Fountain Pens | Tips for Buying, Selling and Collecting Fountain Pens

I have to admit, I knew little about pens or pen collecting before I researched this article, so I was shocked to learn about specific type pens selling regularly on eBay for sometimes thousands of pounds.

NOTE: Although eBay's 'Pens and Writing Equipment' category covers everything from modern ballpoint pens to quill pens, inkwells, pencils, even wax crayons and typewriters, it's Fountain Pens that fetch consistently high prices, and they're among the easiest items to buy to resell. Hence the reason this article focuses on Fountain Pens.

Surprisingly to my mind is the fact that eBay qualifies fountain pens as 'Vintage' which I call quite modern, namely as recent as 1970. Pens from that era are regularly available at boot sales, flea markets and auctioned deceased properties and they are among the highest finishing price items on eBay.

eBay and Collectable Fountain Pens

Fountain pens date back to the early 1880s but only since the 1900s has pen collecting emerged as a serious hobby.

Fountain pens represent a massive collecting area, hence the reason they have a category of their very own on eBay where the following recent high prices are not that unusual.

* NIB Montblanc Ernest Hemingway Fountain Pen $2452.00 (About £1324.00)

* Vintage Pearl Pelikan Fountain Pen 100 N gold nib 14c $1992.90 (About £1076.00)

* Authentic Montblanc Ernest Hemingway 18 K Fountain Pen $1913.00 (About £1033)

* Faber Castell Fountain Pen of the Year 2004 (AMBER) £999.99

* Montblanc Prince Regent fountain pen, boxed $1691.66 (About £913.00)

* Michel Perchin 98' Gothic Fountain Pen #159/250 NIB $1688.00 (About £911.00)

* Antique Vintage Mabie Todd Swan Silver fountain pen £897.00

* Montblanc Karl Der Grosse 4810 Fountain Pen £900

* Montblanc Ltd. Ed. The Prince Regent Fountain Pen $1625.00 (About £877.00)

* Namiki Double Dragon Limited Edition Fountain Pen $1588.00 (About £857.00)

Only 200 made worldwide. New, Never inked.

* Michel Perchin ART DECO Fountain Pen #16/88 "NIB" $1550.00 (About £827.00)

Though these examples represent a tiny few of many recent high priced fountain pens, they are chosen to highlight other important factors that help increase their value, such as maker, specific details and abbreviations used in their listings.

These are important factors which will help you gain knowledge to help you buy inexpensively from less knowledgeable sellers and generate spectacular profit margins on eBay. More about this in 'Selling Tips' later.

The Market for Fountain Pens

As for almost any collectible you'll find some people collecting all kinds of pens, from all eras, of all different makes and materials, both common and extremely rare.

At the other end of the spectrum are people collecting specific makers, pens from certain eras, specimens with past famous owners, and so on.

These are the most common collecting areas within the overall Fountain Pen collecting area:

Age. Almost every collectible has a 'Golden Age', sometimes referring to the level of collecting interest, sometimes relating to quality of items produced during the Golden Age. The Golden Age for Fountain Pens was 1920 to the late 1930s when some of the finest pens were created by skilled craftworkers, sometimes individually created, often by hand. Almost any pen from that period is worth good money, even damaged specimens are useful as spare parts. The most collectable pens, often highly ornate and hand decorated, in as new condition, can easily fetch thousands of pounds.

Design. 'Design' covers a multitude of popular collecting interests, ranging from art deco to hand-lacquered, novelty, one-off artist hand-made creations.

Art deco is especially popular on pens generally dating from the 1920s through to the late thirties.

But some modern day creations reach record prices too, as in our listing above for a 'Michel Perchin ART DECO Fountain Pen #16/88 "NIB".' that fetched $1550.00 and is one of many art deco types still being created today.

Really unusual novelty designs are also made which quickly grow in value, making it a good idea to purchase whatever inexpensive uncommon designs you come by, whether vintage or modern. These pens look good but they are often uncomfortable to hold and use, so they rarely appeal to people buying for a pen's real purpose, namely to write.

Novelty pens seem not to fetch very high prices on eBay, or elsewhere to the best of my knowledge, and the highest realisation I found over the past few weeks was an Antique Novelty Jumbo Fountain Pen in Original Box that fetched $42.32 (just £22.00). But they're still worth looking for at boot sales, flea markets, auctions, especially created by popular makers or connected with some other highly collectable theme, like golf (I have seen early pens shaped as clubs) or cricket (shaped like a cricket bat), or which are collected by area of production (some collectors buy anything and everything connected to their chosen topographical - geographical - area).

Designer/ Maker. There are collectors who enthuse over pen makers long since extinct, and others preferring makers from the last thirty years or so, yet other pen enthusiasts choose companies that made pens and still make pens from the late 1800s to modern times.

Among collectors the popular pen makers are: Parker, Pelikan, Perchin, Swan, Sheaffer, Waterman, Wahl-Eversharp, among others.

Just one example, Pelikan pens are highly priced and highly prized on eBay as you'll see from these recent realisations:

* On June 25th 2006 aPelikan 100 Fountain Pen Sterling Silver dated 1941 went for $1136.00 (about £613.00)

* Same day a Vintage 1931 Pelikan Pen made $605.00 (about £326.00).

Quality. Quality of material and craftsmanship is all that matters to some collectors, and it seems the nib matters most, according to whether it is made from common-a-garden steel, or the finest gold, or diamonds set in platinum. The higher the quality of nib or overall pen, the lower production is likely to be, so many fine pens are extremely rare today and very highly priced at auction.

Past Famous Owner. A famous past owner lifts the normal market value of virtually any collectible and makes the pen appealing to more than just pen collectors. A pen once belonging to a famous Hollywood star, for example, will interest individual fans, collectors of film memorabilia in general, and pen collectors in particular. Some amazing bidding wars and record high prices are possible between widely differing collectors for pens as for virtually any popular collectible.

Country of Origin. As for most collecting themes certain countries excelled at penmaking and attract their own specialist collectors. Italy, for example, being one of many high profile pen making countries, boasts many different early pensmiths, notably Ancora, Columbus, Omas.

And last but not least:

To Actually Use the Pen as a Writing Implement. There are still people who buy expensive pens as status symbols, to use at important business meetings, to display at breast level (sure beats a rose buttonhole), or to actually use and create much more impressive writing than is ever possible with blobby ballpoints and leaking cartridge pens.

Buying Tips

* Check pens carefully before buying. A crack in the barrel can devalue a pen by 50% or more. But don't worry about dirt, it can usually be removed and can reveal famous name makers beneath the grime, or gold nibs that previously looked like tin.

* Check final auction prices for most popular pen makers using eBay's completed auction feature. Top right of any eBay page, click on 'Advanced Search'. Next page key the maker's name into the long white box, click 'Completed auctions only', next page choose 'Highest first' from the search box right of the screen. The next page shows prices achieved by specific makers starting highest down to lowest.

* If you see well-known maker pens selling locally, especially at auction, study them carefully for condition, make notes, and the day before the sale do an advanced search on eBay for prices achieved by individual makers and bid accordingly at auction.

* Avoid buying pens from specialist pen sellers or high class antiques dealers who generally know what they are doing and sometimes also sell on eBay, making it very unlikely you'll ever make money on anything they sell. Prefer to buy from car boot sellers, flea market stall holders, auctions, but always with potential eBay final auction values firmly in mind.

* Even broken pens are suitable as spare parts which sell well on eBay.

* Generally, bigger pens are worth more than small, except for really tiny novelty pens and others made from precious materials not commonly found on larger types. Diamonds, for example, often featured on smaller pens, both on barrel and nib, but were and still are typically cost-prohibitive on larger items.

* Choose pens in their original packaging over pens on their own. Unlike other collecting areas, such as toys and playing cards, the original packaging does not add significantly to pens' value but you will find packaged items selling faster than their package-free counterparts.

* Look for spelling mistakes on eBay for pens you might consider buying to resell. One of the best ways to make really big money fast is to check out spelling and other errors in other people's listings. Because important words, misspelled, don't coincide with what potential buyers key into eBay's search engines they rarely attract multiple bidders and sometimes sell way below their market value. At www.fatfingers.com today I found 81 different misspellings for the word 'fountain' as in 'fountain pen', ranging from Foumtain, toubtab, gountain. If you're familiar with the qwerty keyboard, you'll see almost every misspelling is actually a typing error and normally results from hitting the key next to the actual letter required for correct spelling.

* Which brings me to another tip: learn to type accurately or check everything you list for spelling or more likely typing mistakes.

Cleaning and Pre-Selling Tips

* Breakages in the barrel are usually caused by over-screwing top and bottom together. It's easy to buy a pen in perfect condition, remove top from bottom to check the insides, then screw it back too tight and break it yourself. And pay heed to the generally accepted rule about touching and breaking items belonging to other sellers which goes like this and means you get to pay full price for a now low value item:

Nice to Have, Nice to Hold, But If You Break It, Consider It Sold!

* Celluloid pens are highly collectable in their own right and very high prices can be achieved for really early models, such as Sheaffer designs starting around 1924 and Parker in 1926. But they are highly flammable and prone to melt and must be kept away from flames and strong heat or sunlight.

* Do not immerse pens in hot water, even really dirty specimens or what look to be metal barrels. Dirt often makes pens feel heavy and more likely to be made from metal than celluloid or plastic. Once the dirt disappears, instead of a perfect gleaming metal barrel, you'll sometimes find a plastic or celluloid alternative - distorted, discoloured, unrecognisable from all that hot water.

* Clean nib, barrel and cap in cold or tepid water. Use cotton wool or your finger tips to remove grime but be careful not to scratch or break delicate surfaces. The insides can be cleaned by removing original ink and filling with clear cold water and flushing it out through the nib. Repeat the exercise until the ink runs clear. Remove any surplus grime from the insides with a soft fluff free cloth and tepid water. Dry with lint or oil free cloth, do not use rough textured fabrics which can scratch and scuff delicate surfaces.

* Join barrel parts and replace caps very carefully, do not screw tight or you might crack or break an otherwise perfect pen.

* Store valuable pens in closed boxes and keep in a dark cool place. It's a good idea to use tissue paper, stored flat on the base of a large box, with pens placed alongside each other and tissue lifted lightly to form folds between pens to prevent them from rolling and damaging one another.

* Avoid placing ink in a pen where ink is in direct contact with the barrel as opposed to being contained in a sack (sometimes sac) or cartridge. Ink, especially highly pigmented, can stain the barrel and reduce value considerably.

Selling Tips

On eBay UK and USA, Pens go under Collectibles (Collectables in the UK) > Pens and Writing Equipment > Pens.

There's no risk of placing your fountain pen in the wrong pen category: on both eBay sites fountain pens have their own sub-category after 'Pens' in the main category listing.

Assuming you know how to list items in general on eBay, then you'll have no trouble listing pens. If you have problems listing then study the free reports included at our web site www.1st-in-auctions.com/Reports.html and begin studying the Quick Start Guide.

The following tips will help you create bid-pulling listings and high finishing prices, but first go back to those realisations listed earlier and check out the following abbreviations and special information that helped those items reach such high prices.

Tips

* 'NIB' means 'New In Box' and the abbreviation is recognised all over the world, so the person selling the last item on the list, a Michel Perchin Art Deco pen, effectively wasted two characters of precious title space with those hugely unnecessary " and ".

* Initial each word of the title in upper case, but avoid capitalising the entire text. It looks unprofessional and is difficult to read. Look at the difference here, between Initial Capitals and ALL CAPITALS. Doesn't the second look and read much better than its counterpart.

MICHEL PERCHIN ART DECO FOUNTAIN PEN #16/88 "NIB"

Michel Perchin Art Deco Fountain Pen #16/88 "NIB"

But it can be a good idea to capitalise certain important features of your pen, such as its specific collector appeal, using the same example for an art deco pen.

Michel Perchin ART DECO Fountain Pen #16/88 "NIB"

* The symbol '#' indicates number, as in '#8 of 100' which typically indicates the item is Number Eight in a limited edition of One Hundred Items. Meaning exactly the same is #16/88 as in the previous examples.

* You can use a sub-title to include details that don't fit into the main title, as in one of our examples:

Namiki Double Dragon Limited Edition Fountain Pen

Only 200 made worldwide. New, Never inked.

In this case the title was totally consumed with vitally essential words highlighting maker, design, limited edition, pen type. Those are words eBayers use to search for listings of this particular pen type. They almost certainly won't search for '200', 'made', 'worldwide', 'new', 'never inked', and those words would be wasted in the main title. But once having found the listing those words become vitally important and help to get the listing opened and generate early bids.

* Notice the example in the previous paragraph spelled out 'Limited Edition while this next one uses 'Ltd. Ed'.

Montblanc Ltd. Ed. The Prince Regent Fountain Pen

I don't know about you, but I definitely don't key 'Ltd. Ed.' to find restricted production items. I don't think many other people do either, so this listing could well get lost. At very least it wastes eight valuable title characters.

If an abbreviation is commonly known, use it; if it isn't commonly known and the information is important you must use the longer complete version.

There are some great places on the Internet to check which abbreviations are well recognised on eBay, you'll find them at:

http://www.tprweb.com/public/324.cfm

http://www.windweaver.com/ebay/ebay2.htm

http://www.auction-genius-course.com/ auction/internet-abbreviations.shtml

http://www.coolebaytools.com/ebay_abbreviations.html

Other Important Factors

That should read 'Hundreds of Other Important Factors' because, like most collectibles, a great many characteristics determine an individual's choice of whether to buy and, if so, what to buy and how much to bid.

Listing all would take forever, but thankfully I found:

http://www.vintagepens.com/glossary.htm