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Lamenting The Great Sheaffer Days


Bill Wood

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I love Sheaffer pens I try to write with one every day. I currently have 3 inked up. Of course I still listen to a 1944 Westinghouse table radio and still use a 1936 Westinghouse Aire fan.

 

 

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Have any reference for this? Last I checked the Legacy pens have been "out of stock" since the beginning of time! LOL

 

The delay is probably because of COVID-19 disrupting supply chains and companies rethinking their new product launches. Sheaffer is very much bringing back the Legacy and its inland nib.

 

https://www.fountainpenhospital.com/

 

http://www.penherostore.com/reminder/

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There are a lot of Sheaffer pens available from that time in the pen market, and more coming available all the time, it seems. I might like to have one or another of these pens in stub, but no hurry. Lament those days if you will, but there's more stuff from that time that is available than I could want.

Edited by pajaro

"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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  • 3 weeks later...

I have one sheaffer balance and a Triumph 1250 en route.

I love all things 40s.

This video is really cool. Talk about sheaffer’s good ‘ol days.

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Famous? Maybe. Popular? Ehhh.... (Did you buy a MB Marilyn Monroe pen? Cuz I sure didn't.... :sick: I looked at that piece of sexist garbage and said "WTH were they THINKING?")

I like a few of their inks, but I have yet to find a MB pen that's worth the price they charge for it. I got TWO Pelikan M405 -- including the Anthracite Stresemann LE -- for LESS than I would have paid for an MB 149. You may claim that rebranding themselves as "luxury" kept them in business -- but I see it as not thinking long term. You've got an entire generation who either don't use fountain pens at ALL or who find their needs satisfied by well-made and WAAAY less expensive pens, particularly from Japanese brands, who also seem to be on the forefront of innovation and engineering -- I'd like to see the sales figures of how many standard line (as opposed to the LE ones) MBs get sold vs. pens like Pilot Vanishing Points and Decimos, and Sailor Pro Gear/Pro-Gear Slim pens and 1911s). I'd bet it would make for really interesting reading. For instance, I could buy four MORE Decimos, and get them in different colors and with different nib widths (and NOT on sale -- just the regular US retail price) -- and they would still cost less than ONE MB 149. And I've seen plenty of posts from people about how accidentally dropping a "precious resin" MB on the floor destroyed it. I've seen complaints like that about TWSBIS, too -- and my 580-AL and 589-ALR cost roughly a TENTH of a MB and you know? I accidentally dropped one of those on a concrete sidewalk and it DIDN'T crack....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Late reply. Montblanc is doing well, Sheaffer is not. What more is there to say. MB strategy fared better than Sheaffer and Parkers.
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Do a google search. Montblanc annual revenue $850 Million USD. Parker annual revenue $7 Million USD. Sheaffer annual revenue $3.4 Million USD. Cross annual revenue $74.5 Million USD. Pilot Corp Japan annual revenue $750 Million USD. Pilot USA annual revenue $34.5 Million USD. Sailor annual revenue $5.3 Million USD. Montegrappa annual revenue $94.4 Million USD.

 

Truth is in the pudding. MB is #1.

 

Safe to say Parker and Sheaffer are on life support. Too bad they didn't follow Montblancs lead.

 

And Cross is wisely upscaling their pens too and revenue is ten times Parkers.

Edited by max dog
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Pelikan annual revenue $270 Million USD. Lamy annual revenue $130 Million USD. I'm pleasantly surprised Pelikan is that high and doing well it seems as a corporation of office supplies. Their fountain pen division looks to be safe.

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Do a google search. Montblanc annual revenue $850 Million USD. Parker annual revenue $7 Million USD. Sheaffer annual revenue $3.4 Million USD. Cross annual revenue $74.5 Million USD. Pilot Corp Japan annual revenue $750 Million USD. Pilot USA annual revenue $34.5 Million USD. Sailor annual revenue $5.3 Million USD. Montegrappa annual revenue $94.4 Million USD.

 

Truth is in the pudding. MB is #1.

 

Safe to say Parker and Sheaffer are on life support. Too bad they didn't follow Montblancs lead.

 

And Cross is wisely upscaling their pens too and revenue is ten times Parkers.

 

Revenue does not represent units sold nor does it indicate if that dollar amount represents pens or all products.

Edited by Estycollector

"Respect science, respect nature, respect all people (s),"

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Revenue does not represent units sold nor does it indicate if that dollar amount represents pens or all products. Pilot appears to be #1 at $984,000.

 

Leather goods is a close second to pens for MB.

 

Edited by Estycollector

"Respect science, respect nature, respect all people (s),"

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Revenue does not represent units sold nor does it indicate if that dollar amount represents pens or all products.

You're right, it's very possible with $7M revenue, Parker is outselling Montblanc best known for pens with $850M revenue. Parker could still be the outselling Pilot and Pelikan too.

It's also possible there is a city of green aliens on the dark side of the moon that our scientists and astronauts keep missing.

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Last time I checked, $984,000 buys you a lot less than $850,000,000.

 

If you got your data from the same place I did, that figure you quoted is not in USD, but a different currency. On that chart they listed Pilot's revenue in both Japanese currency and USD and it was $750M USD for Pilot, $100M less than MB.

 

Esty, lots of wishful thinking there. Even if MB sold more leather products than pens, at $850 Million revenue, it's a lot of pens, a heck of a lot more than Parkers $7 Million would bring in however you like to manipulate the data.

Edited by max dog
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Could we stop turning this thread into a (pointless) (bleep) contest about which company sells more?

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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You're right it is pointless and a waste of my time. I bring facts as requested, and it seems a logical conversation is not possible when we are dealing with rigid preconceived notions that defy rationality.

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You're right it is pointless and a waste of my time.

 

It's a waste of everyone reading the thread's time.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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It is a waste of time in the Sheaffer subforum, after all no one here wants to hear bad things about Parker and Sheaffer and how their business strategy in response to the shrinking pen market failed, while others with a smarter strategy like MB thrived.

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It is a waste of time in the Sheaffer subforum, after all no one here wants to hear bad things about Parker and Sheaffer and how their business strategy in response to the shrinking pen market failed, while others with a smarter strategy like MB thrived.

 

Yay team MB!!!

 

Back on topic: Sheaffer were one of the great fountain pen designers and manufacturers. But that heyday has long since passed. From early last century, they produced some iconic, innovative pens, the likes of which few companies could claim: the design of the Balance, the fillings systems (snorkel, touchdown), the nibs (Triumph and inlaid).

 

Montblanc have always made pedestrian pens (safe, staid) aimed at the type of people who want the status symbol in the erroneous belief that it somehow makes them superior just by virue of having reached into their wallet.

 

It's a real shame they think that posting in this board somehow validates that fallacy. Insecurity is a hard tell.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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Yay team MB!!!

 

Back on topic: Sheaffer were one of the great fountain pen designers and manufacturers. But that heyday has long since passed. From early last century, they produced some iconic, innovative pens, the likes of which few companies could claim: the design of the Balance, the fillings systems (snorkel, touchdown), the nibs (Triumph and inlaid).

 

Montblanc have always made pedestrian pens (safe, staid) aimed at the type of people who want the status symbol in the erroneous belief that it somehow makes them superior just by virue of having reached into their wallet.

 

It's a real shame they think that posting in this board somehow validates that fallacy. Insecurity is a hard tell.

 

According to you and others, the only thing to Montblanc is status symbol? This is what I get out of your post. There is that, but I think there is more. A few people kept telling me I should try a Montblanc to get a mice performing pen. I ya-ya-ya'ed it for years, but eventually I tried a 146, 144R, 149 and 144R in that order. Got rid of the 146 and 149. The 144s are nice, fine and medium. I have used them for years now, blissfully unaware of any pretentiousness. I am not going in for all the expensive eye candy stuff.

 

I would say I remember pleasantly rather than lament the glory days of Sheaffer. I have many desk pens and pocket pens of Touchdown and C/C Imperials. school pens. and a couple of Snorkels. Interesting and charming filling systems, not leaking if in good repair. It is important to me that pens not leak and write smoothly. I also like that Sheaffers are American from the 50s and 60s. I collect very, very few Asian pens and I don't care so much for Teutonic-looking stuff like Pelikan. I think I will clear those away. The prettier and less angular red ("Bordeaux") Montblanc 144s are more attractive, as are the Sheaffer Imperials and other oddities I have like a desk pen version of a school pen in blue with a Touchdown filler and a stub nib.

 

I think some of the commentary about Montblanc has obvious truth about making money by catering to the upscale, but there is more to Montblanc than that.

"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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According to you and others, the only thing to Montblanc is status symbol?

 

No, that is not what I said. I said that is their target market, or at least has been since the end of the fountain pen era. That doesn't mean that the pens they produce are not good pens, I have no doubt that they are (mostly, anyway)1.

 

1. Their LEs have increasingly tended to look like either gaudy kit pens, or rival Montgrappa for their kitschy ostentation. Irrespective of how these things write, they are irredeemable, in my view.

Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.

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It's too bad Sheaffer and Parker did not adopt the Montblanc marketing strategy back in the 90s and focused on upscale only, and left the low end of the market for the bottom feeder companies with their cheap labour. If they had, they would have flourished like Montblanc did. Then we wouldn't be lamenting vintage Sheaffer and Parkers. They'd still be making great pens like in their heydey.

 

 

 

Yay team MB!!!

 

Back on topic: Sheaffer were one of the great fountain pen designers and manufacturers. But that heyday has long since passed. From early last century, they produced some iconic, innovative pens, the likes of which few companies could claim: the design of the Balance, the fillings systems (snorkel, touchdown), the nibs (Triumph and inlaid).

 

Montblanc have always made pedestrian pens (safe, staid) aimed at the type of people who want the status symbol in the erroneous belief that it somehow makes them superior just by virue of having reached into their wallet.

 

It's a real shame they think that posting in this board somehow validates that fallacy. Insecurity is a hard tell.

 

There is nothing to be insecure about for admiring Montblanc and what they have achieved.

 

Sheaffer was once one of the greatest pen companies in the world indeed. Today their revenue is $3.5M USD. Pathetic!

In 1980 Montblanc was a medium sized pen company, smaller than Parker, Sheaffer, and Cross. Today their revenues exceed $300M USD, over 100X more revenue than Sheaffer.

 

Who's being insecure here to rant about MB whenever Montblanc is mentioned? Yes Sheaffer was once great. Why are they not today, and why is Montblanc flourishing? No one seems to answer that, but instead goes on an anti-Montlanc rant, the usual suspects!

 

I like Sheaffer pens, I have the Prelude and an awesome Legacy Heritage. I don't feel a need to rant and disparage Sheaffer. I have lots of Pilots too, and enjoy my 912 FA, Falcon, and 74. I don't feel a need to rant and disparage Pilot either, or any other brand. But I give credit and praise where it is due, and Montblanc did a good job.

Edited by max dog
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