English Parker 51 Vacumatic Dove Grey Repaired in December, 1962 and fitted with a Navy Grey Barrel.

[CS388]

Congratulations, mitto. That's a great find.

Certainly shines a light into a different world.

 

I agree with the concensus: the network simply wasn't there to enable people to locale the available, scattered stock. 

 

And FarmBoy's post explains the whole situation: in that parts list Parker indicates that the Dove and Cordovan barrels are no longer available and will be substituted.

 

But, a worthy addition to your collection - and quite the snip, too!

Well done.
 

[mitto]

7 hours ago, CS388 said:

Congratulations, mitto. That's a great find.

Certainly shines a light into a different world.

 

I agree with the concensus: the network simply wasn't there to enable people to locale the available, scattered stock. 

 

And FarmBoy's post explains the whole situation: in that parts list Parker indicates that the Dove and Cordovan barrels are no longer available and will be substituted.

 

But, a worthy addition to your collection - and quite the snip, too!

Well done.
 

 

Thank you CS388. And I too agree with the concensus. I was determined to get the pen at any cost. In the biginning there was just one other bidder whose bid was £20 (or perhaps £19) but I was expecting more bidders to come by and so I put £110 my highest bid and went to sleep. And in the morning the next day I received a notification saying I have won the item and for just £21. I felt I was on the Moon. I made the payment without wasting any time and, thus, the pen was mine. 😊

[mitto]

14 hours ago, VacNut said:

Great buy. The letter is worth more than your purchase price. It is a great piece of history.

 

I totally agree. 

[VacNut]

I would humbly disagree that there wasn’t a network in 1962 to find parts. Parker knew which shops or stores ordered pens and parts from the company, and how to contact them. It may be a rolodex on someone’s desk, but the information was available.

 

There were also public book telephone directories that advertised stationary or pen stores. The ad with the largest advertisement probably had the most stock. If you were lucky to find a part once, you could likely try again with the same store, or they would recommend another store.

 

If there wasn’t a store in your city, one could go to a library, which commonly stored telephone directories from other cities. There aren’t many major cities in the south of the UK and it wouldn’t have been that difficult to find a store or a pen technician that may have the barrel. London would have been a good start.

 

My thoughts are Parker wouldn’t have bothered to check other stores. Parker was selling new pens and they would have little interest in repairing a 14 year old pen. If it wasn’t a perfect repair, maybe they could sell a new replacement pen. Why bother hunting down barrels and have someone post a single barrel to Dover.

 

I have a IPhone 1 with a broken screen. If I send it back to Apple, they will tell me they cannot repair the phone and perhaps offer me a newer model. If I really wanted it repaired, I could find a local repair store that still stocks the screen or buy another IPhone 1 with a functional screen and replace it, but why bother?

[VacNut]

2 hours ago, mitto said:

 

I totally agree. 

Mitto, BTW are you in two countries simultaneously? UK and ?

[mitto]

50 minutes ago, VacNut said:

Mitto, BTW are you in two countries simultaneously? UK and ?

 

I am in Islamabad, Pakistan. My brother is in London. 😊

[FarmBoy]

Parker:  Is this John in the pen repair department.
Steve:  no. John retired. 
Parker:  well Steve, this is Parker Janesville. 14 years ago we sent John three Dove Grey 51 barrels. 
Steve: So?

Parker: do you happen to have one you can send back?

 

 

 

Parker: Hello?

[jchch1950]

The value of the pen is closely related to the letter, each complementing the other one.