Best Way To Liquidate Collection?

[clevelandsae]

Hey guys! my partner here passed away and im helping his wife sell his sports memorabilia (which was easy for me) and his pen collection. Its a smaller collection but im clueless on pens. i have some reading to do here but was hoping you may be able to help me identify some of the pieces. i know the montblancs those were easy to spot. no clue if any are rare or special. also any tips on selling them? does it make sense to sell individually or as sets? is ebay a good spot for that? I saw a classified section here too. im trying to do the best i can for her. i appreciate your insights!
Adam

[Scrawler]

There are many desirable and valuable pens in here.

[Bibliophage]

It might be a good idea to find out if there's someone from the forum in your area that can review the collection for you. Some pens go well here, some on E-Bay, some only at a show... some good for darts.

[Addertooth]

Everyone above me has given solid advice. I respect them even more because they didn't try to cherry pick some of your nicer pieces. The advice about finding a collector in your area is wise.

If you do not want to take that route, there are several pen resellers online, but I will avoid naming specific ones, in case someone here has heartburn about a specific dealer. I don't want to start a flame war about specific resellers. Some of them provide the option of sending them pictures for valuation. Most likely they will ask for follow on pictures on several of your pieces. Some of the pens make me shamelessly drool.

 

From your name, can I accurately derive you are in the Cleveland area? If so, finding a collector in your area will not be too difficult.

 

If you are able to wait until the 31st of October (less than 2 months), there is a great Pen Show coming to North-Dublin Ohio (about 2 hours South West of you), It should be loaded with both experts and collectors; I provide the link below:

 

http://www.theohiopenshow.com/

Edited August 23, 2019 by Addertooth

[samasry]

Selling the pens individually will require more time/effort, however it will bring more return.

 

I could see limited edition pen/s (like the Edgar A Poe MB, I am sure MB experts here can tell u more or correct me if I am wrong) but there are 4 digit pen/s

 

FPN and Ebay should work for selling. Ebay will be valuable in giving you the current price ranges for each pen, once you identify the pen, its condition, etc.

 

Best of luck

Edited August 23, 2019 by salmasry

[vikrmbedi]

dismantalling a collection is big task....which means either taking the time to patiently list the pens individually or taking a haircut on the the total value and selling as a lot. there are a few sellers that would sell the pens for you on consignment but not sure what they would charge.

listing a few models so you may search them on eBay completed listings to get an idea of what the pen fetches.
( montblanc- 149x2,146 ,boheme, William faulkner w.e (writes edition), Virginia Wolfe w.e., starwalker, 145 75 year anniversary. 100year pen limited edition. Allen Poe w.e, etc)
(waterman leman 100 opera. exception oversize night and day gold (2 square pens with gold strip on the side))
parker duofold jasper red.
Shaffer balance set.
aurora optima red, yellow set .
the following are cheap and may not be worth the effort to sell a few monteverde Invicta etc pens , cross atx set in red, etc cant be sure if levenger pen or rotring newton/600 pen(2 black 8 sided pens and 1 silver)

Edited August 23, 2019 by vikrmbedi

[DrDebG]

You have got some great pens there, as others have said.

 

There are many things you can do. You can contact some of the more reputable dealers in used pens (Anderson Pens, Vanness Pens, nibs.com, to name a few) and ask if they would help you sell them as part of your partners' estate for a percentage of the resale value of the pen. I have done that with my mother-in-laws huge jewelry collection. Yes, we might have gotten more if we sold the pieces ourselves, but it saved us a lot of headache and hassle have a professional gemologist/jeweler sell them for us.

 

Unless you decide to sell the entire collection for a reduced price, it will take some time. Be patient. It has taken my husband and I five years to settle my mother-in-law's estate.

 

Also, while many people have success selling pens on eBay, you need to be really careful.

Edited August 23, 2019 by 5Cavaliers

[Honeybadgers]

Even if you list them at absolute fire sale prices (a mont blanc 149, which I see at least one of in there, is worth $500 very easily, but you could sell it in 20 minutes for $300) you've got thousands of dollars in that box. A few pens in there aren't worth much, I see a monteverde invincia that might only be worth $20, but most of what I see is quite high end.

[Uncial]

Nice collection and I see a few very nice Aurora's in there too. I'd be cautious of setting ebay prices on them. 'Buy It Now' prices are often considerably higher than auction end prices and the pens can sit for many months; sometimes years. If you hope to liquidate fast you could approach a seller, but that would mean losing around half of the value of what you have. Ebay will only permit you so much value in sales before they start making you jumps through hoops and the fees can be high enough. Seeing you're in the States, the best thing to do is try and get to a pen show or find a pen meet/group to see if people might be interesting in buying. Set the prices just below the going rate and they should move quickly. You'd need to be certain that all the pens are in good condition and working properly. If not, a lot of the value drops off. Best advice I could give you is to have someone with a good bit of knowledge (not just a general pen enthusiast) go through the collection to tell you exactly what you have. Just to give you an idea; if that Montblanc 149 is a modern pen you might expect around $350. If it's older it's value could be well in excess of $1000. The only way you will know is by having someone with a bit of knowledge take a look at it - someone you trust who won't immediately start making you offers. A general auction house can be a terrible mistake.

[jchch1950]

It is always sad when someone has to sell a collection that was put together with effort time and love.You can sell it to some one that will then resale piece by piece or try to find another collector that will keep it almost complete.Also some of the pens can be auction in one of the houses that have special auctions for pens.

[NicolausPiscator]

Indeed a very nice collection. And a sad business to liquidate a collection after the passing of the collector. However, the above mentioned advices are good. In regard to an adequate price for each pen you would need help for sure. When you have time and leasure to put them into eBay you would certainly get a good price. Of course you could also sell the whole collection to a pen seller which would be very easy but you would probably not get a good price, of course less as when you would sell them yourself.

[Parker51]

Hello, I happen to be only a few hours from North Eastern Ohio.

The pens appear to be contemporary, which puts them in a unique position in the marketplace.

As was mentioned, the Ohio Pen Show is coming this November and you could bring them to it and there will be plenty of helpful buyers, at wholesale.

Retail prices will require someone to sell them for you and will require a commission.

eBay can be done as a private seller, but you may not have the time or skill set needed to do it well and there are fees.

An auction house may or may not sell them well for you and again there are fees.

So, if you are ready to spend the time to learn about the pens and their current market value you can do so and then learn how to sell them yourself. If you have a lot of time you could maximize the return by selling the pens at near retail, as indicated over several months after carefully photographing each pen from all angles, especially the nibs, noting condition and providing a full detailed description of each on a platform that will securely complete the transaction and then ship each pen carefully to each buyer.

Personally as a working person I don't have the time for this, but I am retiring soon and eventually will. Perhaps you are retired and have the time to learn about a very interesting hobby and how to sell pens. Maybe you will even buy a few of them for yourself.

Please report back to us here what the Widow wants, and what you can commit to as far as time as that really is the dictator, how much time and effort can you provide and how much is the Widow willing to pay someone through commissions or other types of fees to sell the pens.

Note: there are some persons who would be willing to sell the pens for a fee at the Ohio Pen Show. They do it frequently as a part of their business. They provide the knowledge, the time, etc. and all,they ask for is some of the proceeds, a modest commision, not less,than an auction house, but with a difference, knowledge. Auction houses, even the good ones rarely have experts on staff, rarely know how to market pens well, nor will spend the time and money to photograph them or list them completely. They are easy however and you get the money from the proceeds fairly quickly. Remember though they typically sell houses, the contents of houses and not unique highly valuable pens. To them a thing is a thing, be it a pen or a spoon.

[como]

Please don’t kill me for saying this, I am just trying to help for the sake of saving time and hassle:

 

Contact Bryant at Chatterley Luxuries. Let him pick out whatever he thinks are worth selling. The rest, just give them away to the next generation.

 

Good luck!

[Cordovian]

Look around to see if he happened to keep their boxes (and documentation). Having the pens in their respective boxes will make it easier to sell them and you'll most likely get a little bit more for them.

[inkstainedruth]

I agree what Parker51 said about auction houses not necessarily having in-house specialists. I went to a thing a few years ago (sort of a local version of The Antiques Roadshow) and got an overall "ballpark" figure on the pens I brought -- but the appraiser admitted that he was not a specialist, and that I probably knew as much or more than he did about individual pens. The one that I thought would be the "wow" factor pen? A 1926 Parker Lucky Curve Duofold ringtop. The one that WAS the "wow" factor pen? The Parker 41 I'd paid 50¢ for at an estate sale the day before... after digging through a shoebox full of mostly ballpoints;I could have paid five bucks for the entire contents -- but what am I gonna do with a shoebox full of ballpoints? The Red Shadow Wave Vac? The guy just sort of looked at it. The gold-filled filigree overlay Morrison ringtop? Worth about what I'd paid for it....

Oh, and whatever you do end up doing? Avoid a woman from TV who calls herself "Doctor Lori" (she does "Comedy Appraisal Road Shows" at stuff like home shows). Showed her a Sheaffer Snorkel and she said it was worth twice what I'd paid -- but ALSO said it was from around 1910! (No, cupcake -- really kinda not from 1910 because it's a SNORKEL....) I was tempted to send her email about a year and a half ago telling her what someone on here offered in TRADE for the pen (it's the one with the Palladium Silver semi-flex stub nib).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Wahl]

I have sold part of my collection, and have done it myself, getting a table at my local Penshow. This is the best way to get a decent price for your pens, as you are selling directly to other collectors, at market value.

 

Of course you will have to identify and value each pen, but, you can enjoy yourself doing it.

[Uncial]

It's hard to know exactly what we're all looking at, but I just totted up in my head what I think is there (Montblanc's = two 149's, 100th ann., a Poe fountain pen and pencil, Virginia Wolfe, two Starwalkers, what might be a 75th or 90th ann. pen and pencil. Auroras times three, a very rare Pelikan, two Waterman Opera's, a couple of Dupont's, a desirable Parker, possible three Sheaffer ann. models or Balance re-releases to name but a few) and you might have about 10,000euro in worth.

 

I'll give you a couple of hundred and save you the bother of those awful pen shows.

[Bibliophage]

Something to remember. There are two goals. 1) is to get money for the widow. 2) is to get at least some of the pens into the hands of people that will enjoy them - as the collector certainly did. Sometimes a lower price is better for #2 while still honoring #1. (I've done that before)

[Brianm_14]

I have considerable experience selling quality antique firearms for others, via the Internet and in person, which may be helpful here. The firearms I dealt with ranged from hundreds of dollars to many thousands of dollars for rare Colt revolvers,

 

If you are going to try to sell with some help, say at a pen show or two, search for and carefully find someone with impeccable credentials (run a background check) who will take a modest flat fee to organize and list what you have, sorting pens into groups according to value. Then offer this sales consultant a certain percentage commission of the price obtained for each pen, as an incentive to work harder to obtain higher prices during actual negotiation. Such a person should also know when -and if- it is better to sell online. If a handful of pens runs into a potential of thousands of dollars, obtain a second estimate -if only for insurance purposes- if necessary, by a well-insured carrier.

 

This plans only works if the incentive percentage is higher for cheaper pens; it can be significantly reduced for more expensive ones.

 

Don't be afraid to pay your consultant by offering her or him a "first dibs" selection from the pens before they go on sale. But only offer this, once all the prices have been first settled. After that, there are no conflects of interest; the appraiser/seller is working for you alone. No additional pens whatsoever are ever to be made available again to YOUR appraiser.

 

At the end, offer the grab-bag assortment of a few good pens plus a number of fair or parts pens, to get rids of odds-and-ends.

[Parker51]

One other thing, that tray appears to have come out of a pen chest. So, where is the rest of the chest? Pen chests have value as well.