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Recently I have been looking at 2002 P51 SE fountain pens.
May possible buy one or both.
I know the history, just can not work out why they are so expensive to buy.
Visually they look amazing.
Any comments.
There is alot of talk of solid silver caps, yet not one is hallmarked.
( Have looked at Ralph P's 3 variations - Damascus Stainless Steel )
Has anyone here actually handled either of these pens ?
I recall about 5 years going to look at a Parker pen collection offered by a private seller.
Amongst the collection was the black version, I was informed that the cap was solid silver, so I had a very good look at it.
It was a brass section with silver & gold plate, I said nothing.
Bought alot of other Parker pens though.
Recently I have researched these two pens in detail.
A number of USA ebay sellers are selling this black version with the cap described as solid silver.
There is alot of talk of the Vista Blue version being solid silver, but not hallmarked 925 / Sterling Silver.
If anyone has either or has looked at either, I would greatly appreciate any comments.
Possibly this topic is not of much interest here, so I will just add the following and leave it at that.
I have now looked at the ' Vermeil ' cap in detail ( the Black version ).
It is brass with solid silver and gold plate.
Still an amazing looking pen cap, possibly some of Parker's finest work.
Yet to see the Vista Blue cap, I am going to quess it is the same.
( Hence either are hallmarked 925 )
I find it interesting, but I don't want to spend the money it will take. There is also the barrel deterioration issue. I don't know how many are in good shape.
pajaro, Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it.
From what I understand the thin barrel shell issues on first production run were corrected very quickly.
All the next runs were good.
Almost all existing pens should be good - all will have / should have been replaced.
Still do not understand why a pen released at £250 is now worth double / triple that amount.
( That said, the Special Editions / Limited Editions of the current Sonnet will make your head spin - thousands )
Supply and demand. I don't think there was much demand early on. Some posters were contemptuous of these pens. I was more interested in original 51s at the time, and this issue might have passed on before I thought about it.
From what I have seen, particularly in the USA, supply is plentiful.
They are not rare pens yet.
The demand at the prices asked is very low.
I noticed that parts demand is high though.
I think the failure was in the section, they were not made of Lucite as in the original 51, they just crumbled. In addition the pens were very expensive when new and Parker had many claims on their guarantee, in the end they gave discount vouchers for other Parker Models.
Not sure I can go along with the not rare comment, I have only owned one and only seen one other in 10 years, the last one I saw for sale was GBP400. Cannot remember the colour of mine, surf blue comes to mind but I could be wrong. Never seen any of the fancy finishes in the Parker ad.
I'm a fan of the 2002 Parker 51 SE. Had one of each color and traded the black one for a discolored but very nice Waterman Patrician onyx years ago. The turquoise one is still working perfectly; in fact, it is nearly always filled with a Parker cartridge. The original turquoise plastic was prone to cracks. At a Paradise Pen, where I bought both of the pens, there were extra turquoise barrels, so I bought a couple. My original barrel finally fell apart after quite a few cracks, so am happy I to have had a replacement. I have never had a crack in the turquoise shell. Its medium nib, by the way, in wide, smooth, and completely reliable. While certainly not in a class with the actual Parker 51, which is one of my favorite models, this modern c/c filler is quite a nice fountain pen.
Thank you to proteus & pajaro, who I believe perfectly capture the reason for current asking prices for these fountain pens.
I wish now that I had bought one of these back when they came on the market. They are beautiful.