Fleabay Follies

[white_lotus]

I know there's the nice thread in the Shaeffer forum about Fleabay hit and misses, but this isn't about any Shaeffer.

 

First, it's fountain pens? Didn't those things go the way of the dodo?

Second, it's fountain pens, these are really cool. And you find all sorts of nice modern pens.

Third, there are vintage pens, quality ones often cheaper than an off the shelf modern pen?

Fourth, you can find vintage pens off ebay for cheap?!?

 

The downward spiral has begun and reached it's final descent.

 

Of course, mistakes will be made, and purchases regretted. The information was all there, but if you don't have the knowledge you won't be able to spot the ones where maybe you should have listened to the words at the back of your head "stay away from that one". Or "what what you pay for it".

 

Some of it is not the sellers fault as they are ignorant about fountain pens. They maybe know they'll need "to be cleaned" or "need a new sac", but they don't know anything beyond that. Except evilbay prices for similar items.

 

Example #1. I openly admit my lack of knowledge. what looks ilke a nice green Parker Vacumatic, Q1 1940, speed line filler, split arrow clip, double jewel. All to me in accordance with the info at the reputable sites discussing Parker history. (Someday I'll get the book.)

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400268011__img_2125.jpg

 

Not bad, right?

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400268074__img_2128.jpg

 

Maybe even a broad or some kind of stub nib? That would be cool.

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400268157__img_2131.jpg

 

Instead you have just purchased a pen that has a broken nib with both tines sheared off. I consider this part of my learning lesson. I could complain to the seller and probably be able to send it back and get my money back. But the pen is really in pretty good condition. The barrel transparency is decent if lightly ambered, so it's much better than any of the other vacs I've acquired. Nice jewels, etc. And through the kindness of FPN members I know the nib can be replaced or repaired.

 

So I'm going to keep it and get it fixed up. But I've learned a lesson. Maybe other have learned a lesson they want to post.

 

cheryl

Edited May 16, 2014 by white_lotus

[JotterAddict62]

That is the fun of learning by your mistakes. It is always better to try and fail than never try in the first place. Only this way we can learn. I think I am a problem solver by nature. When I make a mistake I want to know what happen, why it happen & how to solve the problem. My example: I bought a nice golden pearl Parker Vac desk pen and I had a very very hard time to remove the filler unit from the barrel. Well I separated the barrel where the rings come together, It would have been a interesting fix but I still could not for the life of me get the filler unit off the barrel. Well the barrel is in two parts now. Now what! Well I I tried soaking, a little heat and still nothing. Well I destroyed what was left of the barrel to get the filler unit out. Now what I could figure out was that someone used shellac or something on the threads of the filler unit before they put it back on the barrel. The shaft of the filler unit does not move easy [ Still has shellac on it ? ] . Now I'm in the market for a Parker Golden Pearl Vac desk pen barrel.

 

The only good thing was I only paid $20 for the pen, but now I need a barrel.

 

 

Always something to learn each day.

 

Ken

[lisadan]

I sometime enjoy the sellers' attempts to make the pen (or any other used item sold) sound better than it is. A few examples:

 

"New, never inked" (when the photo clearly shows ink stains on the nib)

"In excellent condition" (and the photo shows a broken nib)

"Parker style clip" (for a cheap Chinese Parker 51 or Sonnet copy)

 

and the list goes on and on.

 

My best one was "I don't think it has ever been inked" for a used Parker Sonnet. When the pen arrived, it had an empty converter, but there was enough fresh ink in the feed to write a few lines straight out of the package.

 

As long as you don't take anything the seller says to be 100% true, have realistic expectations from that 70 years old pen sold as NOS, and the price is right for you, the only things that can hurt are your pocket and pride. A small price for an excellent learning opportunity.

[Opooh]

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

[OcalaFlGuy]

I am not saying the pics are very good, they aren't, but pic #2 pretty clearly to me shows No Tipping or if Any just a speck of it.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Drone]

Gee, I'm sorry for the purchase outcome, but... I may be with Bruce on this one.

From the second pic my alarm bells went off right away. You don't say where these pictures came from. Are they yours or the Seller's?

It would be different if these pics were yours and the Seller's pictures posted on the auction were not clear or outright misleading. (Either way my alarm still would have gone off.)

You said, "The downward spiral has begun and reached it's final descent."

What does that mean?

[white_lotus]

Well I know that now Bruce. But it's OK. The good news is I saved the other people bidding on it from getting a bad deal. I will get it fixed up whether a replacement nib or nib repair at some point. First to get the three diaphragms fixed.

 

Drone, these were my pictures. And the "downward spiral" simply means the chasing after vintage pens, and spending lots of money until you're broke. I could have bought nice off-the-shelf modern pens from Richard Binders' site and they would have worked pretty well I think.

 

Bruce, no tipping at all, the nib is short 1.9 mm.

 

This is the sellers' pic showing the nib. The other shots didn't show the nib at all.

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400293778__seller_pic.jpg

 

I don't think the seller was being deceptive.

 

There's another pen I'm interested in, being sold "for repairs or restoration" but either the pen truly never had much use or someone clearly went to the trouble to polish it up nice. Can't really know. We'll see how high the bidding goes.

[Mardi13]

OK, as a nOOb I am thinking that the OP was exhibiting a mistake she had made as an illustration for how easy it is for someone not super-experienced or suspicious to buy something and then discover, when it appears in the mailbox, that she purchased something less than wonderful. And then asking for examples of other people's goofs, so as to illustrate what to be aware of when buying online. I have already made a couple of these, but I put it down to a) ignorance, and carelessness on my part in looking closely at pictures. I am learning, but it is, I believe, fairly easy to be duped if one doesn't know what to look for.

 

But maybe she wasn't saying that at all...

[white_lotus]

Yes mardi13, that to some extent was my point, as well as the beautiful vintage pens that seem to be so inexpensive...

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400294697__757096767_tp.jpg

 

Anyone think this will be an authentic Star clip vac? From Q3 1940 apparently. Seems a bit late, so maybe a later change. Opinions?

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/uploads/imgs/fpn_1400295794__757096839_o.jpg

 

Oh, and look at how shiny! Did the cap to the plunger ever come from the factory this shiny? It's mirror-like.

 

And somehow has turned a (vac-)wrench on those collar threads, you can see where they took off a bit of metal. Am I seeing this right?

Edited May 17, 2014 by white_lotus

[estie1948]

A lesson I learned is to ask questions including some questions that are not altogether obvious. I purchased a Parker Vac that is truly beautiful. The seller's photos did it justice. It was listed as "professionally restored". When I received the pen, it was all it was advertised to be except it would not fill with ink. I contacted the seller. She (she said she as a she so she had to be a she, right?) said the pen had belonged to her late husband. He had the pen restored by a fountain pen person well known to FTP members for quality work. Her husband died shortly after the pen was returned to him and she was sure he had not filled it. However, that was four or five years before she decided to sell some of his things, including this pen, on ebay.

 

Was her story true? I will never know. I could not prove that her story was false. I could not say that there was anything untrue in her listing on ebay. So I still have the beautiful pen and it still will not fill.

 

What I learned was to ask "when was the pen 'professionally restored'?" "Has the pen been used since it was 'professionally restored'?" Now when I consider bidding on an item, I rack my brain for all the possible questions I might ask.

 

-David.

[Drone]

Ah yes, the Seller's picture still raises my alarm. Maybe the Seller didn't know any better. Your pics show the problem better.

Nice looking pen. It should clean up nicely in the end. Don't overlook the nib's roughly $20-$30 in salvage gold should you choose to scrap it.

Get a jar and put a label on it that says "Pen Kitty" with a picture of your Grail Pen. Now, each time you REALLY want to pull the trigger on ebaY - Don't. Add the money to the jar instead

[scrivelry]

You're right - sometimes it's not knowing what question to ask, sometimes it's not knowing - in my case a lot of the time it is "Well, it's cheap enough, take a chance."

 

This would be insane if I was looking for anything to work right out of the box. I'm not, though, The tinkering is fun for me, and most of the pens I go after are third tier to begin with, chosen not because of interesting filling systems or iconic status or even because I'm looking for a particular writing experience - I buy them for the colors.

 

Sometimes a bunch of them come in a box and there is also a pen with a gold nib, or a working sac, and I get a nice surprise.

 

Sometimes, like yesterday, I get a not so nice surprise and find out there are cracks or something else wrong. Well, it was one of those offerings that says "look at the pictures" as the entire description, and there are only two pictures. You take a chance with these things. But the Wearever is a nice green and black stripe, and I have other Wearever sections to replace the one covered in Silver paint (I could see something like paint on it in the picture but that was not a deal breaker for me). Maybe the nib and section from the Skyline with the barrel crack will fit in there till I get the barrel crack fixed...Then all I'd have to do is get the nib to be slightly less miserly with the ink...

 

I've got plenty of pens already that write, if that's all I want...

 

T

 

PS - This is just how I enjoy the hobby, and not saying anyone else has to like any of what I do. Fountain pens are good! From Montblanc down to pens so cheap you end up paying more for the ink, pens have something to offer.. Just enjoy!

[white_lotus]

David, I'm sure you could send your pen to someone and get it to fill with ink. Though maybe adding extra expense to the pen may not be worth it (in the sense of ever getting your money back for it, if you ever chose to sell it).

 

Good idea Drone, Though right now I should add the money to the "fix roof fund".

 

Good suggestions too scrivelry. I don't expect the pens to work but the I would have thought I could have spotted a nib so busted as this one. Well live and learn. Yes, I already have very nice pens that write, so no need to get a flea bay pen for that. And I love those old colors and patterns too. I think some of those old pen lots with the dark pictures would be fun, but I have enough pens to work at fixing.

 

There are good people here. Thanks for your advice and support.

[Mardi13]

For what it's worth, I have begun to stick things in my watch list that I like but either know I can't afford from the starting price, or think will go too high for me because of rarity, and wait to see what they ultimately sell for. Sometimes I am surprised, and wonder what I missed when an item goes for much less than I predicted (and a lot of kicking of self ensues, but maybe there was something wrong that I missed.) And then I look at the winning bidders's history, and if they have bought or bid on zillions of pens they could be either really knowledgeable or just crazy. If a lot of different people bid something up high I assume, perhaps wrongly, that it is truly a desirable item. I'm not sure how trustworthy Fleabay is as a learning tool, but there it is. I also try to search out topics here about these sorts of items, but it's difficult to find the exact information one wants because the keywords show up in so many different contexts.

 

The Sheaffer green OS that I got the other day is now on its way to the Write Pen, along with some others. I have high hopes that they will come back beautiful and usable.

[Zookie]

I have to admit that I buy, and sell, on e-bay all the time. There ARE certain precautions to take so as not to get burned.

First, check the sellers feedbacks, it will often tell what items they mostly deal with, and how honest they are.

Second, ask questions. Pen specific ones, like "Have you used this often, has it been repaired? How's the nib, etc.", you know, the things we discuss on FPN.

Third, don't forget that as a buyer you are (to a certain extent) protected. You can get your money back, and in really bad situations, report the seller and have them blocked.

 

I've been doing this for years and by being careful, haven't had too many bad experiences.

[white_lotus]

Yes I've done some of that too, putting things I think are interesting on the watch list just to see what price they end at. And likewise, am surprised at the final selling price. I was even thinking of a little database to keep track. But I'm starting to get a sense of where things will fall for the few brands I'll focus on. So I just have to decide do I really want to spend that much.

 

Good luck with the pen repairs Mardi13. I'm sure that if they can be made operable they will be and I'm sure they'll look nice upon their return. I hope you post pics, I look forward to seeing them.

 

Thanks for the info Zookie. I'd mostly been looking at the negative feedbacks, but I can see the benefit of looking at the others. Good info. Thanks!

 

And I think I'll have to pay very close attention to the sellers that shine up the pens but haven't restored them : "sold for parts or repair only". They only reason to shine up the pen without restoring it is to get a higher price on a pen that doesn't work. And if I'm the buyer, I don't know what they used on the pen or what they have done. And maybe have to pay someone to redo or undo what they did.

 

Glad I posted the thread, the responses are all very informative and hopefully it'll help others too when they get into looking for vintage pens. I know it's helpful to me.

[OcalaFlGuy]

The Sheaffer green OS that I got the other day is now on its way to the Write Pen, along with some others. I have high hopes that they will come back beautiful and usable.

 

The Flat top and OS Balance were already looking pretty decent to me. You should probably be sitting down when you open the package back from Mr. Fudge. Again, I don't think you'll need to remind him but I would anyway about those needing silicone sacs.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

[Mardi13]

Okay, here's a sample. This pen was described as follows (abridged)" no cracks in cap, plating on clip has come off, crisp barrel imprint, excellent fine nib." Stated it would need restoration to write.

Seller photos follow. The pen arrived today, and the only thing slightly awry I could see was that the tines were slightly out of alignment, which might be visible to the sharp-eyed in the nib photo. Otherwise it seems quite as described. I am soaking the nib out of curiosity and some ink has come out. The plunger under the cap is in the usual sort of grungy state of an unrestored pen but there is nothing alarming-looking. I paid $56.50 including shipping. Basically I bought it because it looked restorable and I love that celluloid. Comments?

Edited May 17, 2014 by Mardi13

[ellenspn]

For what it's worth, I have begun to stick things in my watch list that I like but either know I can't afford from the starting price, or think will go too high for me because of rarity, and wait to see what they ultimately sell for.

 

That's exactly what a watch list is for To see exactly how much someone will pay for the 150 ml Akkerman ink (sniff sniff).

[georges zaslavsky]

I never buy pens from ebay because no warranties and because you risk to have a cat in the bag.