A dear friend of mine saw me using a FP at a meeting a month ago. She remarked about it and said she had a pen she no longer used, a Parker "51". I casually said, well if you would consider selling it, I'd like to buy. She said yes but didn't know where it was in her boxes. Fast forward to today's meeting and she mentioned she'd found it and what did I think they would go for. Sight unseen, I said $45-55. I picked up the pen after our meeting and it's now home soaking... yes, she left the ink in it years ago... it happens even to pen lovers.

It's a black 1948, no dots? "51" Vac, bought new in 1951, a gift to her, old boyfriend?? She used it through her masters degree, work, "took lots of notes", etc.
There are a couple good scratches on the hood area to the clutch ring, that is the most actually worn area on the pen. The cap must have caught it or ???
The barrel shows lots of little scratches from desk, pocketbook, normal wear.
Nib seems to work well, I guess a Fine nib. She said she had it rebuilt several years ago and our test shows it took in, blew out ink.

Now I didn't expect this, but the cap is 1/8 14K gold filled with lots of lines running the length. No lines then a space of smooth metal, back to lines, just evenly spaced lines all around, no fancy scroll work. A three good, not terrible small dents on the back of cap. No diamond or word Parker on the clip. But the cap seems rough inside, don't know what that is.

Pen has her name on the barrel.

I accept the fact it may need to be rebuilt in weeks, months, years, never.

The price was sort of set at 45-55... you know, a friend thing. I didn't have a check with me. But the cap is different from what I expected, not that I wanted a gold cap, but that's what it is.

What is a fair, proper price?

Considering the fact that the pen will most likely need to have the filler restored.... even if it is taking on ink, I would have it restored...
You paid a decent price for the pen.
The pen was made in the last quarter of 1948 and should not have a blue diamond or Parker on the clip, so it sounds like the pen is right...
Your friend agreed to the price so I would just go as is.... since it has her name on the barrel, you will always remember the person who you got a great writing pen from.

I agree with the honourable member from MD above, the price is about average for that pen given the condition you describe. I would say that you will need to get it serviced sooner rather than later IMHO, once restored it should be a wonderful writer.

Jim

Also agree with OldGriz. Even with the cleaning charges, you paid a fair price.

Is it a single jewel or double jewel? If it's a DJ, you did even better, but either way you did O.K.

Single Jewel.

I've gotten some very nice writing pens off eBay and our marketplace for less, but this is a friend so I wanted not a true bargain but to be quite fair. That's why I said 45-55, which for me is very, very top end of what I would pay on eBay. I was just thrown by the Gold cap and didn't want to be short on its account.

Thank you, I now have confidence I'm not ripping her off.

The pen is being cleaned. Still putting out black ink. In a couple hours I may just be force to put in some Waterman's Fla Blue or even Purple to give it a test spin.

Put a little bit of heat on the hood and spin it off. Then you can really clean out the old gunk and get it writing properly. It is not hard to do. There are many exploded views of these pens on the net and it is hard to goof it up short of melting the hood with too much heat or cracking the hood by not giving it a touch of heat prior to removing it.
Rob