Is This Pen Broken?

[chromantic]

Quick question for those more familiar with the mechanics of these pens than I - does the cap coming off like this mean that the piston mechanism is necesssarily broken? Or possibly that someone turned the knob too hard and it now comes off but that the piston may still operate properly? Any ballpark estimate of how much a repair might cost? Pen appears in reasonably good shape overall so trying to determine if price of pen + possible repair is worthwhile.

 

[Sasha Royale]

It is undesirable to activate the piston mechanism unintentionally. Therefore, the black cap protects the piston mechanism. The cap generally "screws" on and off. If the threads are stripped, some repair is possible. The function of the pen should not be affected.

 

Which pen is it ?

[chromantic]

Which pen is it ?

 

Um ... just something I saw for sale.

 

Haha, it's an M400. I'll try for it but I'll no doubt be sumgai'd, that happens most of the time. Thanks for the info.

Edited May 2, 2017 by chromantic

[Bo Bo Olson]

Buy and have Pelikan fix it for free...............Ship to Hannover.

[chromantic]

Buy and have Pelikan fix it for free...............Ship to Hannover.

 

Really? I seem to recall seeing this mentioned before. How does it work, I just ship it to them? Only to Hanover, though, right? Not the US service center?

[Sasha Royale]

 

Um ... just something I saw for sale.

 

Haha, it's an M400. I'll try for it but I'll no doubt be sumgai'd, that happens most of the time. Thanks for the info.

This is a good sign. I have won seventy or eighty fountain pen auctions. I lose auctions 80+% of the time. This tells me that I am not overbidding. I am comfortable that most of my pen buys are bargains. There is no reason to assume that there is breakage. The blind cap may be removed to show that the pen is a piston-filler.

 

M400 means a Pelikan piston-filler of generous, medium size, with a gold nib. Very nice !

 

Let us know how the bidding goes. Good luck !

[BillH]

I understand the hesitation though. It always makes me nervous to see pictures in a listing of the pen taken apart further than most of us ever need to take them down for normal maintenance or cleaning. I've seen an occasional M200 and M400 with the whole piston assembly popped out... just what those sellers are trying to show I have no idea. Those get no bids from this addict.

[chromantic]

Thanks for the encouragement, I will definitely bid for it and keep my fingers crossed.

[Bo Bo Olson]

The pen is a M400 no piston cap ring, so is '82-96. (tortoise stopped in '96...green stripped stopped in '97. Your nib is IMO better than the modern M400. It is a 'true' regular flex a 1/2 a width narrower than modern, which is a fat and blobby semi-nail. The nib is as good as a 200's ...which is good. I have five Pelikans from that era.

It is a good pen to buy....first a tortoise, second a nice springy nib.

 

So if you send to Chartpack you pay.

Write Pelikan in Hanover....as far as I know they will fix it.

They want you to buy a new one some day.

[chromantic]

Unbelievable! This auction was scheduled to end Sunday morning so you can imagine my surprise when I checked it this evening and saw that it had been sold! Not only that, the selling price was half the starting bid amount! Not sure how eBay allows this. I'm very disappointed but I guess the lesson here is to not wait until the end to put in a bid.

 

ETA: Sometime today, he revised the description on the item to read "It does not seem to close properly when the piston is in. Feel free to make an offer.", someone made an offer and he sold it. Grats to the person who got it.

Edited May 5, 2017 by chromantic

[Bo Bo Olson]

OK, look on German EBay....look for a seller that takes Paypal and ships out of Germany. There are folks so cheap they won't pay for paypal and don't trust any but German mail.

 

I think you can find a '80's-97 M400 (no gold piston ring...better nib than modern) for E/$70-90 if you hunt. Mailing is relatively cheap, in the German Government didn't gut their post office like the US one when cut free.

 

If you are ready for semi-flex a 140 goes now for E/$90-110....which is the range of the '50's 400's and the 400nn. ...up to 120. There is no reason to pay more...you do have time to hunt.

[chromantic]

Thanks, Bo Bo, I'll check that out. Perhaps the seller did me a favor.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Tortoise runs the same price as normal green stripped. If you hunt.

 

Half the fun is in the hunt....................do not throw your money out the window....by Buy Now pricing.

[fountainbel]

It looks to me the cylindrical friction fit part on the screw spindle - behind the screw threads - broke off and still sits in the filling knob.

So installation of a replacement screw spindle will be needed.

Francis

[chromantic]

The seller confirmed it was broken - "this did not work properly". Got an offer, took the money. I have my eye on another one.

[sargetalon]

Sometimes its best that these things slip away from us. Can be more of a headache than their worth. Good luck on tracking one down.