Sailor pens secondhand value

[mke]

https://www.amazon.com/Sailor-11-1227-302-Fountain-Seasons-Princess/dp/B0861KQ7QG/

 

Sailor pens have no secondhand value anymore if the Amazon trend continues.

 

[lascosas]

Amazon had this pen for $67 two years ago.  The insane Sailor pen prices on Amazon (only with Amazon Japan as the seller) have been going on for some time.

[ErrantSmudge]

I bought the Sailor Four Seasons Weave in red (Kaguya Princess) and it just arrived today.  Beautiful color (a strawberry red) and the nib is a M that writes more like an F.  Great deal on a gold nib Sailor for $85, a bit less than $90 for the blue version.

[lascosas]

Yes, the Sailor Four Seasons Weave is an interesting set.

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, ErrantSmudge said:

I bought the Sailor Four Seasons Weave in red (Kaguya Princess) and it just arrived today.  Beautiful color (a strawberry red) and the nib is a M that writes more like an F.

 

I thought that collection of pens in the Shikiori line only come fitted with MF nibs?

 

I bought the (dark blue) Vega variant for… a bit over US$61; and the price dropped to the equivalent of US$59 after that (but has since gone back up by a little). Just as well I paid for it with a credit card that offers “price protection insurance”, so I should be able to get the US$2.50 difference credited to my card's account when I can be bothered filing a claim.

[jchch1950]

Before the exchange rate changes in direction, now is the opportunity to buy Sailor pens.

[A Smug Dill]

7 minutes ago, jchch1950 said:

Before the exchange rate changes in direction, now is the opportunity to buy Sailor pens.

 

Or buy on-the-ground in the Japanese domestic market, or order online, Japanese pens (and other products) in general from Japan bypassing regional distributors.

 

21 hours ago, mke said:

Sailor pens have no secondhand value anymore if the Amazon trend continues.

 

I completely disagree with your assessment/conclusion. No Sailor pen with a gold nib is going to drop to nil resale value; and I don't think the Sailor Shikiori (‘Japanese Fairy Tales’ collection) Vega fountain pen I bought for approximately US$60 is going to lose even 50% of my initial acquisition cost in “secondhand value”, considering how well I tend to keep my pens. A pen with the equivalent standing in Sailor's product range and hierarchy, that I bought three years ago, will of course have lost more of its initial acquisition cost upon resale; but it's not of no/nil value now, and we also should not assume we're talking only about owners who already have “invested” in Sailor pens in the years past; we must also include hobbyists who are “grey-importing” Sailor pens in 2024 and 2025, when considering the “secondhand value of Sailor pens”.

[mke]

20 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

disagree with your assessment/

When I had a KoP for sale, two people offered me 100 USD, referring to the Amazon price as standard for a new one. 

Imagine 100 bucks for a KoP. I call that loosing its resell value.

Same experience with a Pelikan M1000.

 

Do you think someone will pay more than 20-30 USD for a pen available for 70 USD new. A special model might perhaps keep some resell value, a black one certainly not.

[A Smug Dill]

24 minutes ago, mke said:

Do you think someone will pay more than 20-30 USD for a pen available for 70 USD new.

 

Yes, I do. I have sold several Japanese pens that are not limited/special editions for ~80% of new pen prices listed on Amazon at the time of selling, having owned them for a couple of years and written with them (so they aren't new in box).

[Inky_Ben]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

Or buy on-the-ground in the Japanese domestic market, or order online, Japanese pens (and other products) in general from Japan bypassing regional distributors.

Quote

 

@A Smug Dill  On this point, do you have any favorites?  I recently discovered Sailor's torpedo pens, with which I really enjoy writing.  Do you have a recommendation?

[mariom]

I just picked up a medium 1911 Realo in burgundy for AU$237. That's around US$155. The crazy thing is it was AU$351 just last week. I can't understand how the prices fluctuate so wildly.

[lascosas]

When the price fluctuates wildly it is usually that the seller has changed.  Amazon Japan as a seller on amazon.com will have pens that shift between in stock, normally shipping within 4 to 6 weeks, and not shown.  If it isn't shown as a seller the price is often considerably higher. because you have a different seller as the lowest price, and that price is relatively high.    I will set a third party new price watch for about what the price used to be with camelcamelcamel and that will alert me to the seller Amazon Japan having the item back in stock.

[A Smug Dill]

3 hours ago, Inky_Ben said:

@A Smug Dill  On this point, do you have any favorites?  I recently discovered Sailor's torpedo pens, with which I really enjoy writing.  Do you have a recommendation?

 

Recommendations among Japanese fountain pens in general, or torpedo-shaped Sailor fountain pens (or similar) in particular?

 

I personally prefer flat-ended pens, with occasional exceptions but most of those aren't Japanese.

 

Looking at Japanese fountain pens generally:

• My most-prized pen is the discontinued Pilot 'Hannya Shingyo'.
• For sheer writing capability, I really like the Pilot Justus 95.
• Ergonomically, geometry-wise and balance-wise, I find the Pilot Custom Heritage 912 to suit me very well.
• I prefer a matt (or 'satin') finish on the pen body, and the grip section as well if possible. So, I really like my Sailor Professional Gear Imperial Black, and the Sailor Shikiori Amaoto (aka 'The Sound of Rain') collection — which is based on the Professional Gear Slim model — is nice. My wife intercepted and 'accepted' for her own the Amaoto Kirisame I ordered a year and a half ago; and the effective prices of the collection across the board, not just that particular colourway, have dropped sufficiently since, that I finally pulled the trigger and ordered an Amaoto Suiu for myself, after having resisted its siren call on both of our Japan trips in the past twelve months (when I could have ordered the pen in yen for local delivery, and it would've cost me the same or maybe a tad less).
• The Sailor Professional Gear Slim Mini is more comfortable for me (writing with the cap posted on the end of the barrel) than the regular PGS (with or without posting the cap when writing), but I far, far prefer the long since discontinued first-release variant with the external thread at the end of the barrel onto which to screw the cap. I picked up our fourth colour in that design when I saw the entire range in a display cabinet in Maruzen Marunouchi, on the last day of our Tokyo trip.
• For something slightly different from the run-of-the-mill Sailor pen designs, I really like the Koshu-inden pens for the heft and the feel of the leather finish when writing. I ordered the red one first (several years ago) because it was more discounted; and, as soon as I've tried it out, I wasted no time to order the black one as well. Those pens are still available today, and for significantly less than what I paid.
• A wood finish is even better than just a matt finish, in my book; but most pens with wooden caps and bodies don't seal well against evaporation, even the Platinum #3776 models. The Pilot Custom Kaede (which is torpedo-shaped) and Custom Enjyu (larger, and with flat ends) are exceptions; and, out of those two, I prefer my Custom Kaede.
• The other torpedo-shaped Japanese pen I like is the long since discontinued Sailor Promenade. The Profit Light, which eventually took the Promenade's old place in Sailor's product line-up, is close but not quite the same. However, given how cheaply one could get a Profit Light these days, and how inflated the price of a new-old-stock Promenade is even if you can find one, … the Profit Light will do.
• Of course, there's the Pilot Capless, and even models of it with wooden barrels. I have the red one, and I like it best out of the ten or so Pilot Capless pens here including the Raden variants.
• The recently released Sailor TUZU fountain pen is pretty good as a writing instrument (and retail package) considered in isolation, and even better if you're able to get one for less than it's retail price in the Japanese domestic market.
• It's not that I don't like Platinum fountain pens, when I have close to a hundred of them here; but most of the models in the #3776 and President product families have one or two annoying (to me) traits. So, if I were to recommend a Platinum model, it would be an Izumo Tamenuri; but they're rather expensive these days, even with the weak yen.

[lascosas]

If no one minds, I will add a few Japanese pen recommendations, currently available for ordering from amazon.com from the seller Amazon Japan:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08VRNB1S6

It is a lot of money to spend for a president nib, but it feels gorgeous in the hand, and this is an excellent price.

 

Platinum Presidents are still being sold by Amazon Japan on amazon.com for around $125.  I think of these as bigger 3776s, and I much prefer them.  Platinum stopped making these a couple of years ago, so the prices are only heading up.

 

I also am a fan of the Sailor Koshu-inden Fountain Pens, and both are for sale at around $170 each.  The deer skin is a marvelous, tough, texture which has a long history in Japanese purses and other items.  I have bought a couple of these purses/bags on Ebay.  For the pens:

https://www.amazon.com/Sailor-Fountain-Medium-Sheath-10-3051-320/dp/B00NW6E4H4

 

For Pilots, my fave are the 742 because of the wide variety of nibs available at a relatively reasonable price...as long as you like black with gold trim, but Amazon Japan doesn't carry Pilot fountain pens, so when I bought these it was from a seller no longer around on amazon.co.jp.

 

My favorite Japanese pen company is Sailor, and that is where Amazon Japan as a seller excels.  I prefer the torpedo shapes, 21K nibs, but I regularly search for anything available:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sailor+fountain+pen&me=A3GZEOQINOCL0Y

 

 

 

[Karmachanic]

6 hours ago, lascosas said:

Amazon Japan as a seller

 

In my experience of purchasing pens from AMZ.jp, AMZ.jp is not the seller, but funtions as a storefront for individual merchants, in similar fashion as *Bay.

[lascosas]

The various tentacles of the Amazon empire (US, Japan, UK, Mexico, etc) each perform a multitude of functions.  They are often the seller & shipper.  You can see this information on the sales page.  See below for an example.  Sometimes one division of Amazon, in the example I have been using, Amazon Japan, will be the seller & shipper, and thus the third party for another division of Amazon, in this case amazon.com.  See the second example below.  But in both cases the entire transaction is within the tentacles of the Amazon empire.  There are no unrelated third-parties involved.  It is Amazon's perceived conflict of interest in being both a seller and platform for third-party sellers that has led to investigations by several governments.

 

The below examples are from amazon.com, but I could provide the same examples from several other countries where I purchase things from Amazon.

[A Smug Dill]

7 hours ago, lascosas said:

but Amazon Japan doesn't carry Pilot fountain pens,

 

I'm confident it does; it just doesn't sell Pilot pens to customers who want the orders delivered outside of Japan, quite possibly as a stipulation in Amazon Japan's commercial agreement with Pilot.

 

You should be able to order Pilot pens on Amazon.co.jp, sold and shipped by Amazon.co.jp, for delivery to addresses in Japan.

5 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

In my experience of purchasing pens from AMZ.jp, AMZ.jp is not the seller, but funtions as a storefront for individual merchants, in similar fashion as *Bay.

 

I don't know about AMZ.jp, but on Amazon.co.jp there are certainly instances where it is also the seller:

 

[lascosas]

Good clarification.   I set my default address on all Amazon sites to the US, which limits what is available.

 

For anyone interested in trying out the Sailor Tuzu, here's one from our old friend on amazon, $27:

https://www.amazon.com/Sailor-Fountain-ADJUST-Packaged-11-0549-242/dp/B0D22GTWS3

[Karmachanic]

[lascosas]

Yes, third party seller, shipped by Amazon.  There are tons of those.  The options are shipping/selling third party, shipping/selling amazon and shipping amazon, selling third party.