Pelikan 140 Price

[wallnot]

I am looking at acquiring a green-striped Pelikan 140 with an M nib. I believe it's from 1954, based on the facts that:

 

a. the cap ring is engraved, and the nib is the fir tree design (details added in '54)

 

b. the filling knob doesn't have a nib width engraved, and the cap head doesn't have a Pelikan logo (details removed in '54)

 

c. Günther Wagner is engraved on the end of the barrel (detail removed after '54)

 

(Info from here)

 

The pen is in user grade condition: somewhat significant brassing on the clip and cap ring, microscratching (but no chips) in cap, and someone's name engraved in the barrel. The nib is in excellent condition, with plenty of tipping material, etc. Just needs a polish to clean it up.

 

Edit: the filling system is also fully functional.

 

What is a good price for this pen?

Edited February 10, 2019 by wallnot

[TimeoDanaos]

The price of 140's seems to be wildly fluctuating. they must have produced millions of them, though it seems that most of the ones you see for sale are F or EF. There's nothing quite like a Pelikan M nib, so I would first of all say go for it. I had one 140 that didn't post well, but I don't suppose it's a general problem.

 

The 140's were office pens, so to say, so many of them are quite worn. The one kind of wear that you don't want, and which is almost impossible to discern on pictures from online sellers, is wear to the nib's tipping. That for me depreciates the pen's value immensely, since the only solution if it has reached an unacceptable point, is an expensive re-tipping. And I sincerely doubt that anyone can grind a nib with the same expertise that Pelikans craftsmen had in the golden days. I have a Pelikan 100 with a medium gold nib which has hardly been used. I have never seen a more perfect grind.

 

Gilding of the cap ring and clip is not something you can just restore. For me, a pen like that should not cost much more than 50€, but if I really wanted it and knew for certain that it wrote really well, I might pay up to 100€ for it.

[Barutti]

I guess, that "good" price for 140 green, taking in consideration all demands is 90-100 usd.The mint one with stickers and card box could be targeted at 140 usd range.

[DougS]

I pretty much agree with Barutti but slight brassing and a name on the cap would bring it down to around 75€, and a name on the barrel would reduce that a bit more in my estimation. Heavy brassing would bring it lower again.

 

Not sure that the Pelikan bird engraving was removed from the cap top in '54 on all 140s, I thought that it was left plain for markets in specific countries.

[wallnot]

Well, confession: I’d actually already bought the pen when I made this post. I just wanted to see if I’d been ripped off. I paid $71 shipped, so it sounds like I may have overpaid slightly, given the name on the barrel and the branding on the clip and cap ring.

 

Thankfully, though, the nib is in excellent shape, with a lot of tipping material, and the feed is completely undamaged. The main reason I bought this pen was for the nib. I found a user-grade 400NN (minimal brassing, only micro scratches and a couple of dings in the cap) in an antique store a few months ago and bought it for $20. It had an OB nib, which doesn’t work great for a student who takes pages of notes every day. I swapped it out for a modern steel m200 medium nib, but I thought it would be nice to have something closer in age to the pen itself.

[Bo Bo Olson]

I guess, that "good" price for 140 green, taking in consideration all demands is 90-100 usd.The mint one with stickers and card box could be targeted at 140 usd range.

Seems right....a good one...non-mint goes for @ E100 in regular auction German Ebay.

I have a black one in OF, and a green stripped one in OM....both are semi-flex which is to be expected.

There are an occasional maxi-semi-flex in the 140's also.

10% less for name....is standard.

Brassing is also a price lowerer.

What you have to look for is the four longitudinal combs/rills are in perfect shape.

 

I'd not worry about the nib being 'worn' out.........I've been informed (quite forcefully) that don't happen with post war nibs. It will be a stub nib.

When I first got into German fountain pens, I thought that home done, like then in the states...stubbing, but Pelikan, Soennecken, MB & Geha etc (those with semi-flex nibs) were all factory stubbed semi&maxi-semi-flex nibs.

 

Can be finger tip (no cloth)(with semi-chrome or the better Nova? three stage polish) polished up to a well maintained look.

 

I have no problem using an OB semi-flex nib (my first semi-flex nib) ....the 140's nib is lots smaller than a 200/400's nib...it will look dorky. (Vintage and semi-vintage nibs are 1/2 a width narrower than modern, so an OB is actually more a fat M/OM than a modern signature B nib...a writing nib.

But the medium-small 140 itself is a fine pen, that posts to a standard size because of a long cap.

My 140 was the first semi-flex I had....when I put the nib to my thumb nail at the flea market....I suddenly knew what the fuss was all about.

 

You paid a fair price, for a good writing pen.

Medium-Small was so IN, in the '50-60's in Germany. Soennecken (444), Geha's flag ship 760, Osmia, Kaweco all made medium-small pens.....The Geha 760 didn't have the long cap of a Pelikan....nor do my medium-small Osmia's. I'm not sure about MB making medium small pens. (they did have standard sized pens) But am pretty sure they had to....in back then they made pens for every wallet. There was sure to be a shorter 2xx&3xx pen.

Edited February 11, 2019 by Bo Bo Olson

[TimeoDanaos]

I'd not worry about the nib being 'worn' out.........I've been informed (quite forcefully) that don't happen with post war nibs. It will be a stub nib.

Nonetheless, I have been informed that they really do wear down. Source: My own experience, which has come at a dear price.

[Bo Bo Olson]

Well back in the day....from info of a decade ago and a few years later...it was said a pen's tipping would if used 8 hours a day, 266 days a year, would last @ 7-10 years.****

 

What I don't see is a stubbed nib getting wider............wearing if used as a One Man, One Pen for a decade of course. The tipping of the German stubbed semi-flex nibs was rather thin. Pelikan being thicker than say Geha or Osmia.

 

Ah Ha....forgot planned obsolesce...back then someone came around with a brand new pen every 5-7 years...so one had to wear out the nib so they would buy a New Balance, a Vac/P-51, Snorkel or P-75.

Then with lack of sales because of the ball point plague, they did away with planned obsoleteness. ...and didn't even brag...can't wear the nib out.........ok.

 

 

***Somehow I'm to believe modern tipping is so,so much better.

 

Did read here on the com, of the '20-30's when pen companies changed rare earth compound formulas, yearly....looking for cheaper and long lasting other rare earth compounds....(yes, modern tipping procedure was perfected in WW2............but I don't see perfect tipping just happening.

 

The old guys with ivory slapsticks clustered around a table with cold coffee in their cups did wonders...and each company had their own engineers in a tipping department.

 

GvFC said it's tipping would last a life time.........of constant use.

A number said they have used their one and only pen constantly for decades and and the nib didn't wear out.........

I don't think a modern pen will wear out either, in everyone has more than one. .... many have 15-25 of them.

 

I can sell you salvage rights of an old bridge in Brooklyn....Just for you, give you a wholesale price....as soon as the swelling of the bumps on the top of my head go down.