable; so much so that the donedeal platform simply gave up on trying to police it about two or three years ago. The result is that there are more fakes on the site than there are of real, genuine items. It's become a nightmare that many buyers and sellers now just avoid completely. Ebay seems to be slowly adopting a policy of ignoring many fake items. I've noticed a huge increase in the last year in regards to watches, bike parts and especially pens (although that might be because I'm looking at pens more than anything else). For a while I reported every fake I saw. I just felt so sorry for people dropping hundreds of euro on garbage Montblanc fakes that probably wouldn't even write. There are also a flood of Longines fakes all over ebay at the moment which I've also reported. In the last year every report has resulted in a sale and a seller who remains on the platform.

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I think ebay is going to go the way of donedeal eventually. Donedeal is a free advert platform that operates through various parts of Europe and was excellent for the most part. In the last five or so years it has been absolutely flooded by fakes of every kind imaginable; so much so that the donedeal platform simply gave up on trying to police it about two or three years ago. The result is that there are more fakes on the site than there are of real, genuine items. It's become a nightmare that many buyers and sellers now just avoid completely. Ebay seems to be slowly adopting a policy of ignoring many fake items. I've noticed a huge increase in the last year in regards to watches, bike parts and especially pens (although that might be because I'm looking at pens more than anything else). For a while I reported every fake I saw. I just felt so sorry for people dropping hundreds of euro on garbage Montblanc fakes that probably wouldn't even write. There are also a flood of Longines fakes all over ebay at the moment which I've also reported. In the last year every report has resulted in a sale and a seller who remains on the platform.

The same can be said for their enforcing their policy (and in the USA, the law) against shill bidding. Even in the face of ironclad proof that a high volume seller is very actively placing and/or promoting shill bids, they have refused to do anything about it.

 

It is said by many that eBay "protects" its buyers to the detriment of its sellers. There are certainly good examples of this to back up this claim. However, by allowing the unabated shill bidding practice to exist, eBay is doing the sellers (or at least those sellers who employ the practice) a huge advantage at the buyers' expense.

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The money laundering sales are also creating a bubble, in the sense that some people selling similar items suddenly believe their particular pen (or whatever) really is worth $500 instead of a maximum of $80 and so they shove up items with a similar BIN price which has the effect of people bidding much higher than they should on similar items within an auction. Ebay is slowly but surely becoming one of the most expensive market places on the internet.......well, apart form Watchfinder of course, but that goes without saying.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've read a cooperation did exist between Parker and Hero. https://frankunderwater.com/2017/02/20/remaking-parker-45-a-cooperation-between-hero-parker/

 

Recently I have discovered the Wing Sung 2019 edition 601. While it is a Parker clone, I am not aware Parker is making any model that is similar to their popular 51 or Vaccumatic.

"Respect science, respect nature, respect all people (s),"

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Fake pens on ebay? Oh man!

 

Fake Parkers? Nooo!!!!

 

Fake Parker Sonnets? That's just outrageous!!!!

 

Buying this particular pen on ebay, and from someone in China, you'd need nothing short of a miracle for it not to be counterfeit.

 

I purchased a "Perfect Parker IM with 0.5mm nib" once, out of curiosity. The quality was OK, but like the Sonnet (real or counterfeit) its cap's not airtight, so it dries out. The nib, though, is quite good.

 

I also purchased a lot of 4 Sonnets from someone in the US at a very low price to see if I could figure out a way to deal with that model's drying issue. I've compared them to two Sonnets that I purchased from reputable retailers in person, and if they're fakes, they're crazy good, because I couldn't find any sign of them not being legit. (Before you ask, I never got around to trying something to make the caps airtight... too many projects, too little time.)

---------------------------------------------------------

We use our phones more than our pens.....

and the world is a worse place for it. - markh

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