From the “I Nearly Fell Off My Chair File” we have…
A correspondent from Japan finished a recent email to me with an almost casual “Pentel P205 (It has not been sold any longer in Japan)”.
What!?!!???!!!!!?!!
So I asked for clarification, and received the reply “Yes. Sales in Japan of P205 ended.”
Oh, say it ain’t so!
I rushed to the Pentel Japan website…and…the P200 Sharp was no where to be found. Apparently this is years old news, but it’s new news to me! Have I been living in a cave under a rock for the last 5 years?
I will just have to hope that sales continue to be reasonable in other parts of the world and Pentel will still manufacture the P205 for many years to come and sell it in other places, just not Japan. On the other hand, I think I’ll be buying a few fairly soon, just in case like. In the meantime, I might just have to hit the bottle to help get over the shock.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
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18 comments:
Oh....... no....
My first mechanical pencil as an adolescent, still my favorite pencil for drawing, the quintessential mechanical pencil design.... gone?
Can this be true? Are they planning a replacement? Wow! Thanks for the heads up...
Well, at the Pentel Store (online) it's still offered:
https://www.pentelstore.com/index.php?grp=761&osCsid=e241f612c6b0d2b54609c519883f0044
Maybe it is only in Japan sales has ended?
regards
Henrik
Just to be clear, this is apparently old news, but new to me. Apparently Pentel stopped selling the P205 in Japan many years ago.
I only recently tried one and its a elegant piece of design, from the clip not getting in the way to the last little ridge before the cone portion of the tip or just the clearance to the paper, not mentioning the great grip and nowadays uniquely thin barrel. It is puzzling that it would be pulled from the motherland where stationary and mps are so loved. And years ago? Crazy.
pe
Phew! I guess the discontinuation of the P205 is just in Japan. It's still on the American Pentel website.
I have about 40 of them =) I was at office Max today and they still sell them.
Been using leadholders for drawing of late though.
I knew you shouldn't have dropped it out of your top 5! You go and do that and now look what happens. You need to learn how to use your powers, not abuse them. ;)
This is not news to me. Anyone could have gone to their website and taken note of this fact themselves. I've never been able to find any signs of the P200 series pencils anywhere on the Pentel Japanese website!
This is cause for concern. While my mechanical pencil collection is growing there is one pencil that always has had a place with me and that is my P209! Even before I rediscovered my obsession I have been using that yellow beauty in anything outdoors writing related. It's simple and very robust and easy to find when dropped in the grass.
I live in the States, here's hoping the good old USA Pentel P20(5-7-9)sticks around!!!!
Murphy
This might be a good opportunity for mechanical pencil collectors here in the States to stock-up on the P200 series for use in future trades (or sales) with other Japanese collectors/users that may no longer have access to those Pentel products in their market!
I received a trade pricelist from Pentel AU recently and the P205 is still there.
That's amazing! Then again, in the US we buy so many pencils & pens you can only get in Japan, it's only fair there may be a few they can only get from us. ;)
Yes, quite right Rachel.
They're still selling in Thailand....and can be found in every stationary shop I know ^^'
bummer. I feel the quality has gone down somewhat, though. The mechanism is not 100% brass now. The threaded portion looks to be made of chromated steel now.
I am glad I saw this post. I have been using the P205 since the late 70's and I think it is the best Pentel product ever. This will be like the Blackwing, buy one now because people will try to buy them if they are discontinued later...
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