Any tips on getting a Ohto Flat C Pen around 50$ ? It’s priced at 162 on Mercari and 250$ on eBay. I am tracking this pen for few month and new listings rarely popup. I have seen great reviews for this pen and curious to try one.
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I think Yosshy had a used silver Flat-C listed on Mercari but the description warned: you have to hold down the clip when you press the knock in order to lock it in place. This is typical issue with used examples as the tension spring for the clip becomes weak over time.
I remember several listings 1-2 years back where a Flat-C was bundled with a Promecha 1000M in a sealed pack. Might pop up again if you’re lucky… and vigilant.
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Wow, I didn’t know about this possible flaw over time. That’s concerning. Is there any way to get access to the spring to fix the problem?
gotcha, I was looking from one since 6 months. Still no luck.
I have seen the Flat-C disassembled but just like with precious items like a Lamy 2000, I just don’t have the nerve to figure out how to literally pull it off…
I have a Silver one for sale — I’m balancing between selling it or not.
Send me a message with a proposal — I’m sure we can get to a middle ground.
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Sending DM
Well, I was the one who took a chance on it. I thought it might be a good project for figuring out how the pen is assembled… and maybe a way to do it non-destructively.
As it turns out, the mechanism is not faulty. It was working, but tension was much too high to get it to lock into place easily. I unscrewed the nose cone, and you know what I found? The wrong spring was installed! OHTO uses a very narrow spring, one you don’t typically see on most ballpoints. The spring has to be narrow enough to fit inside the nose cone core. The one that was in there? It’s a very short but normal width spring. It can’t fit inside the cone. So when you press to the point of lock-in compression, it’s very tight. I swapped springs and it works just fine.
So, that meant… where do I find a compatible spring? I opened my “ballpoint pen junk bag” and rummaged through my spring baggie. I couldn’t find one that would naturally fit. But I did find an odd one that has the right diameter. I am thinking of trimming it to fit. I just can’t remember if it’s a spare for something important (I wish I’d written a mini note for it).
The red outline denotes the OHTO FLAT-C spring length.
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Good luck with the spring mod! Every pen fan needs a box of spare springs!!
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It’s crazy how many MPs I’ve purchased for super cheap do to them being “damaged/broken”, only to find a tiny piece of lead stuck in the clutch.
I’m guessing people don’t want to risk “breaking it more” or view opening them up as too much effort 
.
I’m not complaining though 
Well, you’ve been pretty lucky. I have bought about two pencils that were noted as “non-functional”, intending cannibalize them for parts, only to find that either there was a lead jam (sometimes a cheap lead in the chamber can ossify, clogging it further back from the chuck) that could be cleared or something silly like an ossified eraser jamming the lead reservoir tube. Having guitar/piano wire on hand has helped me numerous times. But I’ve also gotten stuck with about 2 or 3 pencils that were not described as non-functional, only to find the lead advancing mechanism simply wouldn’t work. Not a lead jam. Not a lead retainer issue. But weirdly, it just wouldn’t work. It happened on one PILOT and on a Mitsubishi double-knock.
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I picked up a variety of springs. Some were too narrow, some too weak. None were perfect as-is.
The 0.3 x 4 x 15 mm did the trick. I had to trim off 1 coil segment. Not an exact original spring match, but viable. My OHTO FLAT-C is working perfectly now. 
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Congratulations!!!
I’ll be willing to buy it for $20 if you are selling now 
(Joke)
The Flat-C is the first writing utensil I’ve seen jump, selling from $15(in a brand new pack with a promecha mp!), to now $100+ alone. In the span of less than a year!!
And that’s just the silver version. The black Flat-C is apparently going for almost $200.
The fluctuations of value in the “writing utensil market” is more volatile and unpredictable than I ever anticipated.
Kudos again for your success!
The Flat-C has always been expensive. It was nearly impossible to find a couple of years ago. I found a black one and it wasn’t cheap. Then, last year or so, for a short period of time a good number of the silver ones appeared (either in blisters with a promecha or separated) but that batch was quickly exhausted. I doubt they will ever surface again like that. No one will sell you a black Flat-C for less than $350 now.
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Thanks. I got very lucky. The seller’s description of the problem wasn’t very accurate, but he had said the tip will lock into place if you hold the clip. I couldn’t quite make sense of what would cause this. I thought maybe the spring had fouled up and wasn’t compressing right. And it turns out there was a bad substitute. My replacement spring feels just like the original with maybe just a slight bit more resistance (which I prefer).
I don’t ever remember the duo pack with Flat-C and Promecha being $15 USD. I think they were both ¥1000 originally. Back when that short stretch of them appearing on YAJ, I was able to grab a couple (around ¥7000). And then the bidding got more aggressive and I didn’t participate. But had I known how uncommon they were, I’d have tried to get a couple more. Yeah, I don’t understand why the black one is more rare… maybe they weren’t made in the same quantity for some reason. But in any case, I wouldn’t pay more than $100 for either one. They are nicely made, but I suspect more will come around sometime in the future.
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There is one on Merced japan for 190$
Better get it! 
Do you guys in the States still have that 1000 usd import limit? Or is it 500?
I’ve never heard of such a thing
There’s a limit though, after which you start paying import tax. It’s a very generous one so you probably haven’t cross it. Here in the Eurozone the limit is 0 euros…
I’ve imported through Buyee over $1000 worth of MPs and have not encountered it. At least, not that I’m aware