eBay impulse buys (dumb)

I purchased these on a whim, needing to fill out my collection, to my dismay.

Newman 0.5mm: HUGE, I could hit a home run with this thing. All functions are generic and unexciting…

Platinum msd-500: FAT cheap garbage. Thought it may come close to the “pro touch 2”, not even close. Cheap garbage.

Senator 0.5mm: the eBay image is not the same as what arrived. This is a pilot clone, one not of any interest or quality. Cheap bleh….

Hope this helps someone in the future :grin:

9 Likes

Can you imagine if that executive etched Newman came in 0.2? At least it was nicely made.

3 Likes

That Newman is nicely made. Once cleaned up, you could get good money for it. Very nice that it still has the sticker too. I don’t know why you’re calling it “huge,” as length wise its about average. Girth wise it is thicker, but I find it workable. What’d you end up paying for the whole lot?

2 Likes

That Newman rocks! It’s pretty expensive now, too. If you paid less than ¥10,000, you came out way ahead.

2 Likes

You seem to be getting some expensive lessons lately. Didn’t you have anything to do with executive pencils? I see a 2mm sleeve there though.

I paid way too much…. I had an expectation that was way off from reality…

And you are right Sail, it’s been a minute since I’ve had any luck :sweat_smile:

Another way to get caught up in a regrettable buy is when someone lists a writing instrument you’ve been interested in for a decent price and you face bidding competition… and push it higher than you’d planned. And then later, you see the seller relist it–they have more! Sometimes they will have several copies of a particular pen or pencil, and post only 1 at a time. I’ve seen this play out on YAJ a few times. At one point there was a seller with about a dozen Sakura Freematic pencils. Their first listing netted a seriously high value. But then they relisted. Again. And again. The price fell… and in fact at one point an auction closed at 50% less than than the highest auction. I tried inquiring with the seller to possibly learn about how many they had total in their inventory. And I got a nebulous answer. I was aiming to get one at under the 3rd lowest auction price, and bid on a few… and then my luck ran out. They had no more. :angry:

6 Likes

I was in a bidding war on eBay for a Kohinoor 5640, stopped bidding around $200, lost. That evening, the seller emailed me saying they had another if I was willing to purchase for $90. It arrived the next day.

I believe That experience killed any “lottery winning” luck I possessed.

4 Likes

Was that another 5640 in the exact same condition? That’s amazing that they dropped the price down that low (from $200 to $90). You’d figure they’d just let bidders fight it out for the next one.

A while back I’d grabbed a rOtring 600 Newton pencil BIN listing. It was just $40, when they typically go for over $100. The seller also had the ballpoint in a different color, asked me if I wanted that as well, same price. So I took it. That was a nice little score. But yeah, I’ve not had any real major scores in a long while. I’m not looking as much, so that’s definitely part of it.

3 Likes

Right? I was definitely surprised. They lived in my city too, so it arriving next day was another bonus. Same quality as the original.

I believe their dad had multiple, and recently passed. Quickly selling them was more important than receiving maximum profit.

3 Likes

In the freematic wave the initial price dropped, but then constantly stayed high (i saw one exception due to worn status). So unfortunately i still dont have one :wink:

1 Like

No offense, but I’ve seen your collection posts… You, not having ONE pencil being discussed somehow made my day brighter :joy:.

I honestly don’t mean to cast shade…. Your posts taught me about All the M.P.s out there. Fortunately enough they’d simultaneously act as a “lighthouse”-lighting a finish line of possibilities/grandeur….

I reference them to this day.

3 Likes