He says he is sorry as he has sold most of these pieces.
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This is probably the case, 11 things that came with the original item and its hard because its easy for sellers to mix these.
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Interesting, so he basically ended up shedding Sailor, OHTO, and Chikyu because they weren’t up to his standards for collecting?
I have to admit, I’ve been rather disappointed by Sailor. There’s only a very small number of mechanical pencil models they made that I like. The one that had a lot of potential, with the clear window in the pencil center to expose available lead, is quite fragile. I bought one mint with sticker… and while just test writing with it, the plastic sheared off… came apart.
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Yes, its his opinion. “they’ve all been sold before. The reason was that the mechanical pencil was not suitable for me. It is also because it was not superior in terms of functions such as mechanisms. This is my subjective judgment, so I want to tell you that I am very sorry.”
No need to be sorry. We’re all free to have our opinions and collecting focus. Owning a fraction of what he has shown in his photos, I understand where he’s coming from. He has definitely gravitated to high quality writing instruments. And they’re all unique in their own way, with worthwhile designs and laudable construction.
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That’s what I mean, the sleeve was in leather for the 1st edition mechanicas, in plastic for 2nd and 3rd editions.
I wanted to write a post at some point explaining all the mechanica differences. I researched them a lot since I was almost scammed for a frankenpencil being sold as a 1st edition 0.3 mechanica. Anyway
As Damdeok says, 1st edition mechanica 0.3 was made for only 3 years. There’s almost no information online about the 1st edition mechanica 0.5 so I suppose it’s the one that Damdeok has. I suppose that it was released a bit later than the 0.3, so it probably was made for only 2 years, at a 2000 yen price point. Then the design was changed and price raised to 3000 yen.
What he says about the accessories, it probably is just a reference to the items in a full set. Many mechanicas being sold have mix and matched parts, so I guess he’s just saying “this is a true 1st edition 0.5 mechanica NOS”. For example, most people just check whether a pen is 1st edition or not by the grip, but the grip can be swapped from pencil to pencil and it doesn’t say 0.3 anywhere. So you pick the 0.3 1st edition grip, slap it on a 2nd edition shiny 0.5 mechanica with a box, and sell it as a 1st edition to an unknowing buyer for 3x what it’s worth. Profit!!
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the sleeve was in leather for the 1st edition mechanicas
Yes, that’s correct. There were probably a few reasons why they switched, one of the simplest ones being a much easier fit into the case. The vinyl is also a lot cheaper and not nearly as sturdy as the leather.
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Sailor Astelons are top tier; most of the Sailors with conical tips are quite nice.
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After some time without pictures…
He has decided to remain in contact for now.
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He needs to sell me the extras. No sense having these repeats laying around…
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So true. He should donate them to charity (me)
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0.3 Mechanica 2nd generation!
To him these are the top 5 mechanical pencil companies (by historical significance) - in no particular order:
Rotring
Staedtler
Pilot
Faber-Castell
Pentel
I’d only remove Rotring and change it for Uni.
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Curious to see Rotring there, did he give any reason? I would also change it for Uni. While Rotring has several solid pencils, to the best of my knowledge they never innovated in mechanisms or tried to make an automatic mechanical pencil.
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Before I became a serious collector, I’d have included rOtring and Staedtler in my top 5.
But now? No way. I wouldn’t include Faber-Castell, either. In terms of just MPs, these brands reign supreme:
- Pilot
- Pentel
- Mitsubishi
- Tombow
- Platinum
- Newman
- Sakura
I would also elevate Colleen Jib to the highest tier, but others could make reasonable arguments against such a claim.
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I try everything possible to never agree with Chris but I agree with him on this.
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I’d actually make a point for FC and STAEDTLER, they were the first in the West to release 0.5 and sub 0.5 pencils and leads (with FC even beating Mitsubishi by one year and being the second company to make 0.5 polymer leads and pencils - and STAEDTLER having started research on polymer leads as far back as 1961, eventually releasing their leads and pencils just right after Mitsubishi). Newman is the only one I know a bit more about… specially thanks to the “0.2 debate” so I will ask for his reasoning and thoughts.
Additionally, some 2mm love.
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One of the biggest MP collectors ever 
r/mechanicalpencils newbies
Thinking that Rotring is peak stationery.
I feel like many people will disagree with me, since I think that many users of this forum like the minor Japanese brands. But I don’t. I think that, for separating brands into tiers, we have to consider both consistency along time, rate of innovation and amount of copied designs.
Three brands are at the top
- Pilot
- Pentel
- Mitsubishi
All have been big players since the early days and have driven the innovation in the field. There’s no shortage of copying designs (particularly looking at Pilot and their heavy inspiration in early European designs from Montblanc, parker etc) but the amount of originality compensates for that.
The next tier is more debatable, but for me it is
- Tombow
- Sakura
- Rotring
- Faber castell
- Staedtler
Tombow and the zoom sub brand are very notable. From all of the minor Japanese brands, I feel like Sakura has the most interesting flagships (archi + their automatics). Rotring, faber castell and staedtler have also pushed the limits in an environment not as friendly as Japan, which I think is commendable. Some of these brands have deviated from their roots quite a bit, probably since they can’t compete as “core” brands while Pilot, Pentel and Mitsubishi are still in the market. Rotring may not have products as innovative as the other brands but it has driven the interest in high quality stationery in the west more than most other brands, I think.
And then there’s the rest. Newman trading for such high prices is incomprehensible to me, I guess that’s the appeal of a brand that went out of business. But most of their designs just seem like someone looking at the trend of etched/silver and black pencils and saying “yes, I can do that as well!”. Platinum seems sub par to me, in both pencils and fountain pens. Zebra has almost relegated itself to the “funny gimmick or it won’t sell” category. From the other minor Japanese brands, Uchida and Fuji are some of the most interesting to me, since at least they were trying to do something different. Colleen only has one successful line and it’s two trends of the time (pocket pens and double knocks) fused together with a color/variation lineup which is completely chaotic.
But that’s just my opinion and many will disagree
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I’ve said before that he loves first generation rotring 
His reasoning was that while Mitsubishi had more innovation, Rotring made a more consistent mechanism. He also said it was hard to choose between the two. I’d need to try out the early Rotrings to know if they are this great. If it was about stationery (but more particularly drafting) a point could be made about their history with technical pens…
I agree with you. I don’t like the minor brands that much as well, Tombow to me stands out while Sakura was like a bright fire, they burned hot and bright for a short period (which inflates the price of any pencil they made). And Pentel, Pilot and Mitsubishi are the top, undoubtedly the most innovative and important brands.
From Damdeok:
Well… the answer to that me was that at first too. It is the perception that Japan is superior to Europe. This was an illusion. The reason is that I get a feeling after using the first generation. I mean, there’s definitely a significant difference.
It can be seen that Japan has a majority in brands and mechanisms than Europe. However, my subjective opinion judges that Europe is superior to Japan.
Depending on the results of the judgment on this, you may be disappointed, but I make that judgment.
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I used to have a TK-Matic, one with a plastic green body. It worked fine, but it seemed to rely a lot on pressure from the pipe slide to get that auto-advance going. I found myself periodically having to manually advance. I wasn’t pleased with it enough to keep–sold it. Got the Alphamatic. NOW we’re talking. Without the pipe slide in the mix, I find the writing performance more enjoyable. I like it. However, I found that the market prices for the Alphamatic to be too high. They’re not as rare as sellers would make you believe. And there are some collectors out there who keep buying them up, which helps float the market prices. Of course, the Executive models made of titanium and various special treatments jack the price up even more. I think they look beautiful, but not willing to pay those prices.
Staedtler’s real fame is the Micromatic 777. It’s super sought after. But the mechanism is fragile and nearly impossible to fix when broken. That totally kills the feeling for me. Rare for rarity’s sake doesn’t cut it. I would expect a solid pencil for the prices they sell at. Can you imagine forking over $1k USD for one and after a few test runs the mechanism just suddenly breaks? Not for me. Their Micrograph series are respectable. Nicely made. I have a 77017 and it’s nice. But it’s a rather boring workhorse pencil. They’re also all over the place. Some try lottery win prices of over $100 USD for one in near mint condition. That’s just ridiculous.
For me, it’s the Japanese brands. They had a real passion for mechanical pencils. No other nation made so many models with such a diversity in designs. PILOT, Pentel, and Mitsubishi rule. And nobody can touch Tombow for its daring artful designs (many I wish they’d revisit). Sakura wasn’t as prolific in ranges of models, but they made a few gems… the ATS-3000 and Archi series being the most glorious. Platinum made some great pencils at PILOT level quality, although they did have some designs that really didn’t resonate with me. Some were beautifully made. The “Z” ended up in the MoMA catalog. Newman made some great pencils. I wish they’d been more expansive in models. Quality wise, I feel like they fell just a little short of PILOT, with some exceptions that matched PILOT quality. I think they went out of business sometime in the late 1980’s or early 1990’s.
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