New colourways of the Faber-Castell LOOM fountain pen spotted

[A Smug Dill]

I newly spotted multiple listings for these on Taobao, so it goes to show that Faber-Castell has not discontinued production or sales of the LOOM model. Given that these gift sets are cross-branded with The British Museum as a ‘collaborative’ special edition, I doubt it is exclusive to the Chinese market; and it probably is not factually true to say Faber-Castell has discontinued sales of the LOOM fountain pen in Western markets altogether.

 

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

Oh those little stuffed things are ADORABLE!  Not sure which one I like better -- the duck or the cat.  And guessing that the plush "bottles" are actually desk accessories/pen holders.  

As for the pens?  I'd have to see them in person so I could tell if the size/weight was good (i.e., comfortable) for my hand (I can't really tell the size from the photos).

Really hope that these are going to be available for the Western market at some point.  I just looked at the Faber-Castell website but wasn't sure quite where to look for these items.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

[A Smug Dill]

7 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Really hope that these are going to be available for the Western market at some point.  I just looked at the Faber-Castell website but wasn't sure quite where to look for these items.

 

I'm fairly sure these won't be available from Faber-Castell in either Australia or the US. There has been other relatively recent colourways, including but not limited some collab editions, that were available from Chinese marketplace platforms; but I've never seen them anywhere else I looked, especially since the LOOM does appear to have been removed from official distribution by Faber-Castell in Western markets. I'm guessing the British Museum collab would be available from the museum's gift shop, and the collab with the HUNTING brand (from the UK?) only directly from HUNTING itself outside of China, so they'd be demonstrably buyable in the West, but not for general online shoppers.

[AmandaW]

They are very cute. What is the other item in the sets? Is it a notebook?

[inkstainedruth]

I was wondering the same thing.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, AmandaW said:

They are very cute. What is the other item in the sets? Is it a notebook?

 

Plushies in the shape of a notebook and the shape of an ink bottle, respectively. Not functional (as the items they resemble), but both plushies can serve as pen holders on the desk.

[jchch1950]

21 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I newly spotted multiple listings for these on Taobao, so it goes to show that Faber-Castell has not discontinued production or sales of the LOOM model. Given that these gift sets are cross-branded with The British Museum as a ‘collaborative’ special edition, I doubt it is exclusive to the Chinese market; and it probably is not factually true to say Faber-Castell has discontinued sales of the LOOM fountain pen in Western markets altogether.

 

 

 

 

21 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I newly spotted multiple listings for these on Taobao, so it goes to show that Faber-Castell has not discontinued production or sales of the LOOM model. Given that these gift sets are cross-branded with The British Museum as a ‘collaborative’ special edition, I doubt it is exclusive to the Chinese market; and it probably is not factually true to say Faber-Castell has discontinued sales of the LOOM fountain pen in Western markets altogether.

 

 

The toys and desk accesories are very nice.I hope they will be available outside China, where Lamy had already sold similar editions of Safari pens.

 

[lascosas]

The British Museum shop does not carry these. 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, lascosas said:

The British Museum shop does not carry these. 

 

I looked last night as well, and I didn't see them listed by The British Museum shop online; but I can't say whether they're available on the ground or not. I would find it really weird if The British Museum would sign up to a co-branding deal for a product that is not sold in the UK at all, but only out of China.

 

Anyway, for the overseas e-commerce shoppers who are happy to order from China but just not comfortable with (registering for an account and) using Taobao, I see this edition available on AliExpress as well.

 

Faber-Castell LOOM pen bodies have always(?) been made in China, even if the nib units and converters are German, so I'm not sure it would have meant a different tariff situation for US buyers if the pens were available for ordering from, say, the UK. 

[AmandaW]

And, it appears to me, the Loom fountain pens are only available from China.

 

There are Loom ballpoints in orange or purple at Officeworks on clearance for $10 each.

 

Can't find much else.

 

Has Faber-Castell given up on it? And the factory gone rogue? 

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, AmandaW said:

Has Faber-Castell given up on it? And the factory gone rogue? 

 

I seriously doubt that a factory in China gone rogue can secure a cross-branding arrangement with The British Museum without Faber-Castell HQ in Germany's support and active involvement.

[Misfit]

@A Smug Dill I do shop at AliExpress.  I know nothing about Taobao. Is it a similar shopping experience, as in shipping worldwide or particularly for me to the US?

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, Misfit said:

I know nothing about Taobao. Is it a similar shopping experience,

 

Even after a massive amount of continual change over the past few years — much of it to make things easier and more appealing to overseas users — Taobao is still primarily a Chinese marketplace platform aimed at the domestic market, and the shopping experience is hugely different from AliExpress, which has also seen a lot of change in the meantime, but mainly to do with policies and practices.

 

Until quite recently, you really have to be able to deal with a Chinese language interface to navigate Taobao. I see now there's an English language interface by way of the app; I've flicked over to it once, but as I can deal with simplified Chinese (even though traditional Chinese is what is ‘native’ to me) passably and am quite familiar with the Chinese interface, I've switched back promptly.

 

It is now astronomically easier to settle payment with ‘foreign’ credit cards, and get Taobao orders ‘directly’ shipped to overseas delivery addresses, including for previously inaccessible items such as liquid products (e.g. ink). But international shipping is never ‘free’ in the sense of being ‘included’ in the item price, although it's not inconceivable that there may be promotional campaigns in the future to offer new users ‘free’ shipping for their first orders, or that kind of one-off, coupon-based discounts or rebates.

 

Getting problems resolved or items returned for refund would be vastly different (and infinitely more difficult, if you don't read and write in Chinese, don't have a AliPay account or China-based payment method, etc.) from how it's done on AliExpress.

 

There are lots of intricacies when it comes to pros and cons, but for the average online shopper in the West, if an item is available on both AliExpress and Taobao and the price difference is less than 25%, on balance of risk and gain (or cost saving) it's probably better to just grit one's teeth and pay more to order on AliExpress. Two major exceptions are: liquid products (including ink), and items for which you'd really want to original retail packaging (intact on arrival, not crushed even if it's sent at all). Taobao sellers almost invariably pack better than AliExpress sellers, because the former are not trying to save on shipping costs or shipping weight in any significant (or irresponsible) way, whereas AliExpress sellers will try to send the least stuff physically with the least amount of protective packing.

[Ambien]

Aww, they look adorable and I need to see if AliExpress has the kitty one since I love kitties. The only other plan I had for the Loom is that I wanted to try an M nib, but it was OOS when I checked over the last few weeks on AliExpress too. 

 

Aww, OK not sure if I want to pay $83 right now for the set but I'll think about it. 

[Misfit]

Thank you very much @A Smug Dill for taking the time to explain Taobao for me. I think I’ll stick to AliExpress. I don’t have the payment methods you mentioned for Taobao. And I don’t read or speak Chinese. 

[Ambien]

TBH I used to buy off TB using Superbuy as a proxy and it's not really worth in now since we had the new tariffs either as I'm in the USA so I gave up it all for good for now. 

 

I can't read Chinese either, but I relied on alot of Google Translate to check names of items too. 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, Misfit said:

I don’t have the payment methods you mentioned for Taobao.

 

I usually just use my credit card issued by an Australian company to pay for my Taobao orders. Taobao won't let me use CNY as the transaction currency unless I use AliPay, but where I'm prepared to accept letting Taobao do the currency conversion (eyes wide open to the fact that it may not offer me the same rate as what I see on XE.com, but to be fair, it reams me a lot less than AliExpress does or tries to) to AUD and cop the 3% foreign credit card processing charge, that part is fine.

 

It's on the refund or compensation side of things where it gets tricky. These days it has become slightly easier to get sellers issuing (especially partial) refunds through the Taobao platform as it they were reversals, but in the not-so-distant past I've had sellers agree with me on some ‘dollar amount’ in CNY as compensation/resolution, then proceeded straight to depositing that amount in my AliPay account directly instead of treating it as a dispute/refund request through Taobao. That caused issues on multiple fronts; perhaps all minor in the grand scheme of things, and the seller arguably has fulfilled its side of the resolution agreement, but it was annoying nevertheless, with the long and short of it being that I received less in amount than I otherwise would, and those funds cannot be withdrawn in any meaningful way into my Australian bank account or offset my credit card account balance.

[Ambien]

Damn, the Bastet Set went up in price since the last time I saw it now $87+7= $94 me in the USA as they had to add an extra $7 for importing fee in the total in my cart =/