Suggestions for Decent, Affordable Local Ballpoint Pens?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Anyone have any recommendations on a decent, reasonably priced brand/model of ballpoint pens sold here, and where you buy them?

 

I've been getting by for years with pens brought from home, or ones my wife has brought home from work. But those stocks are running low.

 

And whenever I check in the Thai stores and even the stationary/pen type stores, it seems like they have tons of cheap, junky, poor quality no-name pens or, at the opposite end of the spectrum, very expensive imported hi-so type brand pens.

 

I just want some decent everyday ones that I can use at home, that are going to last, write smoothly, not smear, not have the ballpoint break, etc.

 

I checked on Lazada, for example, and only found BIC brand pens imported from South Korea at $50 U.S. per box. Saw they had some Pilot and Pentel models as well, usually at double or higher the price I'd pay if I bought them from Amazon or locally in the U.S.

 

Any suggestions for a good, affordable, locally sourced everyday ballpoint pen?

 

[rwilem]

Agreed, not easy to find a decent, lower price-point pen. I've also been searching for one.  Just came across something promising a few days ago.

 

Basement of Terminal 21, there is a recent addition, a medium-sized store, the name is 'Miniso'. Seems it's a Japanese-franchised operation. Products made in China, all sorts of items, and good prices on not all but a lot of them.

 

Worth a look, and they've got pens, a decent selection. As you face the displays, the lowest right-side corner has black 0.5 mm 'gel ink' pens, very close to the style of my preferred pen. 69 Baht, and when I was at the register they told me, "Buy one, get two free." OK, sure. Better than a ballpoint, and it's not a felt pen or marker. Fits the bill in my case.

Edited September 2, 2018 by rwilem

[Ks45672]

Office depot in fortune + Central rama9 have a huge range and the larger tesco superstores have a lot

 

I was looking for a pen with waterproof ink and thought I'll probably have to order online but local tesco sell them 

[BobTH]

You might check out a stationary and art supply store called "Somjai", it has other locations in Bangkok but I was at the store in Chamchuri Square. I was actually at the Moshi Moshi Japan store and saw it and decided just to do a walk through and I was pretty impressed with their selection. It is on the 3rd floor next to the Moshi Store. I wasn't there checking out their ballpoint pens but did notice they had a large selection. Like you I brought pens with me that I liked when I moved here and since then, I grab a few refills when I go back to the states.

 

https://www.iamwannee.com/somjai-an-art-supplies-store-in-bangkok/

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone above for the suggestions and comments offered to my original post.

 

Over the weekend, I was looking at the online sites for places like Lazada, OfficeMate, Big C, Tesco and others. For Lazada, their prices for pens tended to be a lot higher than what I found in local stores. For the online versions of Tesco and Big C, the pen selection was very poor -- perhaps they have more stock/greater variety in their stores that they're not listing online. But when I've looked in those stores in the past, most of what I saw was cheap, cruddy looking, no-brand-name stick pens that I really wasn't interested to buy/try.

 

One pen I already had at home that seems to work well for me is the Pentel EnerGel retractable model, which comes in both 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0mm tips. They seem to write smoothly, the ink doesn't smear, and the pen tip doesn't break or fail like a lot of the cheap local pens I've come across.

 

As it turned out, there's a pen and stationary stand inside the BTS Chidlom Station that sells the Pentel EnerGel pens for 49b and ink refill cartridges for 25 baht. OfficeMate's online site appears to sell the same pen for 43 to 48b apiece. (There are several different versions of the EnerGel pens, from simple stick and cover models vs the fancier and more expensive retractable models with nicer pen bodies.)

 

Lazada seems to be selling the same model of Pentel pen for 71b for the pen and 49b for the refills.

 

Here's what the Pentel EnerGel pens look like:

The white model 0.5mm tip pen that I already had at home is model BLN75.

The gray-black model 1.0mm tip pen I bought at Chidlom BTS is model BL80.

They both have a nice, substantial feel, and a soft grip surface near the tip for better holding.

They both say they were made in Japan.

I like the feel of the Pentels here because they have a somewhat thicker barrel that matches well with my large-size hand.

 

 

The 48b price works out to be about $1.48 U.S. per pen.

 

Just to see how they compare, I also ordered and bought a pair of 12-count boxes of BIC brand retractable pens from Amazon that together cost $14, plus another $10 for my own shipping expense, totaling $24. So they'll work out to be about $1 per pen shipped to Thailand. FWIW, in my looking around, to my surprise, I didn't find any BIC brand pens offered for sale in any of the places I looked here.

 

I've never used these particular BIC pens before, so I have no idea what I'll think of them compared to the Pentel EnerGels. The former are regular ballpoints, whereas the latter are gel ink pens, which probably partly accounts for the lower price, along with the fact, I believe, they're made in Mexico, not Japan like the Pentels.

 

 

 

BTW, another brand that I bought in the U.S. on a recent trip were the Uni-ball Signo 207 retractable pens. I believe I saw some Uni-ball models offered via the OfficeMate website, but not sure if they're the same model as I already have at home. Like the Pentel EnerGels, the Uni-ball Signo 207s are comfortable to hold and write smoothly and cleanly. So Uni-ball may be another decent brand option here.

 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[tutsiwarrior]

I useta be a uniball fan until I discovered the pentel energel models...very nice and available at tescos and various sebbens where I live...comfortable to hold and they don't smear like a lot of rollerball devices...and retractable...

 

I left my energel pen at my bank and went back to find it and some disgraceful individual had already glommed it...but then I found that it was easy to replace...

 

 

Edited September 3, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[kkerry]

I have some Pentel EnerGel 0.7mm pens also. Signed some docs with one and my lawyer remarked how nice it was to use so I gave him a couple. 

Pentel also have a EnerGel range called Tradio but the ink dries up too easily even if you always leave the cap on. Had five, have thrown out four so far in less than a year of light usage.

 

Other cheap gel pens I like are the Paper Mate Ink Joy range. Plenty of colors if that matters, 0.5 & 0.7mm gel.

 

Uni-ball UB-177 Fine Deluxe Roller Pen, 0.7mm are also pretty good, bit slimmer and lighter than the Pentel pens.

 

B2s stores in Central have a good selection of pens and markers.

Edited September 3, 2018 by kkerry

[Rc2702]

I use the cheap thai branded pens and they work fine. But the sharpeners are a nightmare, any decent sharpeners about??

[BobTH]

Since I picked up a Pilot brand Dr. Grip retractable medium point during my working days, they are the only pens I have used since. I brought a few with me when I moved here and still use them. It uses the Pilot refill #77227 that I pick up when I vacation once a year back in the states.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

10 hours ago, BobTH said:

Since I picked up a Pilot brand Dr. Grip retractable medium point during my working days, they are the only pens I have used since. I brought a few with me when I moved here and still use them. It uses the Pilot refill #77227 that I pick up when I vacation once a year back in the states.

 

Have you found the pens themselves sold anywhere here in TH?

[BobTH]

39 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Have you found the pens themselves sold anywhere here in TH?

No, I have not but I haven't really looked either. I will see if I can find them in my daily travels around the city. If I do I will let you know.

[CanuckThai]

Apparently a pocket protector salesman, has a TV thread full of bad ass, pocket protector wearing pen aficionados qualified...

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, CanuckThai said:

Apparently a pocket protector salesman, has a TV thread full of bad ass, pocket protector wearing pen aficionados qualified...

 

If you happen to need to use a pen a lot for writing, as some professions and trades do...

 

A really good, clean, smooth pen is a joy to use.

 

A cheap, lousy scratchy pen is miserable to use.

 

[tutsiwarrior]

23 hours ago, Rc2702 said:

I use the cheap thai branded pens and they work fine. But the sharpeners are a nightmare, any decent sharpeners about??

yeah...I useta buy a few packs of cheap pens for the kids to use at school and that was their first question; 'where is the sharpener?'...I thought that they wanted to scam money outta me for khanom...

 

 

Edited September 4, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[tutsiwarrior]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If you happen to need to use a pen a lot for writing, as some professions and trades do...

 

A really good, clean, smooth pen is a joy to use.

 

A cheap, lousy scratchy pen is miserable to use.

 

 

years ago I bought a dozen classic Parker pens (as in 'the Parker t-ball jotter', writes over butter) for the older nieces to use at school and because Parker pen refills are hard to find in Thailand they simply discarded them when the ink ran out...

 

tutsi discovers that his favorite niece has dropped outta school and intends to get married at 16 and have kids: 'hey! whaddaya think yer doin'!? remember I said that yer smart and beautiful and that you will go to college???'...'them pens you gave us weren't worth a shit uncle tutsi and now that I got what boys like I'll do what I want!'...

 

all for the lack of a Parker pen refill...

 

 

Edited September 4, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[CanuckThai]

1 hour ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

If you happen to need to use a pen a lot for writing, as some professions and trades do...

 

A really good, clean, smooth pen is a joy to use.

 

A cheap, lousy scratchy pen is miserable to use.

 

I do agree .  All kidding aside, I'm very particular with certain details in my pen of choice.  I hope no one was offended (or is the fella in the picture).... ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

12 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

all for the lack of a Parker pen refill...

 

From what I saw lately, Parker pens and refills are available these days from Lazada, and probably elsewhere for the so-called hi-so Thais.  Not cheap, of course, but they never were.

 

[tutsiwarrior]

16 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

From what I saw lately, Parker pens and refills are available these days from Lazada, and probably elsewhere for the so-called hi-so Thais.  Not cheap, of course, but they never were.

 

 

man, that girl is a sailor's dream and sharp as a tack...and now with some penniless clod in rural suphan and fulla regret...I saw her for the first time in 3 years at a funeral recently and she couldn't look me in the eye...

 

I had failed...

 

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by tutsiwarrior

[Just Weird]

22 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

Have you found the pens themselves sold anywhere here in TH?

 

21 hours ago, BobTH said:

No, I have not but I haven't really looked either. I will see if I can find them in my daily travels around the city. If I do I will let you know.

Pilot's Thailand Head Office is on Silom, near to Bangkok Bank's H/O.

[Just Weird]

6 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

From what I saw lately, Parker pens and refills are available these days from Lazada, and probably elsewhere for the so-called hi-so Thais.  Not cheap, of course, but they never were.

 

18 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

years ago I bought a dozen classic Parker pens (as in 'the Parker t-ball jotter', writes over butter) for the older nieces to use at school and because Parker pen refills are hard to find in Thailand they simply discarded them when the ink ran out...

 

all for the lack of a Parker pen refill...

Parkers and refills are available at most decent department stores in Bangkok, Robinsons, Central, Emporium etc, they're not hard to find at all.

 

http://www.parkerpen.com/en-US/store-locator?country=13018

Edited September 5, 2018 by Just Weird

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I stopped by the B2S store on the 7th floor of Central Chidlom this afternoon, and found it was pretty much as expected:

 

1. A HUGE selection of pens of many types, brands and prices...

 

2. A lot of them cheap and junky looking or meant/styled for children-teens, making it pretty hard to find the wheat among the chaff. And that wasn't helped by B2S's almost useless product labeling, with pretty much only the brand name visible on the paper product tags, and everything else in very tiny and/or Thai characters.

 

There may very well be some nice pens there, but it's pretty hard to find them, unless you know specifically what brands or names you're looking for...

 

That said, Pentel and EnerGel are very well represented, with an end-cap display all of their own, and then more of their pens scattered about the different pen aisles that are divvied up by types such as ballpoint, marker, rollerball, etc etc.

 

 

After spending a frustratingly long time prowling the pen aisles, I ended up buying a pair of Pentel EnerGels similar to the ones I already have at home and like:

--a Pentel Energel BL77 0.7mm tip for 47b, and

--a Pentel Energel BLP77 0.7mm tip for 52 baht (the P standing for "permanent gel ink")

(those prices, BTW, are almost the same as the small pens stand/shop located inside the BTS Chidlom station that I mentioned previously where, at least, because they have far less stock, it's a bit easier to find things.

 

The bottom row of the Pentel end-cap display is filled with various Pentel refill cartridges. But in searching that row, I could only find 0.5mm or 1.0mm sizes, and no 0.7mm sizes of any color, which are kind of the sweet spot for me when it comes to writing -- the 0.5 being a bit too fine, and the 1.0 being a bit too thick and dark.

 

There was a section of PaperMate InkJoys there, but in looking at them, they seemed a bit to plasticky looking and feeling for me, and given that they're 49b and right in the same price range as the Pentel EnerGels, I stuck with the latter.

 

 

There also were a few varieties of Uni-Ball pens there, though most of them seemed to be of the cap variety instead of the retractable variety that I prefer. And when I found a model I liked, like the Uni-Ball 207, they had it in blue but not black that I could find, and the price as I recall was about 60b per. So again, I stuck with the Pentel EnerGels.

 

There were a lot of PaperMate pens on display, but none of them looked very compelling to my tastes:

 

 

Though I did see a dozen set of PaperMates for 84b that I might have bought if I was looking to just stock up on some simple, cheap stick pens.

 

 

Lastly, noticed they also had a small section of Sharpie markers that I use, but hadn't really noticed here before. Glad to have found them.

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, Just Weird said:

 

Parkers and refills are available at most decent department stores in Bangkok, Robinsons, Central, Emporium etc, they're not hard to find at all.

 

http://www.parkerpen.com/en-US/store-locator?country=13018

 

I think Tutsi was more bemoaning the loss of his luscious niece, than he was the difficulty of finding Parker pens and refills in Thailand....  

 

Plus Tutsi's out/up in the boonies most of the time if memory serves, so I'm not sure he has a Central or Emporium in his neighborhood.

Edited September 5, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Meanwhile, found I had a couple of Pilot G-2 1.0mm retractable pens in my office, which I think I may have bought on a prior trip back to the U.S.

 

In comparing the Pilot with the EnerGel, the Pilot is slightly shorter in length and somewhat narrower in terms of its body. Since I have a large size hand, I tend to like the slightly thicker and longer pen body, since it gives a more substantial feel in my hand.

 

One other thing I noticed -- I took a piece of paper and wrote my signature with the Pilot G-2 1.0mm and then a Pentel EnerGel BL80 1.0mm on the same paper. As soon as I finished writing my signature with either pen, I dragged my finger tip over the ink signature to see if it would smear at all.

 

The EnerGel signature didn't smear at all. The Pilot G-2 smeared slightly every time I tried that test.

 

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[SooKee]

I always find it hard to find anything but gel pens in most stores.  I have them and use them but there are some uses for which they aren't well suited (such as signing credit card signature strips).  Over the years I've been able to source the odd traditional ball pen but they aren't common I find and often hard to get in decent colours (one store had only red or green for instance).  Admittedly I haven't made it a major mission to go find any lately but may look to pick up a Papermate or a Parker, subject to being satisfied that the refills are available.  Given the very limited times I need to use one I also wonder how long the ink will hold up given the ambient temperature than rooms can reach when AC is not running.

[ballpoint]

I'm decent and local, but not affordable.  Sorry. (And definitely not uniball either).