Wishful Thinking Seller...?

[octatonic]

Don't know if anyone else saw this, but at first I thought that it's crazy that A Silver/White Stripe Myu showed up a few months ago and then this one... and then I clicked and saw...

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PILOT-Myu-WHITE-STRIPE-Fine-Print-FOUNTAIN-PEN-Used-Rare-Japan/183004040721?hash=item2a9be40e11:g:OCEAAOSwuShaUahI

[octatonic]

And this from the same seller. I know these are much more scarce now, but are they really commanding this price?!?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PILOT-Myu-90-M90-NAMIKI-FOUNTAIN-PEN-Never-Used-Rare-Japan-Limited-Mint/183004034206?hash=item2a9be3f49e:g:M~UAAOSw38BaUaXa

 

 

Glad I got mine a year ago, before they went crazy!!!

[Inkling13]

Nice!!! I have 5. 2 users, 3 mint NIB. I guess you can ask for anything... ill take a million for each one.

[inkstainedruth]

Not familiar with the model. What SHOULD they be going for? (I gather from the original post that a four figure price tag is a little, um, excessive.... )

Reminds me of the person a few years ago who kept relisting "Bock" pen with a five-figure price tag and ANOTHER five figure shipping charge.... I think there were at least three or four threads dedicated to that particular listing....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Algester]

Stripe Myus should be around 150-200 USD discounting inflation of exchange rates

Edited January 8, 2018 by Algester

[octatonic]

Not familiar with the model. What SHOULD they be going for? (I gather from the original post that a four figure price tag is a little, um, excessive.... )

Reminds me of the person a few years ago who kept relisting "Bock" pen with a five-figure price tag and ANOTHER five figure shipping charge.... I think there were at least three or four threads dedicated to that particular listing....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

IF and only IF this was a White/Silver Stripe MYU 701, this would be a deal at this price-this is actually a Black Stripe MYU 701. Rumor is that there are less than 10 known White Stripe MYU's in the world! Before this past September when a White (actually called Silver Stripe by Pilot) appeared for sale, the last one to surface for sale seems to have been in 2011. Here is a link to the thread about the most recent one:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/327891-silver-white-stripe-myu-500-ss/?hl=%20pilot%20%20white%20%20stripe

 

I am no expert (the members in the link are). I hope they will come along and fill in or fix anything I've gotten wrong. They are amazing and unique pens. I have a couple of the original all stainless steel 'pocket pens' and one is always with me. They have been called a modern day 'quill', since the section and nib are all one piece. The downside of course if that if disaster strikes... you can't replace the nib...

Parallels to the Parker T-1 (I think that's the integrated nib one) have been made with the MYU's. The second link is the Pilot M90 which Pilot released for their 90th birthday and it is their updated version of the MYU 701. They made 9000 of them. They have been disappearing and seem to now be reaching $500 on that auction site, but not the price listed in this auction! I hope this is helpful/interesting and I hope the experts chime in! I love these pens and would have them all over my house ...if even the stainless steel version were a little more affordable on a musician's budget...

Edited January 8, 2018 by octatonic

[Algester]

IF and only IF this was a White/Silver Stripe MYU 701, this would be a deal at this price-this is actually a Black Stripe MYU 701. Rumor is that there are less than 10 known White Stripe MYU's in the world! Before this past September when a White (actually called Silver Stripe by Pilot) appeared for sale, the last one to surface for sale seems to have been in 2011. Here is a link to the thread about the most recent one:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/327891-silver-white-stripe-myu-500-ss/?hl=%20pilot%20%20white%20%20stripe

 

I am no expert (the members in the link are). I hope they will come along and fill in or fix anything I've gotten wrong. They are amazing and unique pens. I have a couple of the original all stainless steel 'pocket pens' and one is always with me. They have been called a modern day 'quill', since the section and nib are all one piece. The downside of course if that if disaster strikes... you can't replace the nib...

Parallels to the Parker T-1 (I think that's the integrated nib one) have been made with the MYU's. The second link is the Pilot M90 which Pilot released for their 90th birthday and it is their updated version of the MYU 701. They made 9000 of them. They have been disappearing and seem to now be reaching $500 on that auction site, but not the price listed in this auction! I hope this is helpful/interesting and I hope the experts chime in! I love these pens and would have them all over my house ...if even the stainless steel version were a little more affordable on a musician's budget...

I wont necessarily call them rare but most likely undocumented as typical of Japanese pens go for

[MYU]

That seller is shooting for a clueless rich buyer. That's a black stripe MYU and the price is about $1,200 USD too high. In more recent times I've seen used but good condition black stripe MYU pens go for about $250 and upwards of $350 to $500 when in either pristine shape or NOS with sticker.

 

As for the "white stripe"... it's actually a silver stripe... and it's extremely rare. As for the exact number, it's hard to know. PILOT hasn't provided any information. For a while, the community for vintage Japanese pens had thought there may be about 10 of them. But some folks have gotten them in the "wild"... meaning, included among a few other writing instruments in a lot where the seller had no idea about the rarity. One FPN member here got his practically for free because it was tucked in with several other nice pens that he sold off (net return almost equaled the original auction price). For that you either have to get very lucky or spend a tremendous amount of time browsing through ambiguous vintage PILOT pen listings. But, there are some avid combers of pen auctions these days examining any auction that looks like it might have a vintage pen. So you'll end up with stiff bidding competition.

 

Anyway, given the very low occurrence of the silver stripe MYU appearing, it couldn't have been a full production model. All silver stripe pens (CUSTOM, pencil, ballpoint, felt-tip) were priced the same as their black stripe counterparts, so there was nothing tremendously special... yet, it looks like PILOT made fewer of them than the black stripe. The silver stripe MYU may have been an aborted model -- PILOT cut the production of them short and then just sold whatever they had made. Back in those days (1970's), PILOT was not intentionally making limited editions. This became one because of the pen collector community. It's crazy to think that the prices they've sold for. $2,650 must be a record. Just think -- that amount would likely have bought ALL of the original silver stripe MYU pens ever made (back in 1974, the exchange rate was such that 5,000 JPY was about $18 USD)!