Same Kit different vendors?

[Paul Downes]

Quick question; Are the Gatsby pen kit and the Sierra pen kit one and the same, as well as the Gatsby click?

 

[jleiwig]

Yes and No if I remember correctly. There are currently two companies producing 'sierra' pen kits and they are not interchangable if I remember correctly. I do not recall who's version of the sierra the Gatsby is.

 

[creativewriting]

Here is some great info from an older post.

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showthread.php?t=50717

 

[jleiwig]

http://www.penturners.org/forum/showpost.php?p=831653&postcount=6

That is the best dissertation I have found on the subject.

 

[broitblat]

The (PSI) Gatsby is not exactly the same as the (Berea) Sierra. The tubes are the same size, but I believe the bushings are a little different and the Gatsby has a beaded band on both ends whereas one of the bands on the Sierra is flat.

When you get to the click, the mechanisms are different.

-Barry

 

[W.Y.]

Another bunch I bought of Sierra copycats is called Monet.
The supplier states it is their version of the Gatsby and Sierra . I can not recommend that one at all. They were China made junk and not at all close to the quality of the good Berea Sierra ones made in Taiwan .
I do not know anything about the Gatsby because after that aweful experience which were a bad copy of a Berea Sierra I would not take a chance on another one. Berea works best for me every time on any of their kits. Berea costs a little more but for me it is well worth it if you want to put a warranty on your pens .

 

[ZanderPommo]

crap. just ordered a bunch of Monets

 

[W.Y.]

crap. just ordered a bunch of Monets

Hope you have better luck than I did.
Over half of the bunch I had went into the garbage . The rest were difficult but managed to save them and so far one sold pen has been returned and rather than try to fix it I gave the customer a brand new pen of her choice with an apology and made with a Sierra kit .

Quality control can sometimes be bad from one batch to another on the China made kits and you can usually tell if they are going to be China made by the lower price of them as compared to Berea kits. .

Lets hope yours will be out of a production batch that have better quality control than the ones that I got.

 

[NewLondon88]

Lets hope yours will be out of a production batch that have better quality control than the ones that I got.

I'm convinced that the reason for the low price is that they've cut this
step out altogether. If there's no quality control they save labor. And if
they don't inspect the parts, they have no rejects. Good for the bottom
line!

 

[ZanderPommo]

its a little hard for a 16 year old to buy 13 dollar kits! i thought i hit a gold mine with these kits

not cool:bad:

 

[W.Y.]

its a little hard for a 16 year old to buy 13 dollar kits! i thought i hit a gold mine with these kits

not cool:bad:

Only $6.25 in chrome or upscale gold for the real thing.

http://www.beartoothwoods.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=21_23&osCsid=2e775794ce70f0775a8ca71f1b556e55.
Plus discounts for quantity.
Chearper in the long run.

 

[ZanderPommo]

cool, can i use the monet bushings then?

 

[W.Y.]

cool, can i use the monet bushings then?

Yes, you can.

 

[ZanderPommo]

alright then!

 

[sbell111]

crap. just ordered a bunch of Monets

Don't panic.

My experience with these has been vastly different than William's. While it is true that you may end up with a few pieces with quality issues, from my experience the percentage is closer to two or three percent of the kits might have a bad part (typically plating issues). When I find a problem with the plating on these, I get rid of the bad part and save the rest of the kit for spare parts.

On only one occasion was the percentage of bad parts high enough to concern me. On this occasion, I shot an email to the seller documenting the issue. They immediately shipped me replacement kits. They did not require the return of the bad parts.