Very Very Cheap Parker Vacumatic Duofold

[stuck-in-time]

I recently found a local online antiques seller selling all sorts of used pens. Among the huge pile (it literally was a pile) he has I recognized a Vacumatic and got it from him for the equivalent of around US $ 4. Well, it did has a snapped-off feed and missing the nib. But it was the first Vacumatic I found for sale locally and at that price is practically nothing.

 

Not long after that, he offered me another Vacumatic, this time seemingly complete, and a red marble Duofold. He asked only $ 20 for the lot and it's now in the mail.

 

But now, I'm having second thoughts on the authenticy of these stuff, since they're so cheap. A quick search read told me that there aren't really any fakes of the Vacumatics and Duofolds. Are these really the case?

 

I'll post pics when they arrive

Edited May 2, 2017 by stuck-in-time

[Beechwood]

There are some pens that have imitated Vacumatics such as Wilson pens, made in India. Some have been sealed and turned into eye droppers too.

 

 

 

 

[CaaC]

Gratulation on a great vintage find.

Why not post some closeup photos on the nib and parts.

[antichresis]

Links please! 😆

[stuck-in-time]

Gratulation on a great vintage find.

Why not post some closeup photos on the nib and parts.

I will certainly! Once the 2nd order arrived. That'll be a day or 2. The first Vacumatic is really in need of repair. It's Canadian with 52 as the date code. But the feed and nib has broken off, leaving just a stub slightly protruding from the section, and the broken piece was not included

 

 

There are some pens that have imitated Vacumatics such as Wilson pens, made in India. Some have been sealed and turned into eye droppers too.

 

 

 

 

Ah yes. That does look to be a near exact copy of a Vacumatic. I'm actually quite surprised at finding out that there aren't really fakes of them around. Since they seem quite popular.

Edited May 2, 2017 by stuck-in-time

[stuck-in-time]

Links please!

It's from a local classifieds website, and the seller will definitely ship overseas, so I think links would be pointless To be honest too, it was a sorta fishy seller that is very unclear about his stuff and is certainly no expert in pens.

Here's the actual image he used in the ad:

Literally just this image and the description "Vintage ballpoint lot"

Edited May 2, 2017 by stuck-in-time

[inkstainedruth]

It could just be that the seller is completely clueless about pens. I've run into that at times in antiques stores, with mixed results: I've seen a Waterman with the nib bent in half (yeah, literally at about a 90° angle ) for nearly $300 US, and a Parker Vacumatic the dealer said was made out of bakelite ; but a couple of years ago fall, I walked out of an antiques mall near where I live with *two* Parker 51s for a total price of $26.75 because they had the wrong caps on them -- the sellers didn't know what they had, and the guy opening the cases for me didn't either, but I did....

I ran into this with other types of items. A number of years ago I was trying to find a book that was out of print (I was told that I should expect to pay about $80 for it). A seller a few towns over from where I was living at the time wanted $425 for the copy she'd just gotten at a show (it was literally on top of a stack of books on her kitchen floor, since she ran her book search business out of her house). I was going "I'm sorry -- that's a CAR payment...." A friend here in the Pittsburgh area who used to run a used book store talked her down to $300 (the first woman of course having no clue that my friend was scoping out the book for me), but that was still way too expensive. After I moved back down here, I was searching for it on someplace like Bibliofind one night and found a German edition for $175 at a place in Ohio. So I went out to check it out (after several days of back and forth emails, a lot of which entailed them saying "Uh, it's a needlework book. It's in German..." ) and I took my friend with me. She decreed that that book was not worth that price, given the condition, and we ended up walking away. So I still don't have a copy. I have been able to scan some of the images onto a flash drive at the main branch of the Carnegie Library (which has it in closed stacks). But it would be nice to have a copy to peruse at my leisure.

The thing that really got me was that this was a book search place who couldn't tell me what they had.... So I can well believe that the seller in stuck-in-time's case was equally clueless. I've had some of my pens professionally appraised and the guy I talked to (it was at a thing kinda like Antiques Road Show, but local) admitted that he was a "generalist", and that I might know as much or more about pens (that was the show where I thought the big thing would be that 1926 Lucky Curve ring top, but the guy's assistant was way more interested in the Parker 41 I'd bought the day before for 50¢ at an estate sale... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ac12]

I recommend you send the Vacs to a Pen Tech to restore for you.

The filler will NEED a special tool to remove.

The nib is easy to get a 'generic' replacement nib, the feed will be more difficult to find a replacement for.

 

Rather than restoring the $4 Vac with the broken nib+feed, it may end up being the parts source for other Vac later.

Edited May 2, 2017 by ac12

[stuck-in-time]

It could just be that the seller is completely clueless about pens. I've run into that at times in antiques stores, with mixed results:

 

That certainly is the case! In fact, that is mostly the case here. There aren't many expert pen enthusiasts around, and most sellers of used pens are people either those who ask $50+ for Parker Jotter/IM ballpoints or sell them really cheap. Although that means that the good ones are jumbled along with the cheap recent promotional pens. But gems can be found among the ashes

 

I recommend you send the Vacs to a Pen Tech to restore for you.

The filler will NEED a special tool to remove.

The nib is easy to get a 'generic' replacement nib, the feed will be more difficult to find a replacement for.

 

Rather than restoring the $4 Vac with the broken nib+feed, it may end up being the parts source for other Vac later.

 

Yep! That was exactly my plan. The only pen tech I can found near me does has experience repairing Vacumatica but can't supply parts, so the first pen is just about irreparable at an affordable cost for me. Importing vintage parts here are quite expensive Condition wise, though, the filling system of the 1st pen was good. It was working well and I have tested it using plain water.

[ac12]

 

 

 

 

Yep! That was exactly my plan. The only pen tech I can found near me does has experience repairing Vacumatica but can't supply parts, so the first pen is just about irreparable at an affordable cost for me. Importing vintage parts here are quite expensive Condition wise, though, the filling system of the 1st pen was good. It was working well and I have tested it using plain water.

 

On OLD pens one must assume that the rubber had deteriorated and needs to be replaced. Even if it seems to work, it is over 60 years old and could fail tomorrow, next week, next month . . . And if it fails in your shirt pocket, it will be a mess.

My standard practice is to replace ALL rubber ink sacs or diaphrams when I get the pen. Then I'm good for 10-15 years.

[amk]

I don't think anyone was actually faking Parkers back in the day. I actually have a little collection of Vac-alikes including Raja, Wilson (Beechwood, yours looks rather lovely!), and Ratnamson, but none of them actually use a Parker clip (though I suppose some frankenpens may exist). You've probably just struck lucky. Sounds like the guy has an Aladdin's cave of old pens and you just need to know what are the ones you want.

 

Sellers very often don't know their stuff. I got a Vacumatic for five euros once - all there, nice nib, the lot - and the guy kept trying to sell me a Daniel Hechter (modern French so-so brand) for ten; he just couldn't understand why I wasn't interested. Another seller charged me five euros each for a pair of Parker 45s and threw in a rubbishy old pen for free. It was a Pelikan 100. :-)

[mitto]

I got all my 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Vacumatics for $10-$20 each. A seller sold me a few Vac 51s with lustraloy caps for $10 each and insisted these were 21s as according to him a 51 has to have a gold cap. Lol. Good for me.

Edited May 4, 2017 by mitto

[stuck-in-time]

They are here! Well, actually it was kinda a letdown, none of the pens are in perfect working order... That's ok though, I kinda expected this to happen.

 

As it turns out, what I thought was a Vacumatic was a Japanese copy made by Opal. The other pen is a Duofold, as I predicted it to be, and actually the seller gave me a bonus! A vintage Pilot lever-filler. All 3 are quite problematic, but I got 2 of them in "working" order.

 

The Opal is very poorly "cosmetically restored" The previous owned did a very terrible job gluing a replacement Parker Vacumatic jewel clip, the section is cracked, and the insides of the pen are totally gone.

 

The Duofold is fine except for the nib which was not oringinal and is deformed. The Pilot is generally ok except for the missing clip and some damage on the body.

 

I will try to post pics tomorrow

Edited May 6, 2017 by stuck-in-time