Any Montblanc School/economy Class Pen Collectors Here?

[Zarus]

Hi there fellow Montblanc lovers,

 

This is my first post on FPN.

 

I've been collecting Montblanc pens for about 7 or 8 years now and although my collection consists of some more exclusive Montblancs too, the main focus of my collection is on the cheaper Montblanc pens. I was wondering if there are any collectors on this forum that are interested in these pens as well. Maybe share some thoughts about your collection, what rare items you have or know of, etc.

 

Just to give a start, I'll give a short description of my personal collection regarding these pens: I think I started my collection with either a (yellow) Carrera ballpoint or fountain pen. After that, I expanded the collection with the other "basic" Carrera pens, the four-color ballpoint, the pencil, the feltpen and the rollerball. Around that time I bought collector's guide "Collectible Stars" by Jens Roesler and Stephan Wallraven somewhere and found out there are quite some more pens to the Carrera collection, and I learnt about the Caressa, Monte Rosa, Junior collections.

 

Right now, I think I have about 40-50 different Montblanc Carrera collectibles, consisting of about 20 different pens (the yellow ones, the silver ones, the black ones and even 9 of the very rare, different colored ballpoint ones). I've also got Carrera pen cases, a pen stand, original ink, different kinds of packing material, replacement part boxes and even a (very cheap looking) baseball hat

I've also got a few Caressa pens but I'm not nearly complete on that, yet. I've also got Junior pens as well and quite some Monte Rosa's, but I'm missing the super rare and expensive export-only blue fountain pen and pencil from the 60's. I'm collecting the Turbo-series and Leonardo-series as well.

 

I could post some pictures if anyone's interested!

 

Kind regards,

 

 

Mark

Edited May 18, 2011 by Zarus

[rockydoggy]

Congratulations on your collection--yes, please post photos, esp. of the Carreras. One of my favorite pens back in the 70s-80s was a piston-fill yellow Carrera fountain pen. I still have it, but a small crack in the section near the nib unfortunately causes it to leak, which prevents me from using it. I've been thinking of picking up a more common c/c Carrera as a replacement.

[rockspyder]

Welcome to FPN and yes please post pictures!

[Zarus]

Congratulations on your collection--yes, please post photos, esp. of the Carreras. One of my favorite pens back in the 70s-80s was a piston-fill yellow Carrera fountain pen. I still have it, but a small crack in the section near the nib unfortunately causes it to leak, which prevents me from using it. I've been thinking of picking up a more common c/c Carrera as a replacement.

 

I'll post some photos soon!

 

You've got a piston Carrera? Nice! Those are quite rare over here, most of them are cartridge fillers. I think they only made pistons for export. I do have a piston filler Carrera myself. Which one do you have? I know of a yellow pen with a black turning knob (I own that one) and a yellow pen a yellow turning knob. I'm still looking for one of the latter ones to add to my collection.

[rockydoggy]

My Carrera is yellow with a black piston knob. I'd didn't know that they came with yellow knobs as well. (And boy do I wish that I'd bought two of those piston Carreras back in the day . . . but as a poor student then, I was barely able to afford the one I got.)

[JLS1]

Hey Mark,

 

First off -

 

I'm also a fan of the economy MB line, although I have yet to own a Carrera or Monta Rosa. I've heard that these pens are fantastic writers...can you confirm this? Do you use much of your collection? Also, where how did you amass such a hoard of economy MBs?

[Zarus]

As promised, hereby some pictures of part of my collection. I had some trouble with the lighting so I don't believe the photos do my collection really any justice

 

Almost all of the pens are in mint condition, most even with original nib-size labels on them.

 

I bought most of the pens and related things on eBay, but also found some interesting pieces on pen fairs/shows in Holland and Germany.

 

 

My complete Carrera collection:

 

 

My Caressa collection, with two different boxes and a gift set:

 

 

My Monte Rosa collection, with different boxes and three very ugly plastic pouches:

 

 

My Junior collection, with one original box:

 

 

My Turbo collection, with different boxes:

 

 

My Turbo/Carrera related model "690" collection, with quite a rare color green on the left (not very visible in the picture):

 

 

My Ballpix collection, also with an original box:

 

 

Hope you enjoy

Edited May 20, 2011 by Zarus

[megapenfreak]

Wow, thanks for the photos. Fantastic collection.

[kandarp]

Wow beautiful collection!

[mongrelnomad]

What a great collection. I'd love to see Montblanc back in the student market: a high-quality (relatively) low cost pen would probably add customers to the brand.

[Maethelwine]

Had no idea these even existed. Inspired me to take a quick peek at eBay. No piston fillers at the moment, alas.

[hari317]

Very Nice collection! Congratulations!

[JLS1]

That is one AWESOME collection - thanks for sharing that! BTW, did the Turbo include a FP?

[Anes]

Thank you for photos, Zarus: very nice!

[rockydoggy]

Thanks for sharing--this is a great collection.

[Zarus]

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the nice reactions! Very nice to share this with you.

 

@mongrelnomad: I believe Montblanc recently had a cheaper pen in their offerings. Not sure what the name was of the series, but as I recall it was a straight black pen, matte finished. I don't see it on their website so it's probably no longer in production. I'm not sure if it was targeted at students, but it was quite a bit cheaper than what they usually have to offer

 

@JLS1: Yes, the Turbo series included a ballpoint, a rollerball and a fountain pen. If you take it one step further in trying to complete your collection: I think all three of these pens were available in two variations:

- with a black plastic ball at the end of the clip and black pieces of plastic at the end of the pen to fix the cap

- with a grey plastic ball at the end of the clip and grey pieces of plastic at the end of the pen to fix the cap

The left 3 pens in my picture are with the black plastic, the one in the right is with grey plastic.

 

-- Mark

[byrdmanojvk]

Awesome Collection...One of the most colourful collection of Montblanc I have seen...Encourages me to start the same...;-)

[orfew]

I believe the straight black Pen with the matte finish you are referring to is the Scenium. They have been discontinued. I bought one from the MB boutique in Toronto several years ago ad I still use it. They are very cool pens. Wheever I see one on the auction site it usually sells for about the same that I paid for my new one.

 

 

 

 

Hi all,

 

Thanks for all the nice reactions! Very nice to share this with you.

 

@mongrelnomad: I believe Montblanc recently had a cheaper pen in their offerings. Not sure what the name was of the series, but as I recall it was a straight black pen, matte finished. I don't see it on their website so it's probably no longer in production. I'm not sure if it was targeted at students, but it was quite a bit cheaper than what they usually have to offer

 

@JLS1: Yes, the Turbo series included a ballpoint, a rollerball and a fountain pen. If you take it one step further in trying to complete your collection: I think all three of these pens were available in two variations:

- with a black plastic ball at the end of the clip and black pieces of plastic at the end of the pen to fix the cap

- with a grey plastic ball at the end of the clip and grey pieces of plastic at the end of the pen to fix the cap

The left 3 pens in my picture are with the black plastic, the one in the right is with grey plastic.

 

-- Mark

Edited September 9, 2011 by orfew

[John Batista]

Beautiful Collection..... JB

[da vinci]

Wow, what a great collection! - the photos are very informative, thanks for posting.