QUOTE(Darren @ May 12 2008, 03:50 PM) [snapback]608756[/snapback]
Dear all,
A while ago I posted a request for replacement roller clips, which appeared to be read with interest but didn't generate any responses (!), and in the meantime I've been lucky enough to pick up some parts on eBay. I want to replace clips on two Gold Seal Personal Point pens: I found a similar model to to one of them (cracked and chipped and horribly discoloured, but with a sweet Gold Seal Flexible nib in the bargain), which I'm confident will fit; but, recently purchased a military style cap to replace the gold plate-top and clip for another full size gold seal pen.
The military clip is the right length and is not fixed to the cap band, but will it fit? Perhaps a better question is "how does it fit? and do the two models' caps differ in that repsect?
Kind regards,
Darren.
Hi Darren.
Parts are funny. That is, parts availability can be a real problem now and not then. I only know of maybe 2 or 3 real "parts people" who make a business out of scrounging and selling parts with no intention of restoring pens themselves. Most restorers and collectors scrounge for parts too, but those parts are to be used in support of a larger service that they provide and holding onto parts that may be needed in order to complete a full restoration is more the norm than to flip the parts as stand-alone sales. From time to time I find myself with some extras and try to supply true devotees of the Wahl Eversharp brand with same. I also received 3 pens last week that needed new clips along with the usual restoration/refurbishing process. So I, myself, am torn between trying to be the good Wahlnut and help hobbyists out for a part here and a part there, and then finding that I mist become the bad Wahlnut because I need to hold onto some parts to make pens whole again.
The economics (if that is an appropriate term here) also applies to this question. If a repair person has a clip and sells it for what? $45 or $50, and it cost him say $30 one way or the other, he stands to make $10 or $20 on the flip. If the same repairer takes in a pen that needs to be restored and applies a little know how and laborr wioth skill can turn the pen into a showpiece perhaps and charge maybe $100 for the service. If a clip is needed to make that happen, (and without the clip on hand the whole restoration can not be completed) the restorer can use the clip, and maybe even charge no more for it than if it were sold independently, but as a part of the whole the entire restoration will probably net the restorer maybe $75 or $80 profit or more. Given the difference in selling parts versus doing restorations, which would you choose? Right. And that is why parts are harder to come by than their scarcity alone might portend..
I don't mean to justify anything. I don't mean to be harsh either. The marketplace is whatever it is on any given day, and that is just the way things are. BTW, even when I buy parts from parts people at shows, they already know full well what the value of the part is if part of a restoration and their prices are pretty high already. We all have to scrounge "junkers'" to get some of the parts we need. We all have to decide if we have more than we think we need or not and part with some to help a fellow collector. But if parts supply dries up, and we need to hold on to what we have, does that make any of us less supportive than we were when we had a lot of spares to help out with? Perhaps, but the realities change from situation to situation and time to time.