GOLD PLATING LUXURY PENS

[Chase777]

Why is everyone using vermeil or plating VS real solid gold? , at most a pen if it was real gold would have like 20g of 14k in it which means around like $600 in gold. Some pens are over 1k and using plating. Why?

 

Not to badmouth pens but i just don't get it. Say a basic pen with a gold clip and gold edges. At most that's like 6grams of 14k gold which is around 200 but the pens sells for over 1k. So the pen maker makes profit either way and the pen is more exclusive.

 

So why is everyone plating expensive pens?

Edited December 18, 2021 by Chase777

[inkstainedruth]

It may be easier to manufacture the pens in some other material and then do the plating.  Also, depending on the actual type of gold, it may be deemed too soft a material for a pen body.

And I think you may be underestimating the cost of of 14K gold in that amount.  I have a few vintage pens which have rolled gold for caps (which is IIRC an alloy of 12K or 14K gold along with some other metal).  And I have a couple with gold-filled filigree designs over black hard rubber bodies.  But I can't think of too many pens I've even seen for sale that were actually 14K and in that price range of "$600's worth of gold".  More like adding another zero or two at the end of that estimate....

I also don't think you have any comprehension of how LITTLE gold is actually used in  the plating process.

My dad had a job at one point -- he built hardware for IBM's research division -- in sputtering gold onto the ends of wires for I think better transmission of electric charges, and he was working with *angstroms* of thickness.  And an angstrom is one hundred-millionth of a centimeter (basically, according to what I found in a quick Google search, something measured in interatomic distances...).  So plating is still WAY thicker than that. 

Oh, and those two gold-filled filigree ringtop pens I own (a couple of Morrisons from the 1920s or 1930s)?  I paid less for either of them than I did for a sterling filigree overlay ringtop (same brand, same overlay design -- just a major difference in the cost of the materials between rolled gold and sterling silver, and I suspect that even 12K gold would be both too soft and too expensive....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: And even if I COULD afford a pen that was actually made of 14K gold, I probably wouldn't.  Because it wouldn't likely write any better than a pen with a plastic body.  I have the Morrisons because I thought they were pretty (and the first gold-filled filigree one has a lovely springy stub nib on it to boot).  Not to be a show off about how much money I can waste on something as prosaic as a pen.  But then, I'm also the self avowed "Queen of Cheap"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

Well, that’s not exactly the logic to value pens. Otherwise all pens should be just a few pennies by the weight of their plastics.

[Karmachanic]

7 hours ago, Chase777 said:

Why?

 

The same way you don't pay $30 for tha latest xPhone

 

 

 

 

[I-am-not-really-here]

Perhaps there is not enough profit margin on a 'solid gold' pen but there is on vermeil or gold-plated ones.  From a buyer perspective a vermeil pen can look like solid gold but purchased at a fraction of the cost. 

[Bo Bo Olson]

I have a MB 742 pen, in rolled gold, I got for E-150....and rolled gold is much more stable than gold plated.

I won't own a gold plated pen or gold plated cap. It has to be rolled gold, in I don't want it pealing or evaporating off 'my' pen.

Telescopic piston.

The original owner had cranked it down...cork unused, and the jimmied the piston so it wouldn't retreat. Unless swipped ..new...I have no idea why it was not sent back to the factory and fixed. Does explain how come I got it so cheap.

Francis fixed it for me and re-corked it...as it should be properly done; sized, boiled in oil and beeswax then slathered with silicon grease.

Borrowed from Penantique in I've not got around to making a picture of mine.

 

Rolled gold pocket watch cases were guaranteed for 20 or 25 years from wear through depending on how much gold was pressed under extreme pressure on the base metal. 

 

A 14K 742 pen had cost as I remember it when I looked it up half a decade ago.......more than the $4,000 someone on Ebay wanted. Someone else would take $2,650 because he don't have box and papers.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

From "1950- 742 18k solid gold'..thread on the com.

"""From the research I have done I believe it is a 742 (?) solid 18k Gold Pen And Pencil Set from 1950? The barrel and cap are hallmarked .750 on the Pen as well as the pencil barrel. The engraving in the middle of the Montblanc Cap says "Montblanc Masterpiece".

 Any idea what the value of this set is? i.e. Low thousands etc?

Edited April 20, 2017 by Sid2001

 

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Posted April 20, 2017

There's a 14K 744 (slight difference in size between 742&744.)solid set on eBay for EUR8000:..

...so $5,000 for the fountain pen.

 

This is quite old I'm sure in 2020 the price of gold was 1/6th higher than now or then.

 

From Penboard.de

Seller	Penboard_Tom
Item No.	112931
Brand	Montblanc
Model	Masterpiece 144 piston filler with matching Pix, solid gold 585 **
Year	1936
System	pistonfiller
Colour	gold
Material	gold 585
Nib	14C gold nib, Medium tip
Remarks	RARE matching set with 14K gold jeweller´s overlay.
Export price	€ 2.200,00  (~ US$ 2.640,00)
EU price incl. VAT € 2.618,00           xxxxxx other info..... Yes, it is correct that Montblanc used the same model number for the rolled gold version, the 14ct solid gold version, the 18ct solid gold version and the solid silver version on both sizes 2 and 4 of the fountain pens and of the pencils.   cccccccccccccccccc Sometimes when the moon is green, the dealers in the room...back before blasted Telephones or dammed computers infiltrated the live auction houses, either figured I'd get the pen as was, or didn't look at it hard, but this set is 14K solid gold overlay, ...got it dirt cheap in it is 'No Name'. More than likely a jeweler's overlay from Pfortzheim....got to show what I call a Pfortzeheim clip....any jeweler could have used such. Got to make a picture of that pen one of these days instead of just using the auction house photo....I take such horrible photos.   I was after it because of the 14k semi-flex nib. I did not expect to win it, but with only 15-18 people in the auction house as this number came up....I knew there was a dealer in the back of the room, in the start price was normal 80 euro and I got it for E150.....which is normally my limit for old pens............I don't know if I'd gone higher it being 'solid' gold overlay.   Solid gold vs solid gold overlay.............a cartridge pen could be 'solid' gold out side the spike...........and too heavy to use. Piston pens need to have the guts work....so the standard know it works like a champ guts are used as plastic as they are, and the rest of the pen is silver, rolled gold or 14 or 18K overlay. My standard sized 742 gold rolled over brass is a very heavy metal pen...even in standard size. It's too heavy for me, in spite of having a real great semi/maxi-semi-flex nib. It is the only one I have that lies between semi&maxi.   Something to do...weigh my Lamy Persona and my MB 742...and Cross Townsend to see which is heavier.

[sansenri]

On 12/18/2021 at 4:03 PM, Chase777 said:

Why is everyone using vermeil or plating VS real solid gold? , at most a pen if it was real gold would have like 20g of 14k in it which means around like $600 in gold. Some pens are over 1k and using plating. Why?

 

Not to badmouth pens but i just don't get it. Say a basic pen with a gold clip and gold edges. At most that's like 6grams of 14k gold which is around 200 but the pens sells for over 1k. So the pen maker makes profit either way and the pen is more exclusive.

 

So why is everyone plating expensive pens?

 

it's an odd question really, a bit like asking why would you want to buy a gold watch rather than a stainless steel one...

 

you are not buying gold by the weight in any case...

consider a steel nib, and then consider the gold equivalent nib, are you paying for the weight in gold?...

 

there are a huge number of other factors that define price of things... (not just with pens).

 

The answer to the last question (also applicable to other objects) is always because there is someone prepared to pay the price.

[Addertooth]

There are gold pens to be found, at non-astronomical prices.  The Eversharp Skyline in "solid 14k gold" has little gold in the thin gold body (and is easily dented), and some solid 14k gold 552-1/2v pens can also be found for a price which is in the hundreds (and not thousands).  And yes, the Nib defines how well they write.  But then, if you find an exceptional nib, you can always transplant it to a solid gold pen, so that it is exceptional in all areas. 

 

I was fortunate to get a solid 14k overlay 552-1/2v, which also happened to have an exceptional nib.  It is a prized example in my "group of pens which I refuse to call a collection".

The other pen pictured is an Eversharp Gold Award, the 14k "vermeil" offering from this family.  It's nib is no slacker either.  Neither pen is "heavy".  I have two examples of the solid gold version of the Skyline, but their nibs are not as nice. 

 

 

 

[Addertooth]

Here is a Command Performance, which is the solid gold version of Skyline.

 

 

[Buzz_130]

Manufacturers will charge what they think the consumer will pay. Some will charge a premium for brand appeal, and others might tackle the challenge with a unique design. I 3D printed 5 fountain pens as gifts for this holiday season. Cost of filament? $1 per pen. But in all cases, fountain pens, especially expensive ones, are not items that can be scaled up for production. It's a small community of enthusiast who love the nuanced discussion about balance and nib size, and other will wax philosophically for days about the characteristics of ink. Choose your device and enjoy the discussion--our price point doesn't matter.

[inkstainedruth]

Agreed.  I get as much enjoyment out of a $14 US Noodler's FPC as I do out of a vintage Parker 51 or my Pelikan M405 Stresemann (my most expensive pen by a long shot).  

It's simple -- If you don't like the price of a gold plated pen, don't buy one.  There are lots of super expensive pens out there that are just plain butt-ugly, IMO.  And because of allergies, I can't use any of the drop-dead gorgeous but also super expensive maki-e pens (and admire those from a distance).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth