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On fake Montblanc pens at Ebay


TomFPN

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I saw a lot of fake Montblanc pens at Ebay. I reported several. However, there are so many of them that I cannot report them all. Currently, I am just a little afraid to buy Montblanc pens at Ebay. Perhaps even many sellers do not know whether their pens are faked or not. Why don't Montblanc company do something about the fake pens at Ebay? I think eventually it would hurt Montblanc company: people would become afraid to buy second-hand Montblanc pens. What do you think of this? Thanks.

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Montblanc is more than happy for people to only buy brand new pens from them rather than concerning themselves with whether people can safely buy second-hand ones from ebay. Buyer beware. Don't risk buying one on ebay unless you are 100% certain it's authentic.

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15 minutes ago, TomFPN said:

 Why don't Montblanc company do something about the fake pens at Ebay? 

Montblanc makes money as some buyers are afraid of buying fake Montblancs and then buy at top retail at established retailers. Montblanc is the most faked pen in the world and Montblanc takes it as an opportunity.

'We live in times where smart people must be silenced so stupid people won't be offended."

 

Clip from Ricky Gervais' new Netflix Special

 

 

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This is not a new problem, for at least 25 years Chinese companies have been making fake MBs, there are showrooms in Chinese and Singaporean markets that contain most LE MBs. The skills of these fakers is increasing all the time and we are seeing increasing build quality and better materials all the time. The first 149 from China that I saw  was in the 1990s, that pen was painted brass and cost the buyer $2 on the streets of Shanghai.

 

As Dione has said, you need to be extremely careful when buying any MB on line and to look for full supporting documentation with the pen.

 

 

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I knew there were Chinese counterfeit products but had no idea they were prevalent on eBay. Thanks for the heads up Tom! I was viewing Montblanc on eBay last night and seriously doubt I could identify a well done clone.

 

Edited by Geoduck
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There are very easy rules to follow. 

DO NOT buy any rollerballs or ball point Montblanc on EBAY. You're asking to be ripped off. 

 

EDUCATE yourself on how real Montblancs look. The packaging they use, the warranty materials and how they look, the converters they use. These are usually less carefully made in replicas as the sole purpose of counterfeits is to buy cheap to give the impression you have the real thing from afar. You don't carry the packing or warranty with you after purchase so counterfeiters try to make it seem like the real things.

 

Focus on fountain pens, especially those that are piston fillers. Those are very difficult to make well and are hard to replicate. As are the types of feeds that Montblanc uses. Those are also very difficult to replicate. Montblanc in essence only uses 4 styles of feeds for their modern pens; feeds for the 149, 146, the 145 and the Starwalker. The 149 and 146 are less frequently faked because these are piston pens and counterfeiters stay away from these 2 styles of pens. If you see a 149 and 146 that are converters, you can immediately tell they are not real. Yes I know there is a 147 but that's not a converter pen. 

 

Of the 4 platforms that Montblanc makes, the Starwalker and 145 are most frequently counterfeited because they are converter pens. However it is still quite easy to tell real from fakes because Montblanc uses a very unique proprietary converter that most counterfeiters don't bother to get the details right. They usually resort to some cheap international converter. 

 

Please don't tell me about shining light through the "precious resin", specific codes or placement of STOD stamps to authenticate. Those are all dubious methods of authentication and easy to replicate. The performance of the pen, the mechanism, the details of the paraphernalia are the difficult things to pull off. At the end of the day EDUCATE yourself.

Of course this is my opinion. Also Montblanc is not expecting any of us to be their unofficial police. They have enough money to do it just fine. However it's important for us to help others understand how not to be ripped off by these unscrupulous fakers on EBAY.

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There were two fake MBs on ebay on friday, a black Jules Verne and a Starwalker

 

The same seller for each, he cleared £300.  He claimed to have inherited them from a pen collector grandfather but was careful not to show the nibs on either pen.

 

Ebay have been advised.

 

 

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Thank you for taking the time to provide that detailed reply Gerigo. My interest is a 146 or perhaps 149 so what you said about them specifically is helpful.

Sgphototn/Gort, While visiting Hong Kong I've held fake Rolex watches while wearing my no date sub. Some were very good.

Thanks Beechwood. I think I may have looked at the Jules Verne.

Buying higher end pens for a novice like me is best from a trusted seller. I had no idea fake fountain pins were faked on any real scale.

Edited by Geoduck
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If it is a Carnegie LE for $15 it's probably a fake, don't give your credit card info for this.

 

The market for MB is active and educated and demand is WAY greater than supply.

 

You aren't getting a superbargain on a MB fountain pen, don't even think about it....

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Beechwood said:

There were two fake MBs on ebay on friday, a black Jules Verne and a Starwalker

 

The same seller for each, he cleared £300.  He claimed to have inherited them from a pen collector grandfather but was careful not to show the nibs on either pen.

 

Ebay have been advised.

 

 

Yeah, any time part of a product is kept out of photos, or only appears in blurry photos, it's safest to assume it's intentional.

 

It's a shame eBay's made it so you can't contact buyers anymore.  There've been a few times it's been useful in the past.  And I don't count on eBay doing any followup on communication from anyone other than the seller or winner of an auction; I've never seen an auction I reported get pulled or even changed.

And I didn't have the heart to tell her why.
And there wasn't a part of me that didn't want to say goodbye.

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1 hour ago, Geoduck said:

I had no idea fake fountain pins were faked on any real scale.

I have a pen that someone in my pen club gave me several years ago.  He bought a 10 or 12 pack of Jinhao 616 pens (a clone of Parker 51s) just to see what they were like and handed them out to whoever wanted to try one.  And I was curious.

I think he paid around $10-12 US plus shipping.  So my pen is worth about a buck.  And is probably a fake of a knockoff.  And you know what?  It writes like it's worth about a buck (I think at the time a real 616 was about $25).  
Ironically, for a buck more than those fake pens cost the guy who gave them out apiece, I bought a REAL 51 at an estate sale a couple of years ago....

So, while, yes, while there are tons of threads in the MB forum about "Is this real or a fake?" it's not just the high end brands (I've also seen threads about "Is this a real Lamy Safari?").  It's just that because they are high-priced "luxury" pens that are "identifiable" to the general public, that MBs get faked a lot.

Ruth Morrisson aka 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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I've bought two MB's online. Both have been sent directly to Montblanc Service Centre in Sydney, Australia and returned to me. Can I assume that they are genuine? Sounds like a silly question I know but this is my thought experiment.

How far does brand management go?

Is there any possibility a fake could be serviced given that the servicing charge is equivalent to the manufacturing cost of a new pen? Has anyone heard of a MB being rejected at service centre due to counterfeit? 

G

πTom

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My understanding (not from personal experience) is that MB service centers impound and destroy fakes that are sent to them. Perhaps others can confirm this, but I think it is extremely unlikely that an official service center would be deceived by a counterfeit.

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49 minutes ago, BlueJ said:

My understanding (not from personal experience) is that MB service centers impound and destroy fakes that are sent to them. Perhaps others can confirm this, but I think it is extremely unlikely that an official service center would be deceived by a counterfeit.

 That is true. They will destroy any counterfeits if you send them in to authenticate.

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Thank you BlueJ and gerigo for taking the time to comment. Can they impound or destroy your product without your consent or offer compensation? There must be legal president for this action? Sounds like 'theft' and 'wilful destruction of property' to me. Since I don't intend to sell my Montblancs I spend extra at the beginning of my ownership and start clean. I want Montblanc to work hard at managing its luxury brands to maintain the value they have created but auction sites and 'secondary marketeers' see the weakness of their position. It's a tough gig!

G

πTom

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Once I purchased an authentic MB 149.  I used several pieces of data to confirm it was the genuine article.  Sadly the seller was a deceitful individual who did not disclose it had a completely knackered nib.  He claimed that Richard Binder had made it into a cursive italic - nothing could have been further from the truth.  Even after a trip to a well known nibmeister it's never been satisfactory to me.  I did dispute things over paypal but the seller would not refund my shipping (which was significant as it was one of those low-price high-shipping scams on ebay).  

 

Live and learn.  Wherever that guy (let's call him Mr. A. Knight) is I hope his other pens leak on him!  There are just too many scum sellers on ebay for me to buy expensive used items.  The one exception is if the seller is someone who I trust (Speerbob, Peyton St. Pens, etc.)

 

Cheers,

NM

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8 hours ago, sgphototn said:

Personally, I'd never buy a Montblanc, Rolex, or Covid-19 vaccine from Ebay. 

 

I've bought Montblancs and Rolexs both on Ebay and have never been burned.

 

As a general rule, as said, stick to 146s and 149s and as long as you have an idea of what a real one looks like, you won't get burned. The fakes are better than ever, but I've yet to see one that would convince someone with some semblence of what either of these pens actually looks like.

 

Second, if you buy older ones, the older the better, and know what they should look like, I don't think anyone is going to take you. If anyone ever replicates a split ebonite feed, I'll eat my words, but at this point I'm going to say that if you see that on a pen, no one is going to argue its authenticity. That gets you up to the late 80s/early 90s. I'd probably expand that to any ebonite feed pen.

 

Nearly all of my 12s, 14s, 22s, and 24s have come from Ebay. There's a lot of reasons why I don't think they'll ever be faked, not the least of which is that a perfect one with a rare nib is worth $200 on a good day.

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2 hours ago, nm4 said:

Sadly the seller was a deceitful individual who did not disclose it had a completely knackered nib

 

Sorry to hear that nm4. Lying by concealment and omission! On well known auction sites traders you describe enjoy all the trading benefits and privileges extended to legitimate sellers. The trading methods they use though, I would describe as parasitic. In my experience auction sites show the usual heavy, 'seller' bias. While they may offer dispute resolution and protection plans rogue traders need only refuse to comply and ignore all requests to resolve the dispute. As has happened to me. Even unscrupulous traders make money for the auction site!

Just try this, (assure the seller that you will transfer full payment the minute the item arrives safely and in advertised condition), and when the laughter dies down explain to me why this will never happen. The current auction system can only operate on trust and all the risk is taken by the buyer. I think it's time for a change! I have cancelled my trading account and withdrawn until my current dispute is resolved. More laughter🤣 ?

 

 

 

πTom

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7 hours ago, bunnspecial said:

 

I've bought Montblancs and Rolexs both on Ebay and have never been burned.

 

As a general rule, as said, stick to 146s and 149s and as long as you have an idea of what a real one looks like, you won't get burned. The fakes are better than ever, but I've yet to see one that would convince someone with some semblence of what either of these pens actually looks like.

 

Second, if you buy older ones, the older the better, and know what they should look like, I don't think anyone is going to take you. If anyone ever replicates a split ebonite feed, I'll eat my words, but at this point I'm going to say that if you see that on a pen, no one is going to argue its authenticity. That gets you up to the late 80s/early 90s. I'd probably expand that to any ebonite feed pen.

 

Nearly all of my 12s, 14s, 22s, and 24s have come from Ebay. There's a lot of reasons why I don't think they'll ever be faked, not the least of which is that a perfect one with a rare nib is worth $200 on a good day.

I'll stick with my own advice. First off, I'm not into modern Montblancs as they are the most faked pen in the world and a 146 and 149 don't appeal to me for the value. Even knowledgeable pen owners get tricked on Ebay as well as first-time suckers.

 

Rolex and other premium watches are also easily faked for the same reason and while a real Rolex can show up, it's not worth it to me to make an expensive purchase without having it in hand and an expert opinion. I bought mine 32 years ago through a reputable jeweler and don't need another.

 

You pay your money and take your chances. I'd rather pay more for an article with a genuine provenance than an Ebay seller's 'guarantee.'

 

I sleep better that way.

 

 

'We live in times where smart people must be silenced so stupid people won't be offended."

 

Clip from Ricky Gervais' new Netflix Special

 

 

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