Silver / White Stripe Myu 500-Ss

[MYU]

Well, I never thought I'd see the day... when another mysterious silver (white) stripe MYU would appear for sale. Adding to the value is that there's a black stripe MYU (500-BS) included with it. It's on Yahoo Japan, ending on 9/28 (originally it was today, but the seller extended the auction). Immediately two bidders jumped on it. One of them has a scrambled name code I recognize (l*2*u), who appears and often snaps up many of the coveted vintage Pilot pens, especially the early uncommon capless models. They're leading the charge on this legendary auction... with the price now above 220,000 JPY. With the black stripe MYU often selling in similar condition for 20,000 JPY, it's clear the silver stripe MYU is the major value here. Anyway, some serious popcorn munching. Will be very interesting to see how this plays out!

[stan]

White stripe Myu are very very rare. For some time the overseas pen community thought they might be mistakes. But, Pilot also makes white stripe Customs.

[ehemem]

White stripe Myu are very very rare. For some time the overseas pen community thought they might be mistakes. But, Pilot also makes white stripe Customs.

 

Pilot also seems to have made an early white striped VP...

[MYU]

White stripe Myu are very very rare. For some time the overseas pen community thought they might be mistakes. But, Pilot also makes white stripe Customs.

Yes they certainly are. I'd read long ago a rumor that less than 10 exist... While the Custom, Vanishing Point, plus matching ballpoint and mechanical pencil were made in much greater quantities, still available on the used market if you look hard and long enough.

 

As the story goes, a guy up in Canada spotted one for sale on eBay back in the early 2000's. Knowing it was quite rare from what Tokyo Russ had documented, he not only bought it but then had the fortitude to ask the seller (who was from Japan) if he had any more. And he did -- two more. I can't recall exactly, but supposedly he had gotten these from a former Pilot employee. Some others who were very avidly interested in these had combed diligently through many channels, unable to find much at all about them. Then the Canadian fellow started to sell his some years later.

 

I didn't maintain a solid consistent monitoring of Yahoo Japan, but I knew others were... and nobody was posting about any more turning up. That is... until this auction. I'm very curious to know if the seller was aware of the unusual value. He started the auction at 60,000 JPY, which would be a good 30~40% higher than if he had just two black stripe MYU pens.

 

Anyway, less than 12 hours to go as of this posting.

[grasshopper]

Hehehehe nice to see you're still keeping an eye out for the Myus, Gary...

[stan]

Here is the real story.

 

The guy in Canada purchased the pen - new - from someone in Japan. Can research the details, if needed. At the time I do not think he knew what he had as interest in Myu was not as high as later. As best I know this pen is still in Canada but, I don't try to track where pens are today.

 

Russ Stutler had never seen one before and requested information about the pen from the guy in Canada pics, story, etc.

 

According to my source at Pilot, now retired, they were production models. Apparently, Pilot puts out pens, or at least they used to, without putting them in official annual catalogues. And, if a model does not want to sell, you pull it back quickly.

 

Why do you think there are so many Myu available today? Good observation Grasshopper.. They didn't sell forty-fifty years ago. So, why put resources into black and white stripe models when they have a difficult time selling plain models.

[Nikolaos]

As far as Yahoo JP and ebay goes I can safely tell you that this is the second one I see in something like a decade. I have the first one that showed up back in 2011. As Stan pointed out, this is a very very rare pen.

[MYU]

Here is the real story.

 

The guy in Canada purchased the pen - new - from someone in Japan. Can research the details, if needed. At the time I do not think he knew what he had as interest in Myu was not as high as later. As best I know this pen is still in Canada but, I don't try to track where pens are today.

 

Russ Stutler had never seen one before and requested information about the pen from the guy in Canada pics, story, etc.

 

According to my source at Pilot, now retired, they were production models. Apparently, Pilot puts out pens, or at least they used to, without putting them in official annual catalogues. And, if a model does not want to sell, you pull it back quickly.

 

Why do you think there are so many Myu available today? Good observation Grasshopper.. They didn't sell forty-fifty years ago. So, why put resources into black and white stripe models when they have a difficult time selling plain models.

Yes, that guy in Canada is Martin. And he did buy three... and he sold all of them, from what he told me. WoodyT (Bill) and I both bought ours from him. Not sure, but perhaps Nikolaos bought his from him as well. Can you confirm Nikolaos?

 

It does seem that these silver stripe MYU pens were not full production, else they would be more common... perhaps less common than the black stripe, as the black stripe seemed to be more popular. The same 5,000 JPY stickers used for the black stripe were used for the silver stripe... so they didn't have to print special ones for the silver stripe pens. With the MYU 701 priced at 3,500 JPY, many people were probably reticent to spend 40% more to get a striped model... and those who did, bought black. So perhaps PILOT pulled the silver stripe MYU prematurely. If they had leftover stock that didn't sell, maybe they converted silver stripe to black stripe, since the latter was selling much better?

 

 

Hehehehe nice to see you're still keeping an eye out for the Myus, Gary...

 

Hey raf, good to see you here -- I have to admit, I'm not keeping a totally comprehensive eye... I do have a search I launch about once a week and happened to find this one. And unfortunately I have seen on occasion MYU pens listed as just "pilot steel pocket fountain pen" without "myu" or "mu"... which means one would have to visual scan the whole PILOT fountain pen category with more open criteria... who has the time for that?

 

As far as Yahoo JP and ebay goes I can safely tell you that this is the second one I see in something like a decade. I have the first one that showed up back in 2011. As Stan pointed out, this is a very very rare pen.

 

Yes, this is the 2nd for me as well. I won mine off eBay back in Feb of 2010. I can't recall, but did you buy yours from Martin as well?

Edited September 28, 2017 by MYU

[MYU]

I still have Martin's email in my Gmail archive. Here's a quote, from Feb 27th 2010:

 

Glad your pen finally arrived. You actually got a really good deal on the pen - the other 2 were sold for US$2200.00 each. I didn't get any information from the seller, I never asked but wish I had now. It is curious that he had 3 of them though, if I remember correctly I paid around US$800.00 each. I won the auction and for some reason I asked if he had more, he said 2 more and I bought them at the auction price. I don't remember the auction attracting much in the way of fierce bidding - just a couple bidders. With my memory I'd be lucky to get within a year of when I bought these but I'm guessing 4 or 5 years ago.

Cheers,

Martin

 

And to follow up:

I guess it was about 1995 when I first got hooked on pens and about 2003 or so I took a liking to Japanese pens, especially the steel pens. I had all the Murex pens except the White one I'd only heard "rumors" about, so you can imagine my amazement when one popped up on Ebay. I remember staring at the auction page thinking, wait a minute, what am I missing, is this for real, can't be.

Cheers,

Martin

 

Edited September 28, 2017 by MYU

[MYU]

Sold... to the prolific PILOT pen buyer l*2*u... for 226,334.

Just over $2k USD given today's exchange rate. Quite a good price, considering a black stripe MYU was included. I really wonder how this auction would have done on US eBay.

[Nikolaos]

Great info Gary!

 

Mine is not one of Martin's. I got it from YJ back in 2011. I was lucky cause it was lurking in a pen lot and the seller took terrible photos. I thought I spotted it in the lot but wasn't 100% certain. I won the lot and I was so anxious to know what I got. When I opened the package the silver/white stripe was there.

[MYU]

Great info Gary!

 

Mine is not one of Martin's. I got it from YJ back in 2011. I was lucky cause it was lurking in a pen lot and the seller took terrible photos. I thought I spotted it in the lot but wasn't 100% certain. I won the lot and I was so anxious to know what I got. When I opened the package the silver/white stripe was there.

Ah, wow -- that was truly phenomenal. These days, you can't get away with that. There are so many people actively combing over every single auction. I had something similar happen with a different pen. The one I was interested in was partially covered in a lot. The other PILOT pens were OK. Judging by past auctions, it would have likely closed at about 6,000 JPY... but it spiked to over 14,000 JPY because two other people recognized that partially hidden pen.

[Nikolaos]

In my opinion these were not full production pens. I think they must have been prototypes and for some reason Pilot decided to not produce them. They decided to produce the silver stripe for the capless and the custom and that's why we see more of those two and none of the MYU. This is a steel pen made in the 70s, which is fairly recent for such a durable pen to just vanish, while so many black stripes and no stripe ones are still floating around.

[Nikolaos]

Ah, wow -- that was truly phenomenal. These days, you can't get away with that. There are so many people actively combing over every single auction. I had something similar happen with a different pen. The one I was interested in was partially covered in a lot. The other PILOT pens were OK. Judging by past auctions, it would have likely closed at about 6,000 JPY... but it spiked to over 14,000 JPY because two other people recognized that partially hidden pen.

 

In a similar fashion , my silver stripe was also recognized by another bidder and there was a bidding frenzy which I ended up winning simply cause I thought I'd never see the pen again. After selling the rest of lot , I pretty much got the silver strip MYU for free (almost)

[MYU]

It'll be interesting to see if the buyer is a flipper and might try to resell this MYU. I've seen that YJP username code buy up a lot of higher value vintage PILOT pens... but I have no idea what is their actual full member ID. Some Japanese buyers on YJP do resell on eBay... and for quite a bit more of a price, of course.

[stan]

In my opinion these were not full production pens. I think they must have been prototypes and for some reason Pilot decided to not produce them. They decided to produce the silver stripe for the capless and the custom and that's why we see more of those two and none of the MYU. This is a steel pen made in the 70s, which is fairly recent for such a durable pen to just vanish, while so many black stripes and no stripe ones are still floating around.

 

I am certain the pens have model numbers and were produced for sale. Myu did not sell well when produced. That is why so many new Myu are still around. If the plain Myu did not sell, could the black and white stripe models have been an effort to create interest in the model? If someone has the time and ability to check date codes of plain versus black and white stripe models, perhaps, they will unearth a clue. My belief is the black and white striped models were produced and pulled off the market. Only research into date codes will provide a hint.

[grasshopper]

Hey raf, good to see you here -- I have to admit, I'm not keeping a totally comprehensive eye... I do have a search I launch about once a week and happened to find this one. And unfortunately I have seen on occasion MYU pens listed as just "pilot steel pocket fountain pen" without "myu" or "mu"... which means one would have to visual scan the whole PILOT fountain pen category with more open criteria... who has the time for that?

Yeah, been MIA for a bit. Anyway, yeah that DOES sound like a lot of hard work!!! Who has time indeed.

 

Wow, a black and a white striped Myu. Score!

 

Now if only a strped Capless fell from the sky....

[MCN]

I’ve never seen one of these striped pens in person but it occurs to me that it might be possible to fake a silver stripe by removing the black from a black stripe pen. Any risk of that?

[stan]

I’ve never seen one of these striped pens in person but it occurs to me that it might be possible to fake a silver stripe by removing the black from a black stripe pen. Any risk of that?

Unlikely. Easier to put a black stripe on white.

[MYU]

I’ve never seen one of these striped pens in person but it occurs to me that it might be possible to fake a silver stripe by removing the black from a black stripe pen. Any risk of that?

From what I've observed using moderately high magnification is that these "white" (more accurately "silver") striped pens have a silver oxide coating of some kind. It's not "raw", as if nothing was applied at all. And if you tried to paint the black stripes silver with some kind of enamel paint, it would be very obvious -- the paint would fill the channels and change the feel of the pen, too. If you don't mind that, you could customize a black stripe MYU (keeping in mind that you'd ruin the resale value). But you can't scrub off the black lines without affecting the brushed steel finish, so that wouldn't be possible as well. PILOT developed a very specific process in making these pens that is extremely difficult to copy, so your only choice is to buy the real deal!