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What's Going On Here?


Watermonkey314

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I'm new to the vintage pen thing. I've started with Parker 45s after reading OcalaFlGuy's enthusiastic praise of them), and I've recently acquired a few at excellent (to me) prices. (2 plastic GTs with steel nibs at ~$20 in excellent / mint condition, plus a NOS flighter, also steel-nibbed at ~$30 - I do realize I've missed out on a 14k nib, so I'm still fishing for a reasonably-priced one).

 

But this baffles me - am I missing something that makes this 45 worth 4+ times more than any other? (Olive green 45 GT with a 14k XF nib, fully serviced, now at $105!!). Or did someone just get carried away?

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That seller has a very good reputation with what seems to be a following and thus attracts bidding wars and people getting carried away.

 

That olive color is pretty neat; very retro 60s. My friend bought one just like that for around $30 a few months ago as her first vintage pen. She specifically sought out that olive color after seeing one for sale at FPH.

Parker: Sonnet Flighter, Rialto Red Metallic Laque, IM Chiseled Gunmetal, Latitude Stainless, 45 Black, Duovac Blue Pearl Striped, 51 Standard Black, Vac Jr. Black, 51 Aero Black, 51 Vac Blue Cedar, Duofold Jr. Lapis, 51 Aero Demi Black, 51 Aero Demi Teal, 51 Aero Navy Gray, Duofold Pastel Moire Violet, Vac Major Golden Brown, Vac Deb. Emerald, 51 Vac Dove Gray, Vac Major Azure, Vac Jr. Silver Pearl, 51 Vac Black GF Cap, 51 Forest Green GF cap, Vac Jr. Silver Pearl, Duovac Senior Green & Gold, Duovac Deb. Black, Challenger Black, 51 Aero Midnight, Vac. Emerald Jr., Challenger Gray Pearl, 51 Vac Black, Duofold Int. Black, Duofold Jr. Red.

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$30 is closer to what I spent for mine. 25 USD last year.

 

 

I think that's generally what a 45 like that should go for (maybe up to $40). My friend wanted to get the one from FPH, but it was over twice that and I told her she could find one cheaper online.

Parker: Sonnet Flighter, Rialto Red Metallic Laque, IM Chiseled Gunmetal, Latitude Stainless, 45 Black, Duovac Blue Pearl Striped, 51 Standard Black, Vac Jr. Black, 51 Aero Black, 51 Vac Blue Cedar, Duofold Jr. Lapis, 51 Aero Demi Black, 51 Aero Demi Teal, 51 Aero Navy Gray, Duofold Pastel Moire Violet, Vac Major Golden Brown, Vac Deb. Emerald, 51 Vac Dove Gray, Vac Major Azure, Vac Jr. Silver Pearl, 51 Vac Black GF Cap, 51 Forest Green GF cap, Vac Jr. Silver Pearl, Duovac Senior Green & Gold, Duovac Deb. Black, Challenger Black, 51 Aero Midnight, Vac. Emerald Jr., Challenger Gray Pearl, 51 Vac Black, Duofold Int. Black, Duofold Jr. Red.

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That pen is highly overpriced. A TX or a Coronet would reach such a high price, but not a Deluxe 45.

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Um. Wow. A 45 going for more than I paid last year for a Plum 51? Really? :o Either there's a major bidding war going on, or someone is pulling the kind of ploy a friend of mine used to do at live auctions to annoy the bidders who were (to her) obviously antiques dealers and bid them up in a kind of game of chicken. Yup. Just looked at the automatic bids. It's a bidding war (the price is now up above $114.50 and there's still more than a day to go).

P.T. Barnum was right.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Jim and Sharon Ross are perhaps the Perfect Storm of a Fleabay seller.

 

The pens are high quality, or they aren't listed.

The seller has impeccable ethics.

Free shipping

14 day returns.

A LOT of listings at still 100% satisfaction for something (pens) we all know it's easy for at least ONE person to be unhappy with. :rolleyes:

The best of the best quality listings and descriptions

 

And, most of all, The Above is becoming/has become known by a fairly large group of pen people.

 

In essence, they have a good many of the "added values" you'd find at some of the more well known pen websites. Thusly, they Are Earning Those Kind of close prices.

 

I have seen a clean Estie J with a Flex nib sell for them for $168 shipped.

 

It is well known that certain pen sites Exist For the few who want High Quality items and are willing to pay Whatever It Takes to have one put in their hand Right Now. It is not unreasonable to expect a Fleabay seller to attempt, successfully in this instance, to satisfy that same niche of buyer.

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

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My bet is a price war with a return of the product for a refund. Of course they will be out of postage for both directions.

Rod Rumsey

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I guess it makes sense then as a sort of perfect storm of a generally nice pen with a seller of impeccable reputation and some sort of price war. It'll be interesting to see where it ends (now at $127.50!!)

 

 

My bet is a price war with a return of the product for a refund. Of course they will be out of postage for both directions.

 

Wait - why would someone do this? Even if you're trying to deny the opponent the pen for now such that you can bid for it later, wouldn't the seller notice? (And the other buyer?)

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I guess it makes sense then as a sort of perfect storm of a generally nice pen with a seller of impeccable reputation and some sort of price war. It'll be interesting to see where it ends (now at $127.50!!)

 

 

 

Wait - why would someone do this? Even if you're trying to deny the opponent the pen for now such that you can bid for it later, wouldn't the seller notice? (And the other buyer?)

Dunno. We're as baffled as you are. Price is now $130 US with about 5-1/2 hours to go on the auction. (Note -- I sumgai'd a black GT Deluxe with a medium 14K nib in an antiques mall in NW PA a couple of summers ago for $10 + tax....)

Of course I remember a thread awhile back started by Teri Peyton (of Peyton Street Pens), for some listing (forget now what the pen was) where even *she* was sort of slack-jawed and blinking by the final price. Again, it was a bidding war between someone in I think someplace in Southern or Eastern Europe and someone in South America (Brazil, maybe?). Someone just *had* to have it. No matter the cost....

Must be nice to have that sort of disposable income.

After the first auction my husband and I ever went to, we realized that we had ended up buying something like $800 worth of stuff because we got carried away. After that we kept track better on what we'd spent. Mind you, we had gotten some nice furniture (some of it at quite reasonable prices), and some stuff that was wacky but cool (like a couple of plaster pillars that looked as if they had come out of an old church ($10 for one, $2 for the other, so cheap but hard to transport). And I think we did well on the really lovely stained glass window that had obviously come out of an old church as well -- that was pricy $200, but just really needed a home... (and someday we'll actually get it out of the basement and figure out what window to hang it in front of... :blush:). And if we ever *really* have disposable income I'll go to my old boss from when I used to do picture framing part time with the huge embroidered panel that was framed horribly badly (with no spacers between the fabric and the plexiglass -- it's too large to frame safely with glass) and say "Help!!" [the piece is much too large for me to work on myself, even if I had the space, so for all the time we've had it it's been facing a blank wall in my husband's office/the spare bedroom to keep it from light damage....].

Okay -- I did look really weirdly at him when he bid on the player piano. Which we ended up not getting home with because of having issues with transport (those suckers are HEAVY -- much heavier than a regular piano). OTOH, we were out a measly two bucks....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Wow! I have GT in olive with a gold fine nib that I will sell and beat that price.

"Are we at last brought to such humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in possession and under our direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the real object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?" Patrick Henry

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Baffling unless the 14K EF nib has value. IMHO the Parker 45 is a very nice looking pen with the spirit of the 1960s I so love, but I do not like to write with them.

 

This is an obvious hissing contest, where the bidders will neither of them give in.

"Don't hurry, don't worry. It's better to be late at the Golden Gate than to arrive in Hell on time."
--Sign in a bar and grill, Ormond Beach, Florida, 1960.

 

 

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My bet is a price war with a return of the product for a refund. Of course they will be out of postage for both directions.

 

Luckily for you you didn't actually, you know, Make this bet... :rolleyes:

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

Hi Bruce, the buyer paid within a few minutes after the auction ended. It's going to Toronto. Take care Jim

 

- ros7261
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