What do you think? Will people really bid on this? I like this guys auctions & how it seems like he's just talking to you in the description, but this seems like a pretty strange idea.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...y0%3D%26fvi%3D1

POE

On the one hand,from first glance it looks like he's just trying to get rid of junk pens. On the other hand,he does say that the
winner isn't going to get some "sub,4th tier junk pen". It looks promising,but I think that he might snag some novice collectors,
but not that many vintage collectors. Most collectors tend to know what they want,and may not bite.

John

I just don't know. It looks interesting, and the guy does seem to know pens.

From the description and answers, I believe it is a Sheaffer Snorkel Black body metal cap triumph nib. I bookmarked it so I can come back and see how I did at my guess!

I also thought that it may be a Snorkel, because he said revealing the filling mechanism would give it away. I am the one who asked the flat-top question : )

Interesting auction! I applaud Dennis (formerly "DWL" here on FPN) for trying something new
Don't know if we will ever find out what the pen actually was...unless someone here wins it, or he posts about it on Pentrace...

A Snorkel was my first guess too. So a black barrel, silver colored cap, mystery filling system, non 14K rigid nib, possibly Triumph. That would be a Snorkel Sentinel right?.

Now that I think about it it could also possibly be something in the Parker 51/41 models. Didn't the 41's have a lined pattern on the caps & non 14K Octanium nibs? What about a Parker 45, wsn't there a Coronet model with a spiral/lined cap as well? I know that some of the pens came with steel nibs.

Is the bidder on this one of us?

Somebody asked about the cap type and the seller stated that it is a scre-on cap. That means it can't be a pen from the Parker 41/45/51/61 series. As far as I know, all of those pens have slip-on clutch style cap.

I'm also thinking it is something with a Snorkel style filling mechanism. Although, now that I think about it, could it be something with a lever fill? Maybe from Wahl-Eversharp perhaps?

Inkdesigner

An Eversharp Fifth Avenue or Symphony,perhaps?

John

This is DWL?

Oh... freaking great.

Whoever wins this pen - if you have communication with Dennis, please ask him to either send me my pen, or give me my refund the pen that I bought, that he never delivered.

Why not go to his auction and contact him directly?

What pen did you buy from him that never showed up?

POE

Yes, I went ahead and bid on this pen just for a lark. I had zero idea it was DWL. Foot!

Hi,

Well, we know it's a pen from one of the Big Four: Sheaffer, Parker, Wahl and Waterman. We know it's got a lined metal cap, and that the cap screws on. We know it's not a flattop (can't think of a metal-capped vintage flattop, anyway.) We know that the nib is not 14K. And we know that disclosure of the filling system would more-or-less solve the mystery.

To my mind, that suggests a proprietary filling system clearly identified with a particular maker or model. Lever-filler (almost every manufacturer), plunger/vacuum (Sheaffer and Wahl) - those systems simply aren't unique to a specific maker. Among the Big Four, button and Vacumatic spell "Parker," but I can't call to mind a Parker model that would meet the other criteria. So for me, it comes down to one of two:

Sheaffer Touchdown: "Touchdown" would instantly say "Sheaffer." But the "fat" Touchdowns and TM Touchdowns were all 14K-nib pens, were they not? To the best of my knowledge, the only TD candidate would be one of the Tip-Dip Craftsman pens. About the right size, screw-on lined metal cap, Touchdown filler, steel nib. A fine writer - I've got a bunch of them - but possibly a bit too entry-level to inspire delight and excitement when the mystery is revealed to the eventual buyer. So I'm voting for...

Sheaffer Snorkel: Like "Touchdown," the word "Snorkel" eliminates all doubt about the maker's identity. OK. so the pen in question features a Snorkel filler, lined metal screw-on cap (excludes the PFM), non-14K nib. Sounds like a Snorkel Clipper to me (PdAg Triumph nib). The seller is perfectly right - no-one would feel "cheated" getting this nib instead of the 14K version. (Note that the Special and the Statesman, the only other PdAg non-PFM Snorkels, are excluded by virtue of having plastic caps.)

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Hope we find out the answer!

Cheers,

Jon

I've done that. I even won the Paypal dispute and he will not respond to any of his emails.

The reason that I don't do it through the auction is that I do not think you can use an existing auction to harass a seller about an unrelated and off-ebay transaction.

This is an interesting auction. Sounds like y'all have it narrowed down to a Sheaffer. I might have to bid just to see what it is!

It looks like he's added some more information on the pen. What do you think Univer. Still the same pen? 18 Hours to go. He said he'll post the answer on his message board.

POE

You were really close Univer. He's added the pics on his message board.

http://thefountainpencommunity.activeboard...opicID=18115966

Looks like a Snorkel Sentinel with a Palladium nib. Nice buy. Did one of us win it?

POE

Hey there,

Oops, sorry - I completely lost track of this auction, and I missed your posts, POE.

I hate to disagree with the seller of the pen in question, but there's no such thing as a Sentinel with a PdAg nib. The Snorkel Sentinel is a 14K nib pen. A Snorkel with a stainless-and-gold-filled cap and a PdAg nib is...a Clipper.

Not that I'm suggesting a deliberate misstatement. Lots of people associate that cap style with the Sentinel model; others, for no apparent reason, seem to think that any Snorkel or TD with a metal cap is a Crest (those had gold-filled caps).

So, with due respect to the seller, I think I win the Kewpie Doll. Or something. In any event, the high bidder won himself something: a very nice pen indeed.

I do love a mystery. (I knew reading all that Dorothy Sayers would pay off in the end.)

Cheers,

Jon

Thats ok.

I don't know if you saw it or not, but at the endof the listing. He added this a couple of days before the auction finished off.

"I was doing a bit more research on the pen & I was reminded that the nib is a replacement for the original 14K. The non 14K nib is from a pen in the same model family as the mystery pen. To be 100% honest, most folks ("general" users) wouldn't know it was the wrong nib for this particular pen, it's one of those bits of minutae that a collector would focus on. If you take my meaning."

Looking at Richard B's site it shows a Sentinel and a Clipper are the same pen except one has a 14K and the other a PDAG nib. Is that right? So to make this a Sentinel again all it needs is the PDAG swapped out for a 14K nib?

I'm in agreement with you Jon. That is a great pen for $32. I might have to bid if he does this again.

HAGD!
POE

what a pity. i saw this two days ago and was thinking... "can i have my dad bid on this one?"
I'm after Snorkels right now.
To think this was one...

Hello again,

I thank you, POE, for taking the trouble to point out the additional listing verbiage that I did, indeed, miss.

The seller certainly did the right thing by disclosing that a nib swap had been made. Odd, though - the reference to the nib exchange being the sort of thing that only a sufficiently advanced collector might catch. While I'm not holding myself out as an expert, I would never catch it...simply because the resulting pen conforms in every respect to the profile of a Clipper. There are parts exchanges that create Frankenpens that anyone might catch (e.g., a non-Lifetime nib in a Lifetime pen), and there are more subtle inconsistencies that might indeed require more specialized knowledge (e.g., a mismatch of nib and feed). But as you rightly surmise, a Snorkel Sentinel whose 14K nib has been switched with a PdAg nib "becomes" a Clipper, sort-of. (It didn't leave the factory that way, and yes, its existence means that there's one more Clipper {and one less Sentinel} than Sheaffer actually produced - it's not a formally correct pen, but not much more "incorrect" than a pen that has had a nib swapped out for one of a different point size, to my mind.)

So the PdAg nib is "wrong" only in the sense that it's a replacement, and the seller was aware of that fact. But not "wrong" in the sense that the nib swap created anything other than an authentic Sheaffer model. (Sure wish all eBay sellers were that conscientious!)

I herewith relinquish all claims to the Kewpie Doll. (Don't really want one, anyway.)

Cheers,

Jon

He put up another mystery pen. This is a really cool idea.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...y0%3D%26fvi%3D1

Anyone have any guesses? I don't have the foggiest idea what they could be. What 1930's pens are smaller, have major clip problems and come in colors like these?

POE

Hmmm...hoping a few more clues get tossed out over the course of the auction.

Since it's a Big Four brand, my first thought is Wahl-Eversharp. Their celluloids are very prone to crystallization - a fault called out in the middle pen. The colors could certainly be W-E colors, and W-E made lots of pens in the relevant size range. W-E nibs were often delightfully flexy. I haven't personally encountered a huge number of examples with missing clips, but that's strictly my own experience, and I'm not a focused W-E collector.

On the other hand, Conklin was also a Big Four brand, by most accounts, until around 1930...when W-E took their spot. And heaven knows Conklins are famous for losing their clips. Conklin nibs, too, are often quite flexible. I'm not really feeling Conklin, though.

So I'm guessing W-E as the brand - maybe even the W-E Oxford sub-brand.

Thanks for posting the link; it'll be fun to watch this one.

Cheers,

Jon

Not sure of the model, but it sounds like (based on the eBay writeup) that the clips were somehow attached to the top of the pen, thus the need to "fill(ed) the tops of the cap in"......
The Parker Duette, Moderne and Premier pens had such clips, but they aren't particularly easy-to-find pens, I've found....

Could they be Parker Parco or Parkette or Challenger pens?
I dunno....I'm not a vintage Parker expert! Any thoughts from the Parkerites out there?

Interesting auction, in any case!

OOO OOO OOO I know!! I know this one!
Hee hee. What about the little Waterman 3v sizes. Didn't they have clips that connected on top of the cap? I have one here that does. There is a little hexagon cut out in the top middle of the cap. The middle one in the pic looks like my color also.

POE

what, no ones playing this time?

Bravo, POE!
I just checked the completed auction and the pens in question were (quote)"2 Waterman 3V and 1 earlier 52 1/2V in the same model/body size"(end quote) according to this post by the seller.

Yippieeee. Go me! lol.

I wonder when he's going to do another one?

I think it's actually a pretty cool idea.
I love mystery packages that arrive at my door - and what could be better than a surprise pen.
As long as he really dosn't "stick" you - it's great!

Well from what I've seen & what it says in the description he won't do that to his buyers. The first one was a nice Snorkel Sentinel and these were 3 Waterman's. If he keeps on this track I see these becoming very popular acuctions. I sent him an email last night asking when he's doing another one. His response.

"Hi POE, Thanks for contacting me, it's good to hear from you again. I'm delighted your enjoying my 'invisible' pen auctions. I've been having a lot of fun with them as well. The next one will be going up some time this weekend. More likely than not, Saturday evening. I'll not give you any behind the scenes hints of whats going up, but let me say it's one KILLER classic pen that every collector/user should own at least once."

Ok, so he's got my attention. I can't wait to see whatcomes up.

POE