2024 is coming in 10 mins here in Beijing!
I’ve got so many unique MPs that I had been dreaming about for years during the past 2023, and some of them are the models I planned to spend a few decades to hunt for. The FACT is, everything you desire will show up one day. PROVED!
I spent way more time this year than before on collecting MP-related materials. Books, catalogues and any other publication that could help were bought or saved. One good news is, the MP book I’m writing has made some progress due to these materials. A package with something crazy is on the way as my first 2024 arrival, and it will help even more.
Here posted is the last arrivals of the year delivered yesterday. Wish you all have a wonderful year!
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HNY!
Props to that Hi-uni 2 mm and, dang, those Automacs!
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Happy New Year, you need to teach me how to time travel!
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Happy New Year, I still have a few hours left of 2023!
Nice haul, some Déjà-Vus on the picture 
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Agreed, that Scepter is nice.
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Happy New Year! 3 hours and a half left here
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Happy New Year, Xiao!
Amazing scores. A white Automac E? I never knew that existed. Was it a “unicorn” you’d been looking for, or just pure serendipity of spotting it on auction? I also see you got that white Uni lead holder. Gorgeous looking piece. And yes, that textured gold Pentel Scepter that others mentioned–very nice. Would love to see higher resolution photos at some point. Finally, got to hand it to you, that yellow PILOT Sprinter was such a supreme find. Congrats!
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Well the “unicorn” target is updating all the time. I have already obtained most of the hi-end models, and PXN series from Pentel will be the one left. But I won’t call it a “unicorn”. You know how much I wanted a H-5005 four years ago, and now they are everywhere. For a model that has been mass produced, you will see it pops up on the market if the profit is attractive to the owners. Defeat other competitors isn’t a problem for me, especially when I find out my major competitors are usually scalpers.
The real unicorns are those never mentioned on catalogues. I started to focus on those so called “prototypes” a few years ago. Although I made some mistakes during the past years(eg. I won my first Sakura Free Matic for 223k yen, or the Sakura Archi Y2 set for 10k usd), I did found something great. Another unicorn is the limited edition. I know people are tired about those monthly updated LE from Staedtler, Pentel or even KT Dive, but the LE I mentioned are those being produced in less than 100 pcs(or even less).
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Are you not afraid of buying frankensteined pencils with the mostly obscure stuff? I was remembered on the discussion here about the hairline Porsche design of Damdeok …
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What does frankensteined mean?
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Frankensteined is a term used to describe something that has been created by taking different parts from various sources or products and assembling them together. The term is inspired by the fictional character Frankenstein’s monster, who was made from the parts of different bodies.
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Thanks for the explanation. It happens a lot, and scalpers who wants to make more profit did this a lot. I hate that. They don’t understand how much effort we have to make to identify a new version.
For some of the models, I have confidence to identify whether it’s made up of parts from different pencils. For others, I have to make sure I buy only from trusted source.
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I also thought of real modifications. While I always make fun of subreddit‘s fear of faked p205 or similar, I see real threats in the high end vintage sector: for several 100€s it is worthwhile to create new finishes or manufacture small parts in a well equipped hobbyist maker shop.
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Sometimes it’s as simple as the wrong clip installed on the pencil (which sometimes can be sourced from a cheaper model) but other times you might get a nose-cone swap that isn’t quite right. That happened to me from a pencil/pen lot where the pencil I was aiming for was partially obscured. It was going to be a super deal, until someone else spotted it and challenged me to a bid war. Closing price was still not bad, IF the pencil I wanted was proper.
Another problem less talked about is a pencil simply not working. I’ve had two sellers pull that on me. Pencil looks perfect and there’s even a photo of the lead partially extended from the tip… but that was a ruse. The mechanism simply failed to advance lead. And the real problem here is that proxy-buying has gotten so prolific, the sellers expect to get away with deceptions because the buyer can’t leave feedback–the proxy does it, and they don’t test items for function or authenticity.
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When they explicitly say they didn’t test it — that’s as fishy as it gets
No, I didn’t mean the seller. I meant the proxy service. They just receive goods and visually check for any obvious breakage. They do not test devices or mechanisms for proper function as they would need domain knowledge for that.
There are sellers who have fairly good feedback ratings, but then have boilerplate descriptions like “ink may have run out. very limited check on function. not responsible for any discrepancies. look at photos carefully.” I’ve bought from such sellers and most of the time there are no surprises. But I’ve now had to be careful as this past year had 2 sellers offer up duds, where the condition line was “There are no noticeable scratches” and the usual boilerplate description, and photos that don’t reveal the issues… And there is obviously no recourse for correction/compensation.
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