Low cost pens on Amazon

[KirkB]

I was looking for sale on Amazon.  I found several pens sold by 3rd party sellers on amazon. These pens are being sold below msrp.  One pen I am interested in is SAILOR Professional Gear Shiki-Oriori Four Season Edition.   Amazon link  The pen is selling for 80 dollars below below other pen sites.  Has anyone purchased these pens?  I see several Sailor, and Platinum pens selling for about 100.

 

 

[Runnin_Ute]

I have purchased two pens through Amazon from Japanese sellers. A Pelikan M200 Cognac which I paid $100.xx USD for and a Platinum 3776 Century Borgogne from a different Japanese seller for about $80 including a purchased separately converter which was about $8. At the time the 3776 was $176 from a US seller such as Goulet. No problems with with either pen during or since purchase. I have had both for several years now. 

 

I forget which Japanese sellers they were.

[samasry]

Should be fine for problem free pens , as it would not be possible to get  (as far as I know) warranty support in the US.  However, if the pen has issue at the time of purchase,  amazon return policy applies. 

I have used this method several times and I have only returned a pen one time.  

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, KirkB said:

These pens are being sold below msrp.

 

The MSRP set by your regional distributors for Sailor and Platinum mean nothing, though, when you're buying from sellers based in Japan. If you're concerned about that, you should be looking at the MSRP for those pens in the Japanese domestic market.

 

Platinum encodes the tax-exclusive MSRP in each pen's model number, e.g. the PTB-35000S#24 (#3776 Century Celluloid "Koi") model is ¥35,000+tax. Sailor pens' MSRP are listed in its current catalogue (in Japanese). So you can easily check whether those Japan-based Amazon Marketplace sellers are offering the products so far below the (Japanese domestic market) MSRP, after currency conversion and international shipping costs, to cause doubt or raise red flags.

 

2 hours ago, KirkB said:

The pen is selling for 80 dollars below below other pen sites.

 

Then you're not really looking widely enough. Check also how much the particular pen models are being sold on Rakuten Ichiba, Yahoo Japan and Amazon Japan marketplace platforms, as well as Pensachi (in Japan), PenGallery Malaysia, Cult Pens (in the UK), etc.

 

Remember, we're talking global commerce here now (since you're contemplating buying from Japan-based sellers), so a US-centric view does not apply.

 

2 hours ago, KirkB said:

Has anyone purchased these pens?

 

There's nothing wrong with the pen models as listed; I probably have some of them, which I may or may not have bought using Amazon Marketplace. (Prior to July 2018, it was still possible for Australians to buy from third-party sellers operating on Amazon.com in the US.) I'm not going to vouch for any specific Amazon Marketplace sellers, though.

[KirkB]

wow Thank you everyone for well thought out responses.  I figured it was just Japaneses sellers selling Amazon.  

 

A Smug Dill -  Thank you for comments, and wealth of information.  I think I will look around on the sites you shared. It seems like there are many options to choose from.  Possibly more pens to consider.  Thank you again!