4 ms·

How many people read the reviews on Jetpens and then buy the pen from Amazon though. Obviously not so many to put them out of business, but that's always the d

How many people read the reviews on Jetpens and then buy the pen from Amazon though. Obviously not so many to put them out of business, but that's always the danger.

mrexroad 4y ago
Not to beat this horse, but I know the items I get from JetPens are not counterfeit. I’ve seen too many fountain pens reviews on Amazon where pens were counterfeit or gold nip was swapped with stainless. I usually buy from sellers such as JetPens or Goulet. With that said, I’ve bought a few FP from Amazon and AliExpress as well over the years.
dragontamer 4y ago
Hardly a danger. Amazon store is filled with counterfeits and scammers due to its comingling policy. When you buy from a small shop where its reputation is on the line, you're assured you're getting what you ordered. When you buy from Amazon, it could be comingled scammer-goods from that one guy who ruined the collective commons for everyone. Its clear how Amazon works. They merge SKUs together, and "Fulfilled by Amazon" means those goods are comingled with other marketplace sellers (possibly even "Sold by Amazon"). It only takes one bad actor in the marketplace for counterfeit goods to be mixed up with everyone.
- MisterBastahrd 4y ago
  Most people don't know that the Amazon stores have counterfeits and they don't care because they will almost never actually get one. I place close to 100 orders a year and have yet to receive a single counterfeit product, or at least, one that substantially differed from the product advertised.
  - dividedbyzero 4y ago
    I believe lots of those counterfeits are actually pretty hard to tell apart from the real product. I've had a Samsung charger that was almost a perfect copy, I wouldn't have noticed it if hadn't started smoking one day because the insides were melting together into a burned mass. There were some details (quality of the printing etc.) but nothing I'd ever have noticed. I've also had a Shimano MTB chain that wore out in 1/20 of what I usually get out of a chain. Not sure how many "this product is kind of disappointing" situations I've had that were actually due to fakes that weren't obviously fake garbage, but kind of ok-ish.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    The most counterfeits come from books in my experience. There seems to be counterfeit printers who will give lower-quality books (runny ink, editing errors, etc. etc.). This is a bigger deal for $100 to $200 textbooks. You're gonna get a lower quality product than the official printers if you buy enough books on Amazon. https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 No Starch Press was also complaining about it pretty loudly, but Amazon never made a response as far as I'm aware. I've caught counterfeits of my own. Ligatures (ex: fi or fl) are completely missing from my Art of Electronics 3rd Edition... so my table-of-contents says "ip-ops" instead of "flip-flops". Among other multitudes of errors that is in no errata that I'm aware of. It is also well published to be the case: https://artofelectronics.net/the-book/counterfeit-editions/ https://artofelectronics.net/the-book/counterfeit-editions/ And I have one of these counterfeit books myself as proof. Amazon really does have crap counterfeit detection.
jerlam 4y ago
I think it's pretty unlikely. It's not easy to know what you're buying from Amazon, especially when you're buying a very specific pen with a very specific color in a very specific tip size that's not even sold in your home market. Even if you do find it on Amazon, the rarer items are unlikely to be sold by Amazon and you'll be paying shipping from an unknown seller, maybe even shipped from overseas - and you might as well skip the effort and just buy from Jetpens.
BeetleB 4y ago
I bought my first fountain pen on Amazon (didn't know about Jetpens/Goulet/others). My second pen (Jinhao) - I think I got it from eBay. I suspect my next pen was also from Amazon. After that, though, all my pens came from niche stores. A number of PenBBS pens directly from the maker, etc. I just compared one of the pens I bought: Amazon is not cheaper than Jetpens.

How many people read the reviews on Jetpens and then buy the pen from Amazon though. Obviously not so many to put them out of business, but that's always the danger.

mrexroad 4y ago

Not to beat this horse, but I know the items I get from JetPens are not counterfeit. I’ve seen too many fountain pens reviews on Amazon where pens were counterfeit or gold nip was swapped with stainless. I usually buy from sellers such as JetPens or Goulet. With that said, I’ve bought a few FP from Amazon and AliExpress as well over the years.

dragontamer 4y ago

Hardly a danger. Amazon store is filled with counterfeits and scammers due to its comingling policy. When you buy from a small shop where its reputation is on the line, you're assured you're getting what you ordered. When you buy from Amazon, it could be comingled scammer-goods from that one guy who ruined the collective commons for everyone. Its clear how Amazon works. They merge SKUs together, and "Fulfilled by Amazon" means those goods are comingled with other marketplace sellers (possibly even "Sold by Amazon"). It only takes one bad actor in the marketplace for counterfeit goods to be mixed up with everyone.

MisterBastahrd 4y ago
Most people don't know that the Amazon stores have counterfeits and they don't care because they will almost never actually get one. I place close to 100 orders a year and have yet to receive a single counterfeit product, or at least, one that substantially differed from the product advertised.
- dividedbyzero 4y ago
  I believe lots of those counterfeits are actually pretty hard to tell apart from the real product. I've had a Samsung charger that was almost a perfect copy, I wouldn't have noticed it if hadn't started smoking one day because the insides were melting together into a burned mass. There were some details (quality of the printing etc.) but nothing I'd ever have noticed. I've also had a Shimano MTB chain that wore out in 1/20 of what I usually get out of a chain. Not sure how many "this product is kind of disappointing" situations I've had that were actually due to fakes that weren't obviously fake garbage, but kind of ok-ish.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  The most counterfeits come from books in my experience. There seems to be counterfeit printers who will give lower-quality books (runny ink, editing errors, etc. etc.). This is a bigger deal for $100 to $200 textbooks. You're gonna get a lower quality product than the official printers if you buy enough books on Amazon. https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 https://twitter.com/nostarch/status/1183095004258099202 No Starch Press was also complaining about it pretty loudly, but Amazon never made a response as far as I'm aware. I've caught counterfeits of my own. Ligatures (ex: fi or fl) are completely missing from my Art of Electronics 3rd Edition... so my table-of-contents says "ip-ops" instead of "flip-flops". Among other multitudes of errors that is in no errata that I'm aware of. It is also well published to be the case: https://artofelectronics.net/the-book/counterfeit-editions/ https://artofelectronics.net/the-book/counterfeit-editions/ And I have one of these counterfeit books myself as proof. Amazon really does have crap counterfeit detection.

jerlam 4y ago

I think it's pretty unlikely. It's not easy to know what you're buying from Amazon, especially when you're buying a very specific pen with a very specific color in a very specific tip size that's not even sold in your home market. Even if you do find it on Amazon, the rarer items are unlikely to be sold by Amazon and you'll be paying shipping from an unknown seller, maybe even shipped from overseas - and you might as well skip the effort and just buy from Jetpens.

BeetleB 4y ago

I bought my first fountain pen on Amazon (didn't know about Jetpens/Goulet/others). My second pen (Jinhao) - I think I got it from eBay. I suspect my next pen was also from Amazon. After that, though, all my pens came from niche stores. A number of PenBBS pens directly from the maker, etc. I just compared one of the pens I bought: Amazon is not cheaper than Jetpens.