Why I won't be buying bought the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz Fountain Pen
(and other Pelikan special edition pens)
Where to begin with this? The turmoil I felt surrounding the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz Special Edition bugged me for many months, which I'll talk about in this blog post.
First off, Pelikan has found themselves in a bit of a mess when it comes to their Special Edition pens. Typically, Pelikan announce their special edition Edelstein inks early in the year - The ink colours indicate the colour of that years' Special Edition M200 pens.
However, Pelikan has, for several, consistent, years now delayed the release date of their Special Edition pens. Previously, their pens have hit the market many months later than the ink - sometimes even during the following year.
The Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen was perhaps one of the most badly handled releases so far, though it did actually make it to the retailers the same year as the ink did!
Unfortunately, it was still delayed, with pre-orders taken for an October release date not being fulfilled until November 2023.
Pelikan has been in trouble for a good few years now;
- The 2020 pandemic hit their supply chain hard
- Pelikan ran out of material for their nibs
- Broad nibs became scarce and unobtainable in many markets, especially those outside of the EU
- North America could not obtain Pelikan pens until late 2023
- Pelikan ended up being acquired by Hamelin - The Pelikan's Perch has an excellent blog post about this which you can read HERE
Ok, so the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen was delayed, but not only due to supply issues, but more worryingly this was due to significant quality concerns.
As far as I am aware, these quality problems were resolved very quickly (within a few weeks) but what these were has not been disclosed.
I have always been impressed by the quality of Pelikan products, and whilst it is great that Pelikan made the decision to only market the M205 Rose Quartz once these quality issues had been resolved, the fact that these pens are presumably being made in Malaysia indicates a potentially bigger problem, in my mind at least.
Onto the next problem. The price...
Cult Pens (and other UK retailers) are selling the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz for the overly optimistic price of £195 - Yes, one hundred and ninety five pounds for a Pelikan M200 fountain pen!!
Fountain Pen Journey has always championed the more affordable fountain pens, with a sub £140 Pelikan or Lamy fountain pen being the upper limit for me.
£195 is, honestly, far too much to pay for a Pelikan M200. I realise that the Pelikan M200 series is the "gateway drug" to Pelikan's Souveran line of pens, but when Pelikan still managed to release (unexpectedly) the Pelikan M200 Pastel Blue for around £150 in 2023, therefore this jump in price for a rose quartz version seems exorbitant.
I would also like to point out the the Pelikan M200 series have steel nibs. There’s NO gold in them there nibs!
But that rose quartz colour...
I admit it (as I have done in my Fountain Pen Journey YouTube videos) - I like pink.
Damn it, the second that I saw the marketing photos of the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen, I knew that I would buy one.
The overall disarray that surrounded its release was enough to make me hold off on buying this pen, especially that price. However, I was sensible and I refused to pay this sort of money for it.
I already have a rose quartz coloured fountain pen - the rather excellent Sailor Lecoule Rose Quartz, which is genuinely the same colour as the pink mineral, rose quartz. Hell, it even has some subtle, sparkly inclusions, if you look very carefully at the pen in strong light.
Oh, and it also writes very well and costs just over £30. (My review of this pen is HERE)
But I collect Pelikan M200s. And it's pink.
I had dismissed this purchase completely. I don't buy £200 fountain pens, even pink ones.
The Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz doesn't even have anything else going for it: Yes, it's pink, but it's just a plain old transluscent pink with no sparkles or anything. I really liked the Pelikan M205 Star Ruby fountain pen from 2019 - That had plenty of sparkles, which in my opinion elevated what would have been a very boring pen barrel and cap.
The M205 Rose Quartz also has white furniture, which personally isn't to my taste. Black wouldn't have looked right, but white just looks cheap. (Shall I mention that £195 price tag again?)
Then Iguana Sell emailed me a couple of weeks ago with a marketing email in which there were some good reductions in their winter sale. The Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen was included. The price (including shipping (which only took two days!) was £137 - not quite an absolute bargain, but close enough to the price that I was willing to pay.
This price was for the whole presentation box which includes the Edelstein Rose Quartz ink. This worked out at about £4.50 more than the fountain pen just on its own.
So here is the Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen unboxing:
The very pretty presentation gift box
Very pretty in pink!
I like this rose quartz ink bottle quite a lot
The Pelikan M205 Rose Quartz fountain pen is a pretty colour
Am I happy with this purchase?
Yes! (At this far more reasonable price.) However, my review will cover something that I dislike immensely about this purchase.
Check back here in a week or two for my review of this pen and ink.
Then, just three weeks into January 2024 Pelikan drop an unexpected new fountain pen, the Pelikan M200 Orange Delight…
Damn you Pelikan! I like orange as much as I like pink!
One of the first fountain pens that I searched for when I fell down the fountain pen rabbit hole was an orange coloured Pelikan, with only the rarely available Pelikan M640 Indian Summer being a potential candidate. This particular pen is scarce and it was only in 2023 when I saw a couple for sale. At this time I also discovered that this model is metal barrelled, which didn’t appeal to me, nor was I happy with the shape of the barrel.
Because I collect Pelikan M200s, this new orange Pelikan has to be in my collection!
Thankfully the pricing is also more in line with what I would expect, though I have already seen discrepancies in the pre-order prices. For example, Cult Pens are charging £180 (Cult Pens’ “RRP” £220!!!) for the Pelikan M200 Orange Delight fountain pen, but Pure Pens are charging £145 (Pure Pens “RRP” £180) for this pen…
Something is already telling me that this could well be another purchase that I hold off on (I won’t pre-order one) and I will be patient and see what the prices of this pen turn out to be on Amazon and on Iguana Sell.
I’ll also point out that the Pelikan M200 Orange Delight is part of Pelikan’s “Classic” range, so it’s not this years’ Edelstein release.
The release date for this pen is expected to be February 2024, though as I have already said earlier in this post, Pelikan’s delayed product launches are par for the course nowadays and it would seem peculiar of Pelikan if this Orange Delight is available before 2023’s Pelikan M200 Copper Rose Gold, which retailers took pre-orders for in Q4 of 2023, yet it has still to reach any retailers…
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