Whom do you trust?

I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the pens
I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker, primarily
for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to provide a decent
value and a reliably reported quality pen, preferably in the U.S.? I'm
not looking for the absolute best value or 'great' deals because the
last dollar isn't as important as a reliable purchase.

Offline is fine - . I appreciate any help.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 10:42:33 -0400, Curtis L. Russell
wrote:

I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the pens
I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker, primarily
for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to provide a decent
value and a reliably reported quality pen, preferably in the U.S.? I'm
not looking for the absolute best value or 'great' deals because the
last dollar isn't as important as a reliable purchase.

Offline is fine - . I appreciate any help.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

What do you want?

"Curtis L. Russell" wrote in message
...
I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the pens
I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker, primarily
for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to provide a decent
value and a reliably reported quality pen, preferably in the U.S.? I'm

Jim Mamoulides, Richard Binder, or Nathan Tardiff.

I've only purchased from one of these three but have heard very good things
about the other two. I have a Mamoulides Craftsman that was nicely
restored - though I didn't purchase it directly from him. These guys have
reasonable prices IMO. Not wow ebay prices perhaps but reasonable and they
all do good work from what I understand. Nathan can be hard to get in touch
with... but worth trying.

There are others that are good, perhaps even outstanding in their
workmanship, but more expensive.

--
I am not a Lupus/Fountain Pen Expert. I am not a Medical Doctor. I do not
make my living in medicine or in fountain pen repair. All opinions herein
are based solely on my experience and observations. Take them with a grain
of salt (unless you have high blood pressure...g)

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 15:56:58 GMT, "KCat" wrote:

Jim Mamoulides, Richard Binder, or Nathan Tardiff.

I've only purchased from one of these three but have heard very good things
about the other two. I have a Mamoulides Craftsman that was nicely
restored - though I didn't purchase it directly from him. These guys have
reasonable prices IMO. Not wow ebay prices perhaps but reasonable and they
all do good work from what I understand. Nathan can be hard to get in touch
with... but worth trying.

There are others that are good, perhaps even outstanding in their
workmanship, but more expensive.

Thanks. This was what I was looking for, and it was easy to get to
their web sites. Yes, I wasn't looking either for a great eBay bargain
or a pen best suited for a pen museum, but a solid quality pen that
also looked good at what others found to be reasonable prices.

Kind of how I feel about the Swisher site for new pens. There are a
few with slightly better prices, but his site gives me a good look and
the prices are usually below average. And the extra service has been
great the two times I needed it.

I purchased locally two older pens to get the flex nibs. Don't know if
they were bargains or rip-offs, but they were what I wanted and less
than I was willing to spend. OTOH, some sites seem to list twenty pens
with practically the same description, but the pictures showing what
appear to be radically different conditions. Made me want to proceed
with due caution.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Curtis L. Russell wrote:
I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the
pens I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker,
primarily for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to provide
a decent value and a reliably reported quality pen, preferably in the
U.S.? I'm not looking for the absolute best value or 'great' deals
because the last dollar isn't as important as a reliable purchase.

Offline is fine - . I appreciate any help.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Take a trip to Annapolis some Saturday and visit Warren Granek's vintage
pen shop at 57 Maryland Ave. (about a block off State Circle). Warren is
open from noon to 5 on Saturdays. His contact info can be found he
http://www.thewriteshoppe.com . Pen Haven in Kensington also is a great
place to see and buy vintage pens. Again, Kensington isn't terribly far
from Odenton. Pen Haven's web site is he http://www.penhaven.com/ .

Have you been to a pen show? If not, I'd definitely try making it to
this year's D.C. Super Show in August http://www.pencentral.com/penshow/
.. You'll find everything your heart desires at very reasonable prices...
and you'll be able to try before you buy.

Fair and trustworthy sellers include (but not limited to) the following:
Joel Hamilton and Sherrell Tyree (http://www.ink-pen.com/index.html) ---
Contact them by e-mail and tell 'em what you want; they have many more
pens than are shown on their site. Michael McNeill
(http://www.northwestpenworks.com/NW_..._I/indexx.html of
Northwest Pen Works...Again, write to him and see what he has that may
not be shown on his site. The Zuckers are sweet people and have many
nice vintage pens for sale... again, e-mail 'em and see what they have:
. Bruce Speary has great vintage pens for sale
and his descriptions are always very conservative (in other words, he
describes his pens accurately). His web site can be found at:
http://www.pensandwatches.com/ . If you really want to treat yourself to
some good deals, get on his mailing list (it's free). Bruce Marshall is
a good egg too... http://members.bellatlantic.net/~k1aj/penlinks.htm.
Pendemonium is a wonderful source for everything...
http://www.pendemonium.com/ . I've bought pens from all of these folks
and can attest to their trustworthiness. --- Bernadette

Curtis L. Russell wrote:
I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the pens
I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker, primarily
for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to provide a decent
value and a reliably reported quality pen, preferably in the U.S.? I'm
not looking for the absolute best value or 'great' deals because the
last dollar isn't as important as a reliable purchase.

Offline is fine - . I appreciate any help.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

You've had some excellent advice already. I'd add David
Nishimura's site (http://www.vintagepens.com); he mostly deals in
the top-end stuff, but he does sometimes have nice examples of
the more common pens, and if you want to spend c. US$100 on a pen
there will be pieces there. For Parkers, I have had satisfactory
dealings with Mike McConnell (http://www.wetinc.com/pens/);
again, his emphasis is on quality, but a good example of a common
pen remains affordable.

Jim Mamoulides' site (www.penhero.com) has a list of e dealers,
and in general one can approach established people with a default
setting of confidence. Frank disclosure of faults seems to be normal.

Have fun, and IME the most economical way of buying old pens is
to pay a bit extra for a nice example in the first place.

Michael

"KCat" writes:

"Curtis L. Russell" wrote in message
...
I'm not expert in older pens, but want to add several more to the
pens I have. If you were purchasing an older Sheaffer or Parker,
primarily for writing, who are the dealers that you trust to
provide a decent value and a reliably reported quality pen,
preferably in the U.S.? I'm

Jim Mamoulides, Richard Binder, or Nathan Tardiff.

I've only purchased from one of these three but have heard very good
things about the other two. I have a Mamoulides Craftsman that was
nicely restored - though I didn't purchase it directly from
him. These guys have reasonable prices IMO. Not wow ebay prices
perhaps but reasonable and they all do good work from what I
understand.

Not "wow" eBay prices in either direction (high or low) but in all
three cases you'll get a pen that works and is free of defects. A
much better deal, IMHO than what's available on eBay unless you're
looking to do your own restorations.

"BLandolf" wrote:

Bruce Marshall is a good egg too...
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~k1aj/penlinks.htm.

Do you know if he's still selling pens? I've never dealt with him,
but I tried to contact him by e-mail over three weeks ago, and never
received an answer.

--
Steve

My e-mail address works as is.

Stephen Hust wrote:
"BLandolf" wrote:

Bruce Marshall is a good egg too...
http://members.bellatlantic.net/~k1aj/penlinks.htm.

Do you know if he's still selling pens? I've never dealt with him,
but I tried to contact him by e-mail over three weeks ago, and
never received an answer.

I saw him at a recent show... either Chicago or LA, so he's still around
collecting/selling pens. As with most sellers in this hobby, pens are a
part-time thing with him... so, I'd try again. He might have been away.
I haven't bought pens from him in awhile, but I picked up a couple of
**very** nice 51s from him at very good prices. One, an English red 51
aero filler, is among my very best writers. It's a great pen. ---
Bernadette

"BLandolf" writes:

I haven't bought pens from him in awhile, but I picked up a couple
of **very** nice 51s from him at very good prices. One, an English
red 51 aero filler, is among my very best writers. It's a great pen.

It's always intrigued me that pens that are very similar, especially
such as the Parker 51s which were made to very close tolerances- can
write very very differently. Differences between pens on the order of
thousandths of an inch can have a dramatic effect on how the pen
writes.

This makes giving advice someowhat problematic, no? "Buy a Parker 51,
they are great writers" may be the chorus, and yet the individual 51
that someone buys may write very badly for them and be disappointing.