Amazon has a whole new group of scammers that have shown up... I mean, blurring out the writing on the cap and nib? $385 for a steel nib? #2 Pencil?
Not in the picture: they recommend alcohol based ink.
this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2026
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I just recently got into fountain pens a few years ago and some of my first fountain pens were cheap Chinese knock offs. I wanted to see what it was all about without investing a lot of money in a hobby I might not like. I fell in love with fountain pens and have since graduated to TWISBI, Pelikan, and Lamy.
If a vendor is deliberately misrepresenting a product or committing outright fraud, that is a different issue and should be dealt with. However, the existence of cheap Chinese knock offs, so long as the vendor is transparent and honest, does have a place.
Oh certainly, there are plenty of reputable affordable Chinese fountain pen companies (Asvine, Hongdian, Majohn and Jinhao to name a few). But this isn't one of them - it's clearly a scam given the pricing, the selective blurring in the photo, and the weird details in the listing.