M800 Brown Tortoise Price Trends And Pelikan Pricing Question

[legume]

It looks like M800 Brown Tortoise prices have significantly dropped these days. The pens are regularly going for under $400 at auction which is a vast improvement from the $600 street price. The majority of the pens are coming from Regina Martini who is a fairly respected seller on this site.

 

How is it that she can do this? Is this what they call the gray market? Have they reached market saturation? If she is able to do this and still make a profit, just how marked up are the prices on these pens? If Sailor is able to sell their piston filler Realo for $250, wouldn't the actual price of a Pelikan be comparable?

 

This also makes me wonder just what the size of the fountain pen market is. Does Pelikan move pens in the hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? It's sometimes a bit frustrating that I have no idea what this community looks like as a whole.

[DrCodfish]

All great questions.

 

I noticed that he 101M Lizard also dropped significanly in price after it's operning, in fact it was for this reason that I bought one, same with the M800 tortoise.

 

However the M101N brown tortoise which came out a few years ago (looks more green to me) seems to have held it's price quite well.... dang, that is a beautiful pen which would perfrectly fill a nlittle gap in my budding Pelikan collection.

 

It wil lbe very interesting to see the price trends for some of those new issues we hear will be coming along later in the year. The lesson I have learned is that when thery roll out at $500+ they are pretty much out of my rerach. If they hold thier price or increase in value they move into the Maki e or Raden category for me - nice to look at but beyond my reach. Ocasionally (as you have noticed) my patience is rewarded with a price drop which puts them at the top of, but within my budget.

 

Who knows why some go up and some go down? It would be interesting to know the total production numbers of the various models.

[oregano]

Well, the M800 tortoises are not quite *under* $400, but I agree it's much more palatable than $600 (though I've not managed to snag one yet!)

As David I. noted on a thread on fpgeeks, the prices of modern 'special edition' pens tend to go down a few years after their release, or even, I guess

in this case, a year after. Which is great for us!!

I posted something in the market section a month ago about the M101N brown tortoise being on sale--I don't know if it it's still is, but that's how I got mine

and I LOVE it. It is my favorite pen. Check Casa della stilografica at stilografica.it.

 

The Maki-e are in another price category--so I can see why they'd retain their value. Btw, Dr. Codfish, I love your new blue and jade Originals of their Time Pelikans--congratulations!

Edited April 9, 2014 by paloma32

[Bo Bo Olson]

Lamy sells 600,000 a year....but again they have the Safari.

[Simius]

How is it that she can do this? Is this what they call the gray market? Have they reached market saturation? If she is able to do this and still make a profit, just how marked up are the prices on these pens? If Sailor is able to sell their piston filler Realo for $250, wouldn't the actual price of a Pelikan be comparable?

 

 

The markups are quite high.

 

I was in search of a Pelikan (not the M800 tortoise) at the Papeterie I frequent in Paris. It was not available at the store, and I was exploring the possibility of ordering. The lady was looking through their price list, and I managed to take a peek. The list price was 350 euros (19.66% VAT included), their price was 150 Euros (not sure about VAT).

 

Not surprised. I've been told that for "luxury" goods, the typical markup is 2.8 times from wholesaler to retailer. This wasn't quite that much, but close. Plenty of room to haggle.

[proton007]

It looks like M800 Brown Tortoise prices have significantly dropped these days. The pens are regularly going for under $400 at auction which is a vast improvement from the $600 street price. The majority of the pens are coming from Regina Martini who is a fairly respected seller on this site.

 

How is it that she can do this? Is this what they call the gray market? Have they reached market saturation? If she is able to do this and still make a profit, just how marked up are the prices on these pens? If Sailor is able to sell their piston filler Realo for $250, wouldn't the actual price of a Pelikan be comparable?

 

This also makes me wonder just what the size of the fountain pen market is. Does Pelikan move pens in the hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? It's sometimes a bit frustrating that I have no idea what this community looks like as a whole.

 

Also depends on the fact that the bidding starts from zero, or some small amount. But I've seen the price of the Tortoise to be around $400-450.

The older M800 Tortoise, well that's a killer.

[penmanila]

I just got a lizard M101n from nibs.com for $375, way below what it's advertised for elsewhere. Since I'm presuming nibs.com can't be selling at a loss, then yes, there's lots of room there for competitive pricing.

[AustinMalone1999]

I'm not sure how the price has dropped. Demand for the 800 in Brown Tortoise seems to be pretty high. Not quite sure why it is not standard production. A lot more attractive than the White Tortoise.