When Did These Become Desirable (Gentleman)

[wspohn]

I like the Waterman Gentleman. It reminds me of the CF in terms of size, which is fine by me, although unlike most pens, the BP version is quite a bit thinner than the FP (more along the lines of a Parker 180).

 

I own several Gentlemen, and needless to say with my sterling silver fetish, have both normal versions in that material (godron and barley).

 

When I started collecting them, the third version, the one made for the Franklin Mint, with the cheesy fake gold coin on the clip was viewed as a bit infra dig by most people. I did buy one, being a bit of a completist, but never use it - it was always tantamount to having a K-Tel brand on it, or if it were a cheese, being Velveeta, or a car, the Eddie Bauer Limited Edition Ford Bronco.

 

I think I paid just over $100 for my FM Gentleman.

 

Now, I happened to look at the listings for Gentlemen again as I was after a nib section, and see stratospheric asking prices. There are several in the $600 range, and some poor fool actually paid Montgomery, a notorious inflationary seller, the asked $600, obviously without checking what they had normally been going for (maybe $200).

 

Is there a sudden spate of ingenuous twits out there bidding, that don't bother checking on what previous offerings have gone for, or is there a 'silver rush' on for this particular model. Never thought I'd see these being sought after - I guess collecting styles change.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTA2NlgxNjAw/z/aP0AAOSwQItUCLCc/$_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F

Edited February 26, 2015 by wspohn

[Left FPN]

They do appear on ebay and I have seen them sell at well below £100.

 

As for Franklin Mint.....I have only ever purchased one item (which comprised of 12 items) from them, a set of 'Jade' like animals. That was 30 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday, it followed a visit to the pub and cost me a fortune.

 

 

I sold them about 5 years ago in open bid on ebay and they fetched £5.

[wspohn]

That's the sort of tchotchke I think of when I hear Franklin Mint.

 

I sold off a small collection of watches for the daughter of a friend that passed away, and one of them was a 'Wings of Gold' watch (they often have some sort of wings or eagle motif in the hopes of preying on American patriotic feeling - anything to sell thsi crapola).

 

Once in awhile, as in the case of the Gentelman pens, they actually choose a good product to daface

[rochester21]

It`s a classic trick: raise the price so that people want it more. There are a whole bunch of overpriced pens out there, why question the price some people ask for a Gentleman? It`s not as if everybody will start asking(and getting) 500 dollars on a Gentleman.

I had the Franklin Mint Sterling version, and it felt and wrote like a top of the range pen, It`s just as good as a Le Man 100 or other expensive pens. And prices rarely reflect true value anyway.

Edited February 28, 2015 by rochester21

[wspohn]

No problems at all wit the Gentleman model - a very nice pen. I just feel that having a Franklin Mint label tacked onto it will devalue it not increase the value, and historically that has always been the case - until recently. Maybe current buyers have a higher tolerance for that sort of marketing.

[kazoolaw]

Isn't this similar to the 100 French Revolution pen?

[wspohn]

Isn't this similar to the 100 French Revolution pen?

 

No, not at all. That one was one of the many collector pens created entirely within Waterman.

 

The Franklin Mint pen resulted from Waterman agreeing to pimp out one of their pens for money to someone else. They would have been made within Waterman, and are functionally identical to the same Waterman Gentleman with no modification.

 

That sort of arrangement can work out very well, e.g. Classic Pens, or not so well, as in this case when the company putting their mark on the pen has a lesser reputation.