Contact Dr. David Isaacson at Vacumania, http://www.vacumania.com/websitesales
Dr. Davey is a pen collector who sells what he does not keep. Anything he sells is just about perfect. Tell him what you want, and he probably has it.
Contact Dr. David Isaacson at Vacumania, http://www.vacumania.com/websitesales
Dr. Davey is a pen collector who sells what he does not keep. Anything he sells is just about perfect. Tell him what you want, and he probably has it.
For Vacumania just go to: http://vacumania.com
As far as the gopens catalog it helps if you subscribe and it is available a week or 10 days before it opens publicly.
Chemyst (December 31st, 2019)
Frustration will always be a key property of that kind of buying unless you simply breathe and accept it. Just as you may at times completely luck into something wonderful, you will often just barely miss things, for any number of reasons. I'm feeling a bit of a stinging sensation today because I spotted a pen I had been looking for as a BIN (buy it now) and it had just been listed. However, in those few moments it had been up, someone else saw it and by the time I clicked to buy it - maybe 10 seconds after the thing scrolled into view - it had been purchased. I know the game and I know this happens, but it leaves a little welt that takes a bit of time to go away.
Well, that is all on your side. Unless you come to accept the actual structure of the system you will not be a very happy person trying to use it. I actually know quite a few people who sell on eBay and not a one of them is a scummy, bad-hearted person. It's just a business they do, either occasionally or regularly. If it wasn't competitive, it wouldn't be an auction. You could always do a search (and then save it as a link) that shows only BIN items, the newest listed first. You then see items as they come online and it isn't competitive, you just need to be the first to want to buy it, just like walking into any store.
It is what it is. If you can't come to a place where you accept that, it is going to be a constant source of irritation. Who needs that?
"When Men differ in Opinion, both Sides ought equally to have the Advantage of being heard by the Publick;
and that when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."
~ Benjamin Franklin
Evidently eBay needn't be a total quagmire to deal with. Here's a treatise on eBay by a photography blogger that claims to have it all figured out:
https://kenrockwell.com/tech/ebay/index.htm
Saved searches, regularly checked, filtered for BIN can be great. Sometimes you find the item priced very reasonably.
I sometimes use Auction Sniper so that I just set my price and forget it. It makes it like bidding on a surplus auction and makes eBay more palatable and less expensive.
I try to remind myself that, for nearly all items I'm interested in, another one will come up before long.
Side story...
The most hard to find item I've ever bid on and won was a 1980s speech synthesis chip, a Votrax SC-01, used in the Heathkit Hero Jr. personal robot, as well as the arcade game Qbert, and it hasn't been made in 40 years. NOS stores were depleted 20 years ago. They're exactly what you imagine when you think vintage artificial robot voice.
Anyway, after frying a voltage regulator by accident I freaked thinking I'd blown up the speech chip (it was fine). I didn't like being without a backup and decided to remedy that.
Saved search saved my bacon as the chips only come up about twice a year. After a few months one came up at a reasonable price and I bought it.
I've been on eBay for a looooong time and the whole bidding war format has always annoyed me as a buyer. It *seems* like people always get carried away and bid too high on the item I want.
Of course they never do that to anything I sell, do they?!
But since items come up over and over, sometimes items don't get bid on and you get them for an absolute steal.
Just hold out, be patient, be persistent, and be firm with max price, and it will pay off eventually.
That's how you win without having the most money.
Glorious victory! That's a gorgeous pen.
Wow that is a gorgeous Sheaffer. Absolutely lovely.
I had my Snorkel Sentinel inked with Kon Peki, until I read the following by Richard Binder in his article "Inks: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" (http://www.richardspens.com/ref/care/inks.htm): "Most Japanese inks are alkaline. Alkaline inks are hostile to latex. I have experimental evidence that at least some of the Pilot Iroshizuku colors will destroy latex sacs. For this reason, I recommend that you avoid using Japanese inks in sac-filling pens as well as in pens that are made of organic resins and use the barrel for the ink reservoir (as described in the preceding paragraph)."
I quickly replaced the Kon Peki with either a Waterman or Diamine ink -- I'd have to check my inking log -- but those seem to be the safest inks for vintage pens.
Quid rides? Mutato nomine de te fabula narratur. — Horace
(What are you laughing at? Just change the name and the joke’s on you.)
Sailor Kenshin (December 18th, 2019)
There's no latext sac in the vac filler, so the point with respect to EoC's pen is moot.
Personally, I load mine with Sailor and Iroshizuku inks and even with KWZ iron galls. The only inks I wouldn't put in them are Noodlers.
Vintage. Cursive italic. Iron gall.
azkid (December 18th, 2019)
I'm not drawing a conclusion one way or the other, by the way. But I am really curious about latex sac damage.
But one of the critical elements of science is that experiments and their results must be duplicated before we can reasonably form a theory.
I'm not sure what experiment or observations were conducted in enough detail to duplicate the experiment. Maybe I missed something reading the article.
If equipped with that info, any of us could attempt to reproduce and thus verify or call into question the findings.
I would want to know such things as: who supplied the sacs, how old were they, what ink colors, specifically, was the pen allowed to dry out at any point, what other inks were used prior to the Iroshizuku inks, were the prior inks properly flushed out, and so on.
For now, I don't worry about inks with lever fill and button fill pens as it is easy and cheap to change a sac. I try to avoid saturated inks as they take forever to flush. I don't have any Noodler's inks.
I keep meticulous records of inks in every pen and flush thoroughly when changing ink. So if I ever have an issue at least I will have a very specific idea of what experiments to try to reproduce the failure.
This thread has ended up in commentary on postage costs it seems - bloody useful info for sure!!! BUT...
Just my 'slant' on the original post... My recent acquisition of a dozen or so lovely old pens - Parkers, Sheaffers, Watermans, a Rotring, an Osmiroid(!) etc.
Each of the Sheaffers works beautifully with just a clean and re-fill. The others are projects which hopefully will 'come good' But the Sheaffers are standouts. Beautiful devices.
(Apologies, re: postage stuff... I'd been reading earlier pages).
Last edited by joolstacho; December 19th, 2019 at 11:50 PM.
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