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Dealing With Gold Scrap Values


WayTooManyHobbies

Feeling uneasy looking at 14kt gold nibs on Ebay?  

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  1. 1. Do you feel concern that a pen which doesn't receive bids may be scrapped for its 14kt nib?



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A sad event - one of my dear friends (aka a vintage fountain pen) has been gravely injured. While searching for suitable transplants on Ebay, I came across my friend's twin brother. Its current custodian, though, is asking a stiff premium price. I asked some questions, and determined that the seller believes the scrap value of gold is high enough to warrant what they ask.

 

I certainly don't begrudge Ebay sellers making a profit - after all, they provide us with an ever-changing flea market filled with interesting things. However, I'm curious about everything so I decided to look into the matter.

 

Based on some measurements of the pens I have on hand and the density of 14kt gold (approximately 13.75 grams per cubic centimeter), most nibs are probably between 0.3 and 0.8 grams in mass. The web site for Max Your Gold currently advertises that they will pay $27.75 per gram for 14kt. That leads to a range of roughly $8-22 for the scrap value.

 

The asking price for this pen is a large multiple of the scrap value, so I won't be placing a bid - perhaps it's worth the cost to someone, but not to me. Of course, most pens are worth more as writing instruments than as scrap materials, but there is a limit. This particular pen is not one of the iconic items that command a high price - it's a low end, user grade pen that I happen to like. I did send the scrap value information to the seller, in hopes that it may keep the pen from being destroyed if it fails to sell in the current auction.

 

Over the past several months, I've had the increasing feeling of saving valuable historical artifacts from being melted down whenever I bid on a 14kt nibbed pen. I actually feel a sense of relief when a nice vintage pen shows some bids, and a sense of concern when a nice pen shows no bids. Does anyone else get the same feeling?

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Your analysis of Gold content/value is essentially correct. Most 14k nibs are worth $10-15 as scrap. Most of them are worth at least that to pen folks if they have tipping.

Sensitive Pen Restoration doesn't cost extra.

 

Find me on Facebook at MONOMOY VINTAGE PEN

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All of the pens I see at flea markets (pens that had gold nibs) have had their nibs removed and are being offered with bare feeds. The sellers actually try to tell you that the pens will write that way. I hate to see a nice Sheaffer Balance treated this way, but this is what happens when one of the species Homo developus gets his barbarian hooks on something good.

Can a calculator understand a cash register?

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14K nibs is just the tip of the iceberg. 14K solid gold pens, especially small pens, are disappearing daily. It is hard for a ringtop to achieve a $200+ bid even though the underlying melt value is almost the same. If gold heads to $2,000 an ounce even more of these pens will be melted as pen collectors find it difficult to justify buying these pens at $300+. These examples are rare to begin with.

 

Roger W.

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All of the pens I see at flea markets (pens that had gold nibs) have had their nibs removed and are being offered with bare feeds. The sellers actually try to tell you that the pens will write that way...

 

I've seen flea market pens like that, but never talked with the sellers about them, so I can't say if they'd try that one. Wouldn't be surprised, with other items, the line "it's supposed to be like this" can be pretty funny, especially when the seller absolutely refuses to back down from their original position in the light of facts and logic.

 

I'd expand the original theme to say that it's a shame seeing any work of old craftsmanship ending up in the hands of someone who doesn't appreciate it, knowing that the "valuable" components may be sold for scrap, and that the rest will end up in a landfill somewhere. It's not even about gold nibs, if something is still good for its original function, I like to see someone getting use out of it.

 

Still, if it weren't for enthusiasts like the people around here, and eBay sellers and flea market people with dollar signs in their eyes, even fewer vintage pens would survive.

"So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do."

 

- Benjamin Franklin

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Yeah, I hate the idea that good serviceable gold pens might be scrapped. :( I'd happily take them in and rehab them, but I can't afford to beat the gold prices on solid pens. Plated, maybe, but not solid gold. The prices I'm seeing on eBay for gold OR silver pens is getting more and more insane.

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My in-laws are from, umm, a country formerly behind the Iron Curtain. Their wedding bands are made of whatever scrap gold they could scrounge, including nibs.

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Scrapping nibs is insane. Gold bullion is 99.50% pure...for details, loot at the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), which organizes the trade of physical gold. A nib is so light, and the gold-content is so low, that it makes no sense to melt a nib.

Washington Nationals 2019: the fight for .500; "stay in the fight"; WON the fight

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If I couldn't sell it, I'd rather put it out for parts than scrap it completely. It's like the show Pawn Stars. People always want the value of the metal rather than that of the item itself because the price is higher. How many good pens have been lost…

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