Is A Pelikan 400Nn A Decent Collectible Pen?

[Claud]

Yesterday I was on Ebay and bid on a 1956 Pelikan 400NN Fine nib, brown tortoise . I decided to add one collectible but useable pen to my collection. I ended up winning the auction for $296.00. Looking at other non auction prices of similar 400 NNs i am not too far off price wise depending on condition. Is this pen special enough to be collectible? There were several similar for sale and auction.

[BillH]

400NN is a very nice collectible pen and comes in other colors besides the tortoise. The tortoise is my favorite though. They also have very nice nibs. Enjoy your new pen.

[sargetalon]

Congrats on your new pen. There were lots of variations to the 400NN. It is my favorite of the older 400 line so it is collectible to me and just a wonderful writer. Anything is collectible if you have an interest in it. I'll list the different variants of 400NN below. I have the first 3 but hope to one day have all of them.

 

-Black/Green Striped

-Tortoiseshell Brown

-Black Striped

-Grey Striped

-Black

-Green/Green Striped

-Light Tortoise

-Demonstrator

 

Of course this list doesn't cover the gold variants that have the same form factor but different model numbers.

[Claud]

Thanks guys. I will post a picture and a writing review here whenever it arrives from Siberia (no, I ain't kidding).

[Christopher Godfrey]

So glad you wrote "collectable but usable", Claud: these are robust, reliable, daily pens for writing with! They have, now, a few years under the belt and should give you many more years of pleasurable use ahead. The nibs (if you are "into" flexible and if yours <has> a flexy nib) are amongst the very best ever manufactured, in my opinion. They can be a benchmark.

 

Enjoy your new addition!

[DrCodfish]

Collectable vs common. As you noticed, these pens are not very uncommon, but a Pelikan collection of any size should definitely include one of these pens. And as has been noted these are great users.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Pelikan 500nn.......was missing from the list. The 500 had a rolled gold piston cap to go with a rolled gold cap. The 500n&500nn only the cap.

 

I dinked around for some two years before deciding the medium-large 400nn had a tad better balance than a 400. Balance is a major part of enjoying a pen.........and back in the day to sell, a good pen had to have very good balance, in it was used all day. A poorly balanced pen didn't sell!

 

I lucked out with a maxi-semi-flex nib. in both my 400nn and 500...most of my 400's of that era (two 140's also) are semi-flex. My Ibis is also a maxi ....my 100n is first stage superflex....perhaps that was luck.

I'm missing a 400nn tortoise but with my 500, 400 and '90's 400 tortoise....I don't have a need.

 

I don't like the term 'flexy', but the Pelikan nibs are nice semi&maxi-semi-flex.

Each can be used to give that old fashioned fountain pen flair, with out doing anything, much less fancy to make them work. They are of course 3 X max tine spread..........which one should only do when making a fancy occasional decender with a semi-flex.....if yours is a maxi, you will find after practice drawing from a calligraphy book, it easier to do fancy.

You need a regular flex nibbed pen....like a 200 or a regular flex nibbed Esterbrook as a base to measure if you have a semi-flex or maxi.

Mash your regular flex nib so the tines spread 3 X a light down stroke.

Semi-flex takes half of that pressure to go 3 X.

Maxi needs only 1/2 of semi or 1/4th of regular flex.

 

If you desire to do fancy....you 'must' learn to draw the letter properly....a calligraphy book will help ever so much.

Semi-flex I find is only good for an occasional descender, it becomes work trying to do much more....and could stress the nib.

 

Maxi's easier, and pure luck in Pelikan, Geha or MB. I'd WOG 1 in 5....which is about what I have outside of the flex marked Osmia pens. I have 16 maxi-semi-flex and 26 semi's.

Osmia/O-F-C is the only one I know of that marked their nibs with the difference. Semi-flex had a Diamond, maxi-semi-flex has Supra on the nib.

And their steel nibs are as good as their grand nibs.....don't be a dumb gold snob like I was when I could more afford to hunt in German Ebay..... I let bargains or didn't buy the same model for E10 less in steel.

Of course I didn't know about the difference in between Diamond semi-flex and Supra maxi until later. I do have both in steel and in gold.

Edited January 21, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[biancitwo]

I have a few modern Pelikans, M400s, M600s, and an M800. All of them are superb writers. I have 10 or 12 vintage Pelikans from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. They are wonderful. My two 400NNs write as well as any of them. One of them is always inked. I know you will love it.

[Claud]

I have a few modern Pelikans, M400s, M600s, and an M800. All of them are superb writers. I have 10 or 12 vintage Pelikans from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. They are wonderful. My two 400NNs write as well as any of them. One of them is always inked. I know you will love it.

 

Damn, I guess I should have bought two or three of them.

[Dickkooty2]

Claud,

 

Congratulations on getting the usable 400Nn in tortoise! Now, of course, you will need the other colors listed by BoBo! Not to mention a mechanical pencil or two to make a set. And a proper holder (not the packaging) but the nice leather period pieces which indeed do fit in a shirt or jacket pocket. And while you are at it, maybe a 1956 Pelikan ad and a period Pelikan ink bottle.

 

Oh, that way madness lies. Let me shun that.

 

...King Lear, Act 3, scene 4

[Runnin_Ute]

Congratulations on your first vintage Pelikan! I don't have a 400NN of any flavor - yet. Perhaps 2018 sometime.

 

I do have a 140 however and they are very fine pens as well. Enjoy it and post some photos when it arrives!

[Soot]

Not only are they decent, they are basically indestructible -- very well made. The vintage 400 series are the only Pelikan that I collect and use.

 

Oh, and their nibs comes in all sorts of flavors -- if you can find them, that is.

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

It was Sargtalon that had the list. I just added the 500.

 

Soot....

You are missing the basic green stripped 400nn (the other 400's make up for it).............but you make me with envy.

From the left the 4th, 7th and 8th & 9th are my now instant grail pens.

My 500 & matching transition '54 400 appear to be a cross between your 7th and 9th pen...or the 400nn that is down by it's self. The more I compare.

 

Let's get to the nitty gritty....how many are semi-flex....how many maxi....and what widths are your 500's.

I do have an Ibis gold maxi , which really shocked me. First that it was it was gold and then finding it a maxi...on what I saw as a lower class pen.

My green striped 400 OF and my 500's OBBB's nibs are maxi. Of my Pelikan's the 500 is the only Pelikan I have with a 30 degree grind. It is a pure signature pen, needing 2/3s-3/4ths a page for a legal signature.

By pure luck I have 15&30 degree grinds in OBB, OB, OM & OF in a mix of semi&maxi in other pens.

 

Back when I bought more pens for less money, I'd never thought I'd get a '50's 400, now I have 4, not counting the 500, which is a fancy 400.

 

The matching color transition '54 400...that originally I thought a 400n...in the shape of the piston knob can be hard to see a difference. It is marked Pelikan on the cap band, which the older 400's are not. It unlike the older 400's has no size mark on the piston knob, it has a B marked on the nib. (nib marking is found on the 400n&400nn) In the end I found out the 400n, has a longer cap .....so I imagine it balances like a medium-long 400nn. Mine then was a transition '54 400.

 

The older 400's are not nib marked. I have a OM and OB....that are the same or so close, that it appears so...both then OM. I think someone changed nibs .

 

One one of my 400's I have a D+M nib...the nails nail. Do you have one of them, or a H.....the only Steno nib I tried, in trans-mailing to a pal in England, in there are idiots in Germany who refuse to mail out of Germany, was a vast disappointment; not being a superflex as folks here said, only a regular flex............my Fabled CI nib ordered with out a pen.....it too is only regular flex. Well I have enough semi&maxi to make up for it.

 

Do have a first stage superflex, Easy Full Flex on a post war 100n.. My Somegi pen, again a pen I never expected to own. E20 for near mint....was by the small dark line on the cork, only inked once. It was in an indoor fleamarket, we were selling at. I turned left to tour the hall.......had I turned right, I could have gotten it for E5-10.....but it took me some 3-4 minutes to get down from E40 to E20; because some good man told her it was valuable. It too was a pen I never expected to own.

 

After waiting over six months for my grail pen to show up....it didn't and still hasn't Soennecken 111 Extra in herringbone. The money burnt a hole in my pocket and a flock of Pelikans followed me home. The 500, I'd never even looked at....as way out of budget....so I'd 'forgotten' they even existed....there was one, the transition 400 was labeled a 400n, and a 381 and near matching green marbled Celebry and a double Pelikan pen holder made up for not finding my grail pen.

 

I really want a full tortoise Pelikan, and i'd thought them only made int he '30's so your 400nn is a shock.

Edited January 22, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[chromantic]

^^ soot - Those are some serious beauties! The 5th one over (dark green), especially caught my eye.

[jmccarty3]

I love my 400NNs. They are superb writers. About the only problem you are like to have is that the plastic collar around the feed might break, but this is easily fixed.

[DrCodfish]

 

Damn, I guess I should have bought two or three of them.

 

​This makes me laugh. It sounds as if you think your opportunity has come and gone. It would be no surprise if, after using your new pen your find another in a different color or with a different nib, or at some sort of 'deal too good to pass up' that you acquire another (or several) of these great pens.

 

 

 

 

udPPEARS THAT YOU THINK YOUR CHANCE HAS PASSED YOU BY. oNCE YOU HAVE USED YOUTR PEN ANi WOLS

[LUWAN]

So glad you wrote "collectable but usable", Claud: these are robust, reliable, daily pens for writing with! They have, now, a few years under the belt and should give you many more years of pleasurable use ahead. The nibs (if you are "into" flexible and if yours <has> a flexy nib) are amongst the very best ever manufactured, in my opinion. They can be a benchmark.

 

Enjoy your new addition!

 

Can't agree more.

i love my black strip 400nn over any other Pelikan I own. It came with a 14K HEF nib which is perfect for me as an east Asian

[ygv]

Not only are they decent, they are basically indestructible -- very well made. The vintage 400 series are the only Pelikan that I collect and use.

 

Oh, and their nibs comes in all sorts of flavors -- if you can find them, that is.

 

Nice collection.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Soot...wonderful collection.

 

It slipped my mind $295!!!

On German Ebay, as I keep saying a 400-400nn can be got with luck for 100E....E120 with no great luck. If one stays strong there is no reason to pay E140 if one Hunts.............and is willing to have some fun Hunting.........................it appears it was wanted yesterday, so one pays for that.

 

Of course if you push the German Buy Now Idiot button, you can pay Stateside prices, that they see as what a pen is worth and set the price there.

No it is not a good buy at $295!!! ...................though I will sell you one for that price....mine's green stripped..will sell a 500...for more.....much more. Why not, it's a tortoise, rolled gold cap, Soot has a fist full of them.

I lucked out with a good price......Why should you get such a nice deal?

 

 

 

A good price is sigh....now up to E 120....and not the E 100 I still have in my head from a couple years ago.

It can be had for that. Last year I looked and there was one that had gone for E80-90. Others for E100. Often there is no price difference between green stripped and tortoise. If so E20 max.

[BlueJ]

The 400NN is an excellent writing instrument. I have two, a common green stripe OM and a tortoise OF.

 

The tortoise is worth more on the market than the green. $296 is a little high but may be justified if the pen is in near-mint condition. Keep in mind that a Montblanc 146G from about the same time period, a similar sized pen (wider but a little shorter with similar ink capacity) now fetches over $500.