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Appelboom?


djm1121

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Has anybody from the States ordered from this Vendor, if so, how did you handle the duty fees? What hoops did you have to jump through the whole shipping process? I have never ordered anything let a lone a fountain pen abroad. Not sure if it is worth the hassle or if I should just buy the pen domestically? I am looking at their Pelikan inventory and I know Aziza who I watch on YouTube speaks highly of them. Any info would be helpful, thanks.

 

Dave

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Appleboom is a very well known pen shop in the Netherlands, I have bought from them without any problems and to my satisfaction. They have bought recently the Broomfield pen shop in Boston and my last orders were shipped domestically from Boston. Earlier shipments were sent from The Netherlands with DHL very fast.

 

You don't have to pay any import duties as long as the value of the package is below USD 800.-, as far as I know.

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If you have never ordered anything from a foreign vendor, be aware that your credit card provider will probably charge a foreign transaction fee of between 1-3%, unless you have a card where this fee is waived (Discover, Capital One, some Chase cards). 

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In the USA, if you want something from Appelboom, contact the Bromfield Pen Shop (now Appelboom) in Boston and I suspect that you won't have to pay foreign postage or US customs.

boston@appelboom.com

+1 617 482 9053

If you are close enough, I think the brick and mortar shop is still open on Bromfield St., Boston.

I do need to go there sometime soon since I am close enough.

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I've ordered from Appelboom (Europe) on two occasions in the last year and the experience (selection, service, price, shipping) was first rate.  I have not had the occasion to order from the US store (I'm in the US).

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4 hours ago, brokenclay said:

If you have never ordered anything from a foreign vendor, be aware that your credit card provider will probably charge a foreign transaction fee of between 1-3%, unless you have a card where this fee is waived (Discover, Capital One, some Chase cards). 

 

When I have shopped at Appelboom, the prices shown are in US dollars, and those are the prices I have paid, without any foreign currency transaction fees. I think it matters how the store handles these things whether the buyer gets this fee added or not, unless things have changed in the past few months. 

 

I have found Appelboom a great pleasure to deal with, and I would not hesitate to buy from them again. Also, a fairly short time after receiving my first pen, I was invited by them to leave a review of the pen, for which they gave me a 15% discount on my next purchase, with no stated limit on the amount of that purchase. I took advantage of this to buy a very nice pen that was already on sale. Then they asked me to review again, and again offered the 15% discount. I don't know if they are still doing this, and it may be a fluke that I got offered it twice. The last time I bought a pen from them they did not make this offer. 

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Visit SBRE Brown's website. He has a code for a 10% discount. It worked for me in November 2020. 

...............................................................

We Are Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams

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I have ordered from Appelboom a few times. I am in Texas. Never paid any duties or extra fees. I've always paid in USD, because their website lets you choose your currency.

 

They are top notch and have excellent customer service. I've even had a warranty issue on one of my pens and they took care of it right away, and paid the shipping back and forth too.

 

Their prices are very fair on everything I've researched, and I always look at them when comparison shopping. There is also always a 10% discount code available, which helps even more.

 

No affiliation, just a happy customer.

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12 hours ago, djm1121 said:

Thanks for your response. Do you recall if they send your order insured?

 

Mine have always been insured.

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Thank you folks for the positive feedback. It appears they are a trusted vendor and a pleasure to deal with...

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I'm pleased to hear that there is a responsible pen store in Boston still. A trip that way may be in the works over the next year.

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  • 2 months later...

Appelboom are brilliant to deal with. I live in New Zealand which most people think is closer to Mars than the rest of Earth, and I have always had first class service from Appelboom.

Orders arrive quicker than expected, beautifully packaged and their prices are very reasonable.

 

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On 10/3/2021 at 12:25 AM, Sybarite said:

Appelboom are brilliant to deal with. I live in New Zealand which most people think is closer to Mars than the rest of Earth, and I have always had first class service from Appelboom.

Orders arrive quicker than expected, beautifully packaged and their prices are very reasonable.

 

 

I would ditto your reply. The exact same service I got from them. My Pelikan M1000 arrived beautifully packaged, and competatively priced, I will go with them again...

 

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Nice shop, I bought from the NL site, to get a replacement gold nib for a Kaweco during August.

As I was away from home for holidays, I made the purchase, paid with paypal but asked them to keep the item on hold until I would be back informing them to ship. They agreed no questions asked.

(from a German shop I was told this was not possible, once paid with paypal they absolutely had to ship within a defined number of days...)

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I ordered a Pelikan pen & bottle of Edelstein ink from Appelboom (Netherlands) about 2 years ago. The package got hung up in U.S. Customs for a couple of weeks. After a bunch of emails and faxed forms back and forth, I had to legally certify that the liquid was not a hazardous substance. Don't know why first they didn't, then they did take my word for it--I'm just a private citizen who ordered ink from a well-known and respected European vendor. Crazy.

 

It all turned out okay in the end, but I won't order ink from international vendors any more.

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On 10/6/2021 at 3:37 PM, djm1121 said:

 

 

I would ditto your reply. The exact same service I got from them. My Pelikan M1000 arrived beautifully packaged, and competatively priced, I will go with them again...

 

+1

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they are excellent to deal with, not sure about the us but shipment to australia without hangups.  duty depends on price of the pen over here.  reliably comes with a pack of stroopwafel.

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On 7/15/2021 at 4:44 PM, djm1121 said:

Has anybody from the States ordered from this Vendor, if so, how did you handle the duty fees?

 

Dave

 

If you order pen and ink, they will declare as “pen and ink" as one item, and you pay 2.7% of total value.

If you just order pen, they will declare as "pen", and you pay zero duty.

If you just order ink, they will declare as "ink" and you pay 2.7% of total value.

 

In each case, Fedex will send you hazard material declare form to say you do not import any hazard.

 

Can you ask them to declare such as pen $500, ink $10 so you only pay 2.7% of $10? They will say no, it is not my job.  Or can you ask them to declare pen as "pen without ink" so you can save 3 days of delay to process "hazard material" form? They will say hell no, it is not my job.

 

Conclusion: Don't buy any ink from them. Or, don't buy pen from them unless it is a real deal.

 

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