Resale Prices For Graf Von Faber-Castell Pen Of The Year

[PetarK]

Hello all,

 

Does anyone know typical resale prices for the Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the Year series?

 

I've been looking at these pens for a while now and I found many people saying the PotY does not hold it's value well. From that I was they should sell for less than retail price when they come up for auction on eBay.

 

I am interested in the first few years of the PotY models but specifically the 2006 mammoth irovy model. I found some records from about three years ago when a couple PotY 2006 pens were sold at "bricks and mortar" auction houses and they were valued at the time between $800-$1200 and sold for between $1000-$1100.

 

What I see on eBay doesn't follow that and I usually see them for more than orignal retail price.

 

I was hoping the great pen afficianados in FPN could help me find the real prices that I should watch out for.

 

Thanks,

Petar

[maksim]

Did they sell for more than retail or just the asking price?

 

People can ask whatever they want. It all comes down to whatever you are happy paying for.

 

Pens I do not see as an investment, especially if you buy new. So pay whatever you are willing to spend on it as a usable item. =)

 

I do love the pen of the years. the 2014 will be on my list to get when I can find for reasonable prices.

[RMN]

Here in the Netherlands I have seen some older POTYs in the 2300 EUR ballpark, newer ones (2011 and up) more like 3500 EUR.

 

There is one on offer now (2014) for 2700 at laCduC. Still too much money for me, way too much.

 

D.ick

[PetarK]

I only recently started on eBay so I will need to do my research by following a few auctions.

[gerigo]

If you're buying pens as investments, I don't think the GVFC Pen of the Year pens are particularly good investments. Here are a couple reasons:

 

_The older models are pretty easy to get. If they are truly highly valued and limited, they would be a lot harder to get. I have inquired around, and pens from previous years are still easily available from the distributors.

_Used pens don't generate a lot of interest at prices that are 2/3s of retail. That could be that the pictures or descriptions were bad. But if they were as described, they should sell easily.

 

However a lot of owners are unwilling to let the pens go at a fraction of the price so these pens still are being sold at rather inflated prices with not a lot of bidders.

 

If you want a pen to invest, anything Montblanc would do the trick because it has such brand cachet with regular folks. When they think fine pens, the snow capped logo comes to mind.

 

If you want to get a GVFC pen of the year, get it because you enjoy a great pen that is amazingly made.

 

 

[Algester]

to me the GvFC PoTYs is truly unique in their own breed due to the materials used at least they arent being shy to say its not made with precious resin but with 2000 or so pens made every year... it's hard to judge (as to what would be the most reasonable price it can go on the second hand market) I at least wish to own some of them the Amber and Petrified Wood PoTYs to be precise

Edited February 5, 2015 by Algester

[danielpi]

Apologies for being a bit late to this thread, but some info that may be helpful if you haven't yet pulled the trigger:

 

 

Hello all,

 

Does anyone know typical resale prices for the Graf von Faber-Castell Pen of the Year series?

 

I've been looking at these pens for a while now and I found many people saying the PotY does not hold it's value well. From that I was they should sell for less than retail price when they come up for auction on eBay.

 

I am interested in the first few years of the PotY models but specifically the 2006 mammoth irovy model. I found some records from about three years ago when a couple PotY 2006 pens were sold at "bricks and mortar" auction houses and they were valued at the time between $800-$1200 and sold for between $1000-$1100.

 

What I see on eBay doesn't follow that and I usually see them for more than orignal retail price.

 

I was hoping the great pen afficianados in FPN could help me find the real prices that I should watch out for.

 

Thanks,

Petar

 

I have the PoY 2006--grabbed it off eBay for about $2100 or $2200 if memory serves. I considered it a steal at that price, and still do. In general, you CAN get PoYs from between $1200-$2400. However, newer models tend to start out priced higher (in the $3000-4000) range.

 

Certain models seem to be unusually popular and fetch higher prices. The 2006 mammoth seems to be an extraordinarily rare one, and only comes up for auction only once or twice a year. I would say that the snakewood is the rarest, and I've seen it going for as high as $7000.

 

The Indian Satinwood and Jade seem to be fairly common and can go for fairly low prices. The horsehair tends to be rarer, although shockingly, I did see it going for $1200 NIB a couple months ago. Insane.

 

One note: you may not see the mammoth come up on eBay partly because of the rules about ivory. When I was in a rather tight financial spot, I did try to sell my pen, but the listing was removed by eBay, because there is a policy of forbidding the sale of any ivory products (including mammoth ivory). This is easy enough to bypass (don't mention the material, and it doesn't get flagged), and I got mine on eBay in the first place. But this may have something to do with the inflated prices and relative scarcity.