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An interesting pen on eBay this week: a Waterman 52 with the rare Artist's nib: it's posted by David Nishimura and his description is accurate and thoughtful. I happened to find a ringtop version last year and it's a lovely pen to draw with: not superflex, as Mr. Nishimura observes, but very springy and responsive. The kind of artists who drew images in the newspapers would probably use this pen. It's also a great tool for on-the-spot drawings. Anyway, it's probably a bargain if it goes for under two bills.

Caught a nice nib with a pen attached: a gold-filled ringtop safety pen with a Canada nib. The cap's dinged-up, but fingers crossed it can be repaired. It's the nib, of course: a long-tined beauty that spreads if you blow on it. I'm very excited. The seller bought it 35 years ago in Milan as an artist's pen, and it only popped up in my search last night. I took three pens off my watch list so I wouldn't feel quite so much an idiot, but therapy isn't cheap, either.

There's been a Waterman 52 up on eBay this week: an average pen with what looks like an incredible nib. Impossibly flexy, and accompanied with a page of calligraphy that I couldn't reproduce if I sat in a scriptorium for a decade. I dropped out at $400.00 and the bidding has only gotten fiercer - it'll probably go for at least six bills. I've made many stupid purchases in my time, but I couldn't make myself step over that threshold. HOWEVER... There was another pen on eBay, with a very similar nib. It didn't have the gorgeous writing sample, but I got curious and asked the seller (who's in Spain...how did this thing get there?) if he could produce a writing sample. He did one, blobby and feathered on cheap paper, but the nib! I'm not saying it's as good as the one that's currently rising to the monetary stratosphere, but it looks awfully close and It's going to cost me half as much. It's an old 42 Safety, and I'm probably going to vandalize it by swapping nibs with one of my ringtops so I can make it useful. I can do it for that price and not feel bad about it, as I might otherwise. Moral: be a pest. Ask the guy in Spain to write a bit and send you some snaps.

This pen arrived today: a bit beat-up but what a set of tines! If it isn't an artist's nib it's his first cousin...but what do the experts think?

So I watched this pen for a week and (with a last-minute bid) I won it: a BCHR ringtop with what looks an awful lot like the seldom-seen Artist's Nib - a #2 with awfully long tines, and what looks in the pictures a lot of flex. If it's not, it's probably as close as I'm gonna get to one without getting Mr. Trump to adopt me. A little bashed-up, but if it's fixable it'll make an AMAZING pen. What do you think? Artist's or just long?

I lost an eBay auction and was too slow on the draw in Classifieds. How many did they make? Fifteen? I don't even think one would be all that much fun to write with but I really want one...how sick is that?