This is just insane!

http://cgi.ebay.com/PARKER-51-SPECIAL-EDIT...1QQcmdZViewItem

Hi Contravox,

No argument from me. it is insane but as P.T.Barnum said there is one born every minute, it seems as if 28 of them have got together on that one.

Something is worth whatever someone will pay for it, but I'm with you on this one.
$910.00 US, nigh on £500.00 sterling for what you can, without really trying find for about half of that or less is as you say insane IMO. :doh:

Its good for the seller though, I bet he wishes he had a dozen of them right now.

He will be all the way to the bank

Cheers, John

John,

Do you think this pen in fetching so much just because it is a medium nib? I know for a fact Parker can't exchange nibs on these pens. The black and vermeil have always gone for more than the blue model, but this is just so far out of the usual ballpark, it's left me asking "why." Well, my best to the buyer...too bad they don't see the double-jewel 51 with 14k Empire cap listed near that $900 SE!

Robert

I pity that a shop can't even sell at that price?????I wish I have ten of them to ex change for Just ONE.

Contravox,
I wouldn't pay anywhere near $900.00US for what is basically a P45 in an Armani suit no matter what colour and cap finish the pen is in.
As for paying more for a medium, not a hope IMO, in most pens medium is the most common nib size, almost the default nib, you usually have to ask if you want any nib other than a medium.

The 51 DJ for less money is by far the better pen, if it is in anything like top class condition, it will write better and last longer than the SE will even if you allow the SE 40 years head start in the age stakes, the DJ has already seen 40 summers the SE probably never will.

Cheers, John

I was telling Parker MD about the lauched of the pen that my P51 silver or a steel cap would anytime beat the SE. compare everything and you will see Everything.
Let's us not B and C too much here Or the bidders will have a broken Hearts......

Can anybody guess at the identities of the top several bidders? Either they know something the rest of us don't know or they are out of their minds!

andy

I'm no ebay expert, but it looks like the silly part of this auction is just between two bidders, both with a fairly low number of transactions. One's in the UK, the other in Australia: maybe they've turned this into the Ashes, or maybe there are two people with strong personal reasons to buy that model of pen, at well above the market price (do I tell them I just lost the pen they were given as a retirement present, or do I replace it? :ph34r: )

Best

Michael

It is insane, there are buy now's on this pen on ebay for 350-550!!

And to make matters worse I contacted the seller (who must be rubbing their hands together) and it does not have any of the original packaging or box!!!

It is pen ONLY.

Crazy, I only wish it was my black SE up there for $910, I'd then buy now another for even as high as $550 and be sitting pretty and with original box and packaging.

There is one born everyday!!!!! CRAZY

Got to love the way that the seller has given the manufacturer's recommended price in the description as well.
Maybe the high bidder has been reading this forum and came across the suggestion a while ago from BilltheEditor of bidding $15,000 on any auction you wanted to be certain of winning

It was insane for Parker to price the 51 SE at $350.00 to begin with. Don't get me wrong, it's a good pen, but certainly not worth the $350 MSRP (in my opinion). And this guy wants $910.00 for the pen with no box included? It's beyond insane. Like Oxonian stated, the thought of paying that much for what is essentially a suped up Parker 45 defies logic.

Hey, you know you just can't kill a good idea!

Boy I hope the "winner" realllllllllly likes that pen.

And for the seller's sake, I hope the winner actually pays for the pen, rather than simply disappearing.

Did you look at the feedbacks and numbers on the seller and the top two bidders? Wow.

wonder what the winning bid will be on this? lets start a guessing game--i think it will be 1050.00

One of the bidders has bought nothing BUT 51's. Judging from the amounts he/she has paid for them, money must not be an option. Gee...as a school teacher, I can relate. Every night, I go home and roll around on my pile of 100's. To be fair, I've probably spent well over $2000 on pens...but that's TOTAL, ever! Funny thing is, I really keep going back to the same 2 or 3...one of them is an old medium lustraloy aero 51. Okay, so I bet the auction will stop at $910. Hopefully these two have sobered up and came to their senses about bidding. If not, I have a piece of toast with Hoffa's face on it that I would LOVE to sell them!

Well maybe we could SELL her a special membership on FPN for $10,000, and make her the titular head of the Parker 51 section?

Who wants to make this "special offer" to her?

This is very weird - if you trace back the bidders and other auctions they've won (my husband is watching the US Open and I'm a bit bored), almost all the bidders have feedback of way less than 50, most under 20. I would have thought that you'd see bidders with feedback over 100 in some of the auctions, but there are almost none. Very odd - starting to smell like a Ponzi scheme to me.

Joan

No, actually, it's someone *offering* to pay $910. Nothing at all wrong with the advertisement -- has some manufacturer's selling points and the information that it's out of production, and also MSRP. Not even any puffery about how it's bound to increase hugely in value and that it's an investment grade pen and all that. Doesn't actually say the market was hugely underwhelmed by the pen, but a seller isn't obliged to say that.

Looks like a bidding war, or two people put in silly automatic bids, and then one of them couldn't even stick to that limit. With buyers like that, the seller can polish their halo all the way to the bank.

Best

Michael

it went for $910!


The parker 51 SE post cards will be soring up next.

I only paid $190 for my black P51SE........ now $910 would be nice..............

I personly think its just either a practical joke by these 2 guys or they are Sooooo rich that money is really not and issue.
Lets face it if I had 50 millon in the bank and I saw a pen I really wanted I'd stick a price on it that no one could beat.

This is the first I've heard of this auction and I'm shocked at the price that the pen went for. I'm even more shocked that the winning bidder has positve feedback for the transaction - implying that he/she actually paid that much! What the... I've had some good luck with some of my sales but I have never even heard of anything like this.