What Parkers Have Joined Your Collection Lately?

[Carguy]

I do agree with your method entirely. I have and will continue to buy from UK based sellers occasionally. However, some items I have seen lately have shipping of $30-40…..necessary I understand but it does make it hard to bid steeply also.

[TheRedBeard]

12 minutes ago, Carguy said:

I do agree with your method entirely. I have and will continue to buy from UK based sellers occasionally. However, some items I have seen lately have shipping of $30-40…..necessary I understand but it does make it hard to bid steeply also.

Mike, yes, I fully agree with you that shipping cost happen to be crazy with some sellers... 

Last year I bought a rather rare P88 (never seen it in the UK) NOS in original box with an original price tag and had to pay for shipping and taxes more than a half of the pen's price ...  

[Carguy]

OK so I just went and looked and a couple of these are going for over $200 in auctions on the bay of evil here in the US.

 

Are these really that nice? It is admittedly one of the few Parker pens I have absolutely no experience with.

[gwid]

Nice looking,  nice design , small (thin) for my taste , light without the converter.

I got mine (almost mint matte brown epoxy on brass ) for cheap at a flea market for 7 US dollars without knowing what it was, doubting it was a authentic parker 

nice writer, nothing special. I wouldn't pay more than 60 dollars for it , even knowing that its rare, but that's me...

 

[gwid]

On 5/25/2021 at 1:18 PM, alexwi said:

Hola Martín,

 

Care to post a picture of it? I'm very much into 45's

 

Thanks!

 

Alex

Here you go .. parker 45 epoxy on brass , industria argentina  , on chocolate brown and light grey  , side by side

beautiful pens with parker 61 clip 

 

[TheRedBeard]

1 hour ago, Carguy said:

OK so I just went and looked and a couple of these are going for over $200 in auctions on the bay of evil here in the US.

 

Are these really that nice? It is admittedly one of the few Parker pens I have absolutely no experience with.

Mike, I am sure you know Tony's excellent Parker Penography website. 

Here is the page about P88/Rialtos:

http://parkerpens.net/parker88.html

 

While post-1992 Rialtos are not difficult to find at reasonable price, the 1987-1989 P88s in some nice finishes (like Ivory) with coloured (not black) sections in NOS condition are quite rare and command pretty high price. 

 

Actually, they are very nice pens, especially the ones in lacquer finish. 

[TheRedBeard]

47 minutes ago, gwid said:

Nice looking,  nice design , small (thin) for my taste , light without the converter.

I got mine (almost mint matte brown epoxy on brass ) for cheap at a flea market for 7 US dollars without knowing what it was, doubting it was a authentic parker 

nice writer, nothing special. I wouldn't pay more than 60 dollars for it , even knowing that its rare, but that's me...

 

 

Congratulations! $7 for such a pen is a real miracle  

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

7 hours ago, TheRedBeard said:

I see...

However, during last few months I have seen a few P50 Flighters appeared on eBay UK (with sellers normally willing to send pens to overseas buyers) at much lower prices than from the US sellers. 

I guess in some cases the total price (seller's price+shipping cost) might be still lower than the price asked by the US sellers.

 

When I consider buying pens from the US (that I do from time to time) I simply calculate the final price for me including taxes and shipping cost and if I am happy with it I buy from there. 

Well, nowadays usual/average shipping time from the U to the UK makes about 3 weeks... 

 

 

Shipping costs is the #1 reason that stops me from getting winning bids. Because I calculate them as part of the cost of the pen, and 90% of US sellers INSIST for some unfathomable reason on using the eBay global Extortion program, whereby Pitney bowes holds the package hostage for approx 5-7 days in Erlanger Ky, and as a result doubles the shipping costs from about 12$ us to 25...

 

when you add 25$ to the price, instead of 12, that is often the deciding factor between bidding and not bidding. When a US based seller says global shipping prog only, they may as well just say "will only ship to US" 

 

The only winners with the GSP are eBay and Pitney bowes, everyone else loses. the buyer has to cut their bid, or they end up paying too much for shipping and the sellers lose out on potential buyers and potential higher bids.  

[readytotalk]

Today`s acquisition is Canadian Duofold, Very interesting nib, with a slightest trace of flexibility.  

 

[TheRedBeard]

8 hours ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

Shipping costs is the #1 reason that stops me from getting winning bids. Because I calculate them as part of the cost of the pen, and 90% of US sellers INSIST for some unfathomable reason on using the eBay global Extortion program, whereby Pitney bowes holds the package hostage for approx 5-7 days in Erlanger Ky, and as a result doubles the shipping costs from about 12$ us to 25...

 

when you add 25$ to the price, instead of 12, that is often the deciding factor between bidding and not bidding. When a US based seller says global shipping prog only, they may as well just say "will only ship to US" 

 

The only winners with the GSP are eBay and Pitney bowes, everyone else loses. the buyer has to cut their bid, or they end up paying too much for shipping and the sellers lose out on potential buyers and potential higher bids.  

 

Yes, it is exactly the case...

From time to time I manage to find US eBay sellers who either do not use GSP or, after certain talks, agree to send by ordinary registered mail, but there are not many such ones there. 

 

[Zookie]

Went to the local flea market yesterday and found 1 vendor with some sorry looking pens in a glass case. In the sun, 90 degrees F.

In the middle of them, I saw one that looked half decent. A Parker Vacumatic that seems complete.

I told the seller that it wasn't good for much, and that he should never, never store his pens like that!

He ended up giving to me for free.

It turns out to, after a quick look see, to be a Vac with good clip,

good section, feed, and nib (lots of flex), and a speedline filler.

The diaphragm is toast, and the cap and barrel have heat damage.

Oh, it's laminate black with two rings.

What should I do with it?

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

26 minutes ago, Zookie said:

Went to the local flea market yesterday and found 1 vendor with some sorry looking pens in a glass case. In the sun, 90 degrees F.

In the middle of them, I saw one that looked half decent. A Parker Vacumatic that seems complete.

I told the seller that it wasn't good for much, and that he should never, never store his pens like that!

He ended up giving to me for free.

It turns out to, after a quick look see, to be a Vac with good clip,

good section, feed, and nib (lots of flex), and a speedline filler.

The diaphragm is toast, and the cap and barrel have heat damage.

Oh, it's laminate black with two rings.

What should I do with it?

how much "heat damage" do the cap and barrel have?... 

 

can it be buffed out? 'cause a free vac is awesome!

and replacing a diaphragm is something that can be done for either

a) a reasonable price by a professional; or

b) a small investment of time by someone who has the basic tools and the patience to learn to do it 

 

I love my vacs  they are great pens.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

7 hours ago, readytotalk said:

Today`s acquisition is Canadian Duofold, Very interesting nib, with a slightest trace of flexibility.  

 

wow... that is a classy looking pen! 

 

very nice  

[Zookie]

The barrel has a slight warp to it, the cap a spot that looks like a raised bump on the back side, about the size of a lentil.

it's a nice little pen. I've resacced several, but never replaced a diaphragm like these probably have.

i'll try and post a couple of photos.

 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

I'm hoping one of the experts will chime in here on wether or not the barrel can be "de-banana'd" and what they think can be done about the cap. (celluloid restoration/rebuilding is WAAAYYYYY WAYYYY outside of my wheel house)

 

A diaphragm is not too difficult to install (should you choose to do it yourself). 

I personally find it only a little more challenging than a basic re-sacking. There's more detail work (cleaning out the old diaphragm) but it's doable.

 

The hard/expensive part is the tools. Which means it might be worth it to just send the pen out to have it done, but I mean, ... free Vacumatic... any money spent fixing it could just be counted as the purchase price, and you'd likely still come out ahead of if you had bought an already restored one!

 

These two how-tos are great:

http://www.richardspens.com/ref/repair/vac.htm

http://dirck.delint.ca/beta/?page_id=720

 

 

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

On 5/20/2021 at 9:29 PM, Paul-in-SF said:

I think I'm done with modern Duofolds

Well, you can all guess how that worked out. Say hello to my little friend:

Now on its way in the mail (not photo of actual pen, but a reasonable facsimile). 

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

8 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Well, you can all guess how that worked out. Say hello to my little friend:

Now on its way in the mail (not photo of actual pen, but a reasonable facsimile). 

neat! what is that colour pattern called?  

 

[Paul-in-SF]

51 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

neat! what is that colour pattern called?  

I thought it was called Check Blue, but it's actually Check Marine. There were four Check colors: Amber, Citrine, Marine and Olive. They ran for a few years in the Mk II Ace era of Parker Duofold Centennials (and Internationals and Demis) which was 2006 to 2014.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

1 hour ago, Paul-in-SF said:

I thought it was called Check Blue, but it's actually Check Marine. There were four Check colors: Amber, Citrine, Marine and Olive. They ran for a few years in the Mk II Ace era of Parker Duofold Centennials (and Internationals and Demis) which was 2006 to 2014.

It's really nice.

 

It's a really good thing that

a) Modern Duofolds are way out of my price range and

b) I have sworn off modern Parker (in general)

 

Or I'd have an all new obsession to track down...  (as if I need another one...)

[NgunnawalJack]

On 6/20/2021 at 9:31 PM, TheRedBeard said:

I see...

However, during last few months I have seen a few P50 Flighters appeared on eBay UK (with sellers normally willing to send pens to overseas buyers) at much lower prices than from the US sellers. 

I guess in some cases the total price (seller's price+shipping cost) might be still lower than the price asked by the US sellers.

 

When I consider buying pens from the US (that I do from time to time) I simply calculate the final price for me including taxes and shipping cost and if I am happy with it I buy from there. 

Well, nowadays usual/average shipping time from the U to the UK makes about 3 weeks... 

 

 

Shipping (&buying) from the UK is truly expensive, even to Finland, and then add customs duty and VAT (24% here). I guess we can thank Brexit.

Edited June 22, 2021 by NgunnawalJack