Counterfeit Lamy Safari

I’ve got a quick PSA today about counterfeit Lamy Safari fountain pens.  If you missed the excellent video by Tom over on the Goldspot blog about spotting a Counterfeit Lamy Safari, you should check it out immediately.  Essentially what I learned from watching the video is that the easiest way to tell a counterfeit Safari is by the lack of any printing inside the cardboard ring that prevents the cap from fully closing during shipping.  As you can see in my photo above, the ring on my fake Lamy Safari is missing the printing on the inside, making it an instant tell that I got fooled…not once but twice since I bought two of them at the time from the third party vendor on Amazon that I’ll name in a minute here.

My original Lamy Safari review was of a pen that I picked up quite some time ago, so I don’t still have the paper ring, but based on where I got it from and some of the other giveaways that Tom mentions in his video, I’m certain it is an authentic Safari.  The one in the picture here was one that I purchased from a vendor on Amazon called “Great Ones for You” that you should clearly avoid if you are in the market for a REAL Lamy Safari.  The good news is that even though I bought my counterfeit Lamy Safari (two of them actually) from Amazon almost exactly a year ago, it took them only a few hours to issue a full refund for both pens.  To their credit that may only be a total of about $50, but it goes to show that they don’t mess around when it comes to counterfeit items and complaints from customers.  I’ll be keeping an eye on that vendor to see if they are eventually removed, but that might be pushing my luck.

I was surprised to see that people are actually making fake versions of a $20ish pen, I would have expected this to be restricted to pens in much more expensive territory, although some of the limited edition Safaris can fit that criteria.  The good news is that if you want, you can still buy LEGITIMATE versions of this pen on Amazon if you select them as the “fulfilled by” option, or you can go to a dedicated pen retailer that is an authorized Lamy retailer like Goldspot.

©2016, Brian Greene. All rights reserved.