Of all the abbreviations out there on the web, I still have yet to figure out what NOS means when I come across it in the PFN marketplace. Can anybody shed some light on those three initials?

Thanks in advance.

From what I remember... I am pretty sure it is . NEW OLD STOCK.

NOS means New Old Stock. Essentially, it's a pen that's brand new, but has been sitting around on someone's shelf for a season or more.

New Old Stock is correct. It is used quite a bit in Classic Bicycle Parts for something that is old and was not sold at the time it was produced and you can buy it for your old bicycle. There is another term that means more or less the same thing "Deadstock"

Ooh....another cyclist joins our peloton of pen fanatics! Welcome!

Thanks everybody for such a quick response. I now feel informed when I browse through the listings.

New Old Stock is what it stands for in this context, unused (new, never inked)
pens that are no longer being made (old stock, not current model, discontinued).

Yep1, I have four. Three road bikes and a Mtn. Bike.

NOS often has the nice advantage that (because it is not being manufactured anymore but still does exist in the store) being let's say 10 years old, it is to be sold today for the same price they had asked for 10 years ago.

WHEW

Keep in mind that NOS does not mean the same as new. The pen has been sitting on a shelf for years, possibly decades, and its materials have been aging at the same rate as those of used pens. I bought a NOS Sheaffer some months back and when I first inked it - it wouldn't write! I had to soak it for a week before it would carry a line. Now it works great.

NOS does not necessarily mean that it will be sold at the price marked on the pen. I have frequently seen NOS pens offered for significantly more than the original price. A NOS Parker 51 from say, 1947, basic, no frills, would undoubtedly sell for more than the original $12.50 USD.

This is especially true on eBay, where starting bids for NOS pens are not unusual to be double or more the original price. A lot depends upon how recently the pen was discontinued, and how common the pen is, both of which have a large bearing on the pen's desirability. It's the old supply and demand thing.

Donnie

Within penmaking circles, NOS usually refers to a new pen that has been made with vintage material.

There's lots of unused rod stock out there to be used...

That's a very interestingly different use of the term, Brian.... so it's "Newly-made, from old material".

You'd want to know, especially if the 'new' pen you'd bought were made from a material which 'changes' (for worse or better) over a long-ish period of time.
(Not all 'vintages' were good ones!!)

You are right, Roger.

I had some old Waterman hard rubber that turned a little more brittle than my new stock.

I have no idea if the material had slightly deteriorated, or if there is just a difference in the quality of stock from today to way back when.

Still made great pens, so it hadn't deteriorated enough to make a difference, if at all.

NOS = Nitrous Oxide, Something you may want to inhale before looking at new pen prices, or getting a root canal (two things equally painful).

Twotone

Robert, now don't think that I'm disagreeing with you here but I recently bought an NOS Sheaffer too which was about 12 years old and it wrote fantastically and immediately after the very first filling. Hmm....
I only have ten pens but this Crest is the very best of all (as re smoothness and wetness) !!!

Mike

My Imperial VI was from 1965. That's 43 years...yet still brand new.