Originally posted by nilsatcraft
<br />In answer to your question, Mac, the nibs are currently sold sepparately for most of our pens. We don't neccessarily have the nibs only (just the tip without holder or assembly) but it's an entire replaceable piece that can be easily threaded on and off. We carry these nibs in Extra Fine, Fine, Medium, Broad and Caligraphy for just $4.50-$5.99 each. We also carry the replacement Medium Fountain nibs for Gents and Jr. Gents pens and they range from $8-$12 dollars each. It's true that we don't have all varieties of all nibs but we're trying to stock a better variety so that you can replace damaged nibs for a relatively low cost or upgrade a nib for a higher cost. I don't think we're likely to carry the nib tip only in the very near future but it is a possibility. I also believe that the tips would cost a lot more than 50 cents or a dollar each. The tips are not so simple that they can be sold for that little. We appreciate the feedback we get from these discussions and I'll be sure that this information is brought to the attention of the product specialists here. We're trying to accomodate the requests of our customers but it's a 'little by little' process [
]. Everyone here is so talented that we have a hard time keeping up! [
]
Nils,
Thank you for the response. I don't reply to argue with you,just to point out something.
You sell the end assembles for pens. The most expensive one you mention sells for $5.99. I don't know your costs nor do I wish to but it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to figure that your cost is in the $3.00 range for that part, perhaps even less than that.
That part consists of the metal nib, feed assembly and holder with a thread on it.
Whom ever you buy it from is most likely making the plastic parts, or metal if they are metal and buying the nibs from some company that makes nibs. They then assemble the unit, put it in a package and ship it to you.
They, in turn have a cost of around half of what they are selling to you for and that would make the complete assembly cost him around $1.50. If you figure that in that cost to him the most of it is for the more complex parts that need to have molds made and threads machined or cast in the molds and plating if needed. You can figure that 75% of that $1.50 is for the parts he is making, 25% (I suspect it is even less than 25%)for the cost of that nib that he is buying in. That comes out to his cost of the nib of around $0.38. So he scoops up a coffee mug full of them out of the barrel he gets them in and has someone count them out, just like he does with all the other parts.
Double that price to you and he sells to you for $0.76 each. And double that price to me and you sell for $1.50. That is a whole lot less than $5.99 to fix a dropped pen.