New Parker 51

[Beechwood]

16 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

This is now making me think of going to see a Picasso retrospective with my parents at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC years ago.  My mom didn't think she liked his work at all -- but then saw a painting from the "Rose Period" of two small boys leading a horse (I don't remember the title, and wasn't able to find it in a Google search).  And she just wanted to take the painting off the wall and roll it up under her arm and take it home with her....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

 

My school in York, England had a painting from the Rose period, part of his Saltimbanques series. We walked past it every day but as schoolboys we would have much preferred a Lichtenstein of course.

 

No one thought anything about values or security, it was just hung on a nail and hundreds of spotty youths walked by each day. One day, it was gone. Did your mother ever visit York perhaps?

[Glenn-SC]

And what really fries my bacon is when people belittle you for buying the Mona Lisa for $1M because “you could have bought a print of the Mona Lisa for $15!  I’ve never paid more than $20 for a painting in my life!”

[Estycollector]

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

 

John Ruskin

 

Or, Oscar Wilde,

A cynic is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. 

[Carguy]

On 1/29/2025 at 1:04 AM, VacNut said:

👍👍👍

Well said…

I agree as well. I have far more 51’s than I can use at any one time, not to mention other vintage and modern pen. They make me happy to own them and be able to fix them. I keep saying I should sell some of them, but I never do. Hopefully, 1 or 2 of my kid will want some of them.

[Targa]

On 12/11/2023 at 2:04 AM, thx1138 said:

Thank you all for your thoughts. 

Jchch, buy a couple of 51's from the UK and you have a high chance of getting a broad or stub.

Yes.  And generally speaking very nice smooth well-regulated nibs at that.  I have several UK issues with broad nibs and love them.  

[Targa]

On 1/30/2025 at 10:37 AM, Glenn-SC said:

And what really fries my bacon is when people belittle you for buying the Mona Lisa for $1M because “you could have bought a print of the Mona Lisa for $15!  I’ve never paid more than $20 for a painting in my life!”

If I could get an original Mona Lisa for only 1 million, I'd buy at least 5.

[Glenn-SC]

4 minutes ago, Targa said:

If I could get an original Mona Lisa for only 1 million, I'd buy at least 5.

😁

 

[VacNut]

15 minutes ago, Targa said:

If I could get an original Mona Lisa for only 1 million, I'd buy at least 5.

Or you can buy 5 vintage 51’s. I think that equals out. 

[inkstainedruth]

2 hours ago, VacNut said:

Or you can buy 5 vintage 51’s. I think that equals out. 

Oh I don't know about that.  I have a bunch of vintage 51s (both Aerometrics and Vacs) and even with repairs on some of them (mostly the 51 Vacs needing new sacs) I didn't pay anything REMOTELY CLOSE to that much money....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Glenn-SC]

But sometimes, when the model and materials are taken into account, the value, and price, rise much above the minimal “aerometric with a stainless steel capped” Parker “51” price.  
Even a non-collector would value a 18kt solid  gold Presidential pen as having a higher intrinsic value than a plastic and SS version. 
If your standard is “it has to write consistently”, then buy BIC Stic ballpoint pens and No. 2 pencils and don’t be concerned with anyone who wants to pay more for, at least what they consider as, “more.”

[VacNut]

Yes, you are correct. 5 vintage 51’s are probably worth more than the Mona Lisa.

😂😂😂

[FarmBoy]

7 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Oh I don't know about that.  I have a bunch of vintage 51s (both Aerometrics and Vacs) and even with repairs on some of them (mostly the 51 Vacs needing new sacs) I didn't pay anything REMOTELY CLOSE to that much money....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Someone around here got a plum 51 for a few bucks. 
 

probably not the rule but rather the exception. 
 

 

[Estycollector]

The "midnight blue" with silver and gold are the most attractive vintage 51's for me. 

[VacNut]

There is a fish scale 14K cap that is extraordinary.

It is worth at least one of the four Mona Lisa originals.

[inkstainedruth]

15 hours ago, FarmBoy said:

Someone around here got a plum 51 for a few bucks. 
 

probably not the rule but rather the exception. 
 

 

Yeah, I remember that.  Full size Plummer for just over half the price I paid for my Plum Demi, and the same weekend, at that....   It was listed as being black, so I completely ignored the listing -- and then the joke was on me because the day after I won the Demi, I also got a black UK production 51 with the cap for a US made 51 Special, for the minimum bid -- just to get the ball rolling (both pens came in the same mail).

Met the guy a few years later the time I went out the the Chicago Pen Show -- I was telling someone the story and he overheard me and introduced himself and we had a good laugh over it -- including the part where (at the time) he said, "What do people think?"  And *I* said, "I think I hate you...."  Especially since I had thought I'd done pretty well on the Plum Demi (aka "best poker face EVER" -- since the final price didn't even hit my intermediate maximum bid...).

I did find a Cordovan Brown 51 Vac at an estate sale for basically @$2 US last fall (depending on whether you want to count it and the Midnight 45 I'd gone to look at as 2 bucks apiece or $3 for the 51 Vac and a buck for the 45 (plus two spare converters for the 45).  Repairs on the Cordovan Brown pen puts its value (as far as I'm concerned) up to almost the price I paid for the Plum Demi.  OTOH, a few years ago I found a Forest Green 51 Aero at another estate sale, for $2 (plus some money for nib work)....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Estycollector]

Parker51 has a pen and pencil 51 plum from 1948 listed for sale @ $275. 

[inkstainedruth]

Too rich for my blood....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[jchch1950]

17 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Yeah, I remember that.  Full size Plummer for just over half the price I paid for my Plum Demi, and the same weekend, at that....   It was listed as being black, so I completely ignored the listing -- and then the joke was on me because the day after I won the Demi, I also got a black UK production 51 with the cap for a US made 51 Special, for the minimum bid -- just to get the ball rolling (both pens came in the same mail).

Met the guy a few years later the time I went out the the Chicago Pen Show -- I was telling someone the story and he overheard me and introduced himself and we had a good laugh over it -- including the part where (at the time) he said, "What do people think?"  And *I* said, "I think I hate you...."  Especially since I had thought I'd done pretty well on the Plum Demi (aka "best poker face EVER" -- since the final price didn't even hit my intermediate maximum bid...).

I did find a Cordovan Brown 51 Vac at an estate sale for basically @$2 US last fall (depending on whether you want to count it and the Midnight 45 I'd gone to look at as 2 bucks apiece or $3 for the 51 Vac and a buck for the 45 (plus two spare converters for the 45).  Repairs on the Cordovan Brown pen puts its value (as far as I'm concerned) up to almost the price I paid for the Plum Demi.  OTOH, a few years ago I found a Forest Green 51 Aero at another estate sale, for $2 (plus some money for nib work)....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

You are a hard-working pen collector, that is why you find such bargains.

[FarmBoy]

15 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Too rich for my blood....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I think the question is what would you sell your Plum pen for? 

[Beechwood]

Speaking of different Parker 51s I gave a Parker 51 Insignia to ParkerDuofold just prior to the announcement.  A nice enough pen but a special feature was that allegedly  it had been owned by Martin Fox of the Tropicana Night Club during the Guevara days and had Martin's personalisation on the barrel,  bought from Parker Bush House on that basis when they had a clear out of their trophy cabinet around 2010.