Hi all,
I’m new here. I’m a hobby drawer/colourer, not an artist. I’ll start with that.
I have a full set of Polychromos then some smaller cheap sets and a huge set of the Kalour brand I’ve just received from Amazon..
A few weeks ago I purchased some individual Prismacolor pencils from a local art store. They’re beautiful. They’re stamped ‘made in Mexico’ - good quality barrels, wood and printing etc.. so I made the big 150 set purchase on Amazon (yes I checked and it was the genuine Prismacolor Amazon account).. they’ve arrived and half of them are shattered when I sharpen them.. also the quality is so bad!
I don’t understand as I’ve read that the ones now produced in Mexico have decreased in quality but you can see the difference in my photos - and both are produced in Mexico so is that really the issue here?.
The actual pigment on paper are the same so no issues with quality of that itself.. but the actual barrell, off centre pigments, printing and peeling paint I cannot get over. If I didn’t buy these on Amazon I would have been up for about $350 AUD for the set from Australia. Amazon I paid $188 AUD.
So I have a few questions for (mostly aussie) people:
Did you purchase a set ‘made in Mexico’ from an Australian retailer and did it look like my crappy Amazon ones or the ones I purchased in Australia? I’m considering paying the higher amount to buy local now I’ve got a refund from Amazon.
I’ve read that they don’t make fake ones.. but surely this is beyond taking the piss if they aren’t fake. Are they just relying on customer loyalty to save some cash? Does anyone have the scoop on the difference if both say ‘made in Mexico’ and are assumably manufactured recently.
Just really confused and unsure whether to now spend $350 AUD on these and risk the same crap quality.