Parker 51 Comeback 2020?

[Estycollector]

  On 4/11/2021 at 9:03 PM, FarmBoy said:

Umm...

 

No.

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Rotflmao

[maclink]

  On 4/11/2021 at 9:07 PM, Estycollector said:

Rotflmao

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Here's the beautiful original....

 

[carlos.q]

Could someone please do a side by side comparison of both nibs?

[adair]

If the new Parker 51 were at least as good as my Jotter (with which it shares the same nib, I believe), I'd be okay, but my Jotter has significantly better flow and smoothness (and only cost $19!). The new 51 for me has proved a total bust. I doubt that Parker will acknowledge the issues and try to correct them. Somehow, I don't think this pen will be on the market long. 

[TgeekB]

It’s a shame that Parker has seemed to have failed at bringing back such an iconic pen as the 51.

If you truly know your products you understand the following and why people loved them so much. While there’s nothing wrong with slight updates, ruining the experience can have devastating consequences. 

[Glenn-SC]

Sorry to hear about your poor experience with the 51.

 

I did a quick survey of companies selling the pen on the internet.

While there aren't hundreds of reviews yet, the majority of the 50 or so evaluations i found rate the pen as 4 or 5 out of 5.

There was 3 rating calling the 51 "nothing special".

And there was a 1 for "Pen took too long to ship. Basically just a cheap repackaged jotter." (Which seems like the Buyer was more upset about how long the pen took to arrive.  Blame supply and demand there.)

[Mike B]

Clearly we have been checking the same web locations...

 

Sales do seem to be going well for Parker on the Internet. The larger stores are now running low on their restocks. And they are taking orders to be shipped when fresh supplies arrive. 

 

I would not call Mr. Brown's YouTube review a positive at all. There have been some other pretty tepid endorsements. But there have also been reviewers who are quite positive about the appearance of the new model, and of the way it writes. Like it or not, the purpose of a Parker "51" nib was to be a nail, and it requires either one of the few remaining most unpopular nibs Parker ever sold, or the skilled hands of a nibmeister, to bring flex, italics, or even stub qualities to any vintage of this pen. This is no skin off my nose, of course, because I like the nail nibs.

 

The people on FPN are not a major (perhaps no longer even a minor) part of the target audience the Parker firm is going for. TWISBI might love us, but their sales targets are a lot lower than Parker's. Sad but true -- we here are all obsolete in our wish to handwrite as much as possible, and to view something other than a rollerball as being pen science at its zenith.

 

[Estycollector]

I can imagine buying this pen if had a no reference for the ones made in the 1940's. I would have assumed it was the same as the original until someone told me differently. 

 

I would not be surprised if there are buyers who think the new "Esterbrooks" are the same or similar to the vintage brand. 

 

 

[lionelc]

  On 4/14/2021 at 11:31 PM, Mike B said:

The people on FPN are not a major (perhaps no longer even a minor) part of the target audience the Parker firm is going for

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i wonder if fpners represent just the most particular subset of fountain pen users?  is there a bigger pool of 'ordinary' fountain pen users parker is aiming for? 

[adair]

Penboyroy on youtube did a pretty devastating review of the new 51, and some of the issues he called out are ones that I experienced on both copies of the pen I have tried. 

 

I can't imagine that Parker could afford to disregard the vintage pen community in this case--who else is even aware of the original P51 anymore? We are a primary audience for this pen--and they have largely failed us.

 

I wanted so much to be happy with this pen, even without its being a true reproduction of the original. But the bottom line is, the ones I tried just didn't write. Period. 

[Mercian]

  On 4/15/2021 at 12:19 AM, lionelc said:

i wonder if fpners represent just the most particular subset of fountain pen users?  is there a bigger pool of 'ordinary' fountain pen users parker is aiming for? 

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I would expect so.

If I take myself as an example, I used fountain pens from 1994 - 2012 without even being aware of the existence of FPN.
I bought Parker pens, because those were the 'proper' or 'prestigious' brand when I was at school. Modern Parker pens are all c/c-filling pens.
I was very happy with my Parker pens, and with the limited range of colours of Parker cartridges that were available to me locally (I live in a small town in the English equivalent of 'Flyover-country').

Once I found FPN and started reading through threads here I learned of the existence of loads of things - huge-&-famous brands, history, filling-options - of which I had never previously heard. And started buying items from those 'weird' 'other' brands.
And, as for the huge range of inks that is available nowadays?!? 😲

I do still use (& like) my Parker c/c pens, but my personal favourite pens (at the moment) are my two 1954 'aerometric'-fill Parker "51"s, and my piston-filling Pelikans, and my piston-filling LAMY2000.
And my favourite inks nowadays are not from Parker's Quink range (not that there's anything 'wrong' with Quink), but are the iron-gall inks made by Rohrer & Klingner, plus various other aniline-dye-based inks made by various manufacturers.

I would make an analogy between FPN members and people whose computers have a variety of Linux as the OS.
Both groups are made up of 'outliers' - people who have been curious enough about the topic-at-hand to venture 'off the beaten path', and 'out in to the long grass'; people who have not been content to 'follow the herd', but who have instead done some research and made up their made to do something 'different', and have developed a liking for 'niche' products that most 'normal' people know nothing about!

And both groups form only a tiny minority of the people who use the class of products (whether that's fountain pens, or computers) in question.

[Glenn-SC]

  On 4/14/2021 at 11:41 PM, Estycollector said:

I would not be surprised if there are buyers who think the new "Esterbrooks" are the same or similar to the vintage brand.

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I, for one, am not.

I really like the Esterbrook Estie (it has the best steel nib/feed combination that I have ever used) and would never use any vintage Esterbrook.

[lionelc]

  On 4/15/2021 at 12:38 AM, Mercian said:

And both groups form only a tiny minority of the people who use the class of products (whether that's fountain pens, or computers) in question.

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in this case, it makes sense that parker will make the new 51 easy on the eye, smooth nibbed and a cc for a mass market.  anything more will just drive up the production costs and decrease the profit margin.  to placate the more niche user - the parker duofold centennial.  

[jchch1950]

The new Parker 51 edition has made a big impact ,negative or positive, in the pen community. Many opinions have been written in the 66 pages about them here in FPN. I had not an urge to buy one new P51 a few weeks ago , but after reading the forum now I will   buy one of each category to have a personal opinion.

[Estycollector]

  On 4/15/2021 at 1:02 AM, Glenn-SC said:

 

I, for one, am not.

I really like the Esterbrook Estie (it has the best steel nib/feed combination that I have ever used) and would never use any vintage Esterbrook.

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Maybe, maybe not. You might change your mind with some vintage Esterbrook experience. 

[Estycollector]

  On 4/15/2021 at 12:19 AM, lionelc said:

i wonder if fpners represent just the most particular subset of fountain pen users?  is there a bigger pool of 'ordinary' fountain pen users parker is aiming for? 

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Orginary or ornery....LOL!!

[Glenn-SC]

  On 4/15/2021 at 10:30 AM, Estycollector said:

Maybe, maybe not. You might change your mind with some vintage Esterbrook experience. 

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I have, and have tried, "vintage Esterbrooks" and they have zero attraction for me.

I have given most away to my FP Restorer as a gift.

[TheRedBeard]

  On 4/15/2021 at 7:45 AM, jchch1950 said:

The new Parker 51 edition has made a big impact ,negative or positive, in the pen community. Many opinions have been written in the 66 pages about them here in FPN. I had not an urge to buy one new P51 a few weeks ago , but after reading the forum now I will   buy one of each category to have a personal opinion.

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I have found all discussions on this and a few other FPN threads as well as opinions of the ones who already bought NG51  pretty useful, and they even helped  me a lot to reflect on my attitude to Parker pens. 

I also saw a basic version and did not like it at all. I have also seen many photos and a few reviews of Deluxe version. 

 

And come to a final conclusion that my decision to cancel my pre-order for Deluxe version some time ago  was right. 

I don;t need this new 51 as a writing instrument, and, moreover, I don't need it for my Parker collection either as I see absolutely no value in it. 

 

The above is my very humble personal opinion

 

On a positive note, all the fuss around NG51 has driven me to find and buy even more original P51s and even P61s

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Estycollector]

  On 4/15/2021 at 3:21 PM, Glenn-SC said:

I have, and have tried, "vintage Esterbrooks" and they have zero attraction for me.

I have given most away to my FP Restorer as a gift.

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Wow... you’re definitely an anomaly. 

[Estycollector]

My Parker collection consists of two’42 51’s and one NOS 21.....enough said...lol😂