Los Angeles Pen Show Feb 2014. Booty Shots.

[david i]

That's the way to do it!

Buying pens the Davey way...


30 minutes. Single Purchase. 58 pens. Mosaic Duofold gone already to new home. Close out a collection in one easy step.




Upper Left

*PFM's incluing mint cellophaned, coujple PFM IV's, Broad Stub Nib PFM I set.
*Couple Lambrou CP4 Sterling Legacies and a non-CP4 Sterling Legacy
* 3 Modern Duofolds. Black/pearl Flattops and Blue Mosaic
*Couple lined Sterling Targas including on with broad stub nib

Lower Left:

* 5 Sheaffer Targas
* 5 1970's Sheaffer metal Imperials (Sterling and gold-filled)
* Parker 21 Deluxe set

Center Top

* Wahl Executive Skyline in brown (first I've owned)
*Wahl Skyline with two tone nib
*Wahl Greg Writing School Rosewood Rubber
*Wahl Moire Green high flex nib

Center Bottom


* Parker Duofold Senior 1930 Seafoam Green with Broad Stub Nib. Superb condition pen
*Parker Vacumatic Senior Maxima Golden Pearl
*Parker 1.5th Generation Vacumatic "Long Standard" (Off Catalogue)
*Parker Deluxe Challenger Green Plaque-on-black celluloid

Upper RIght

'*Chrome Metal Imperial. Bunch of Levenger/Sheaffer Connaisseur and lower line pens, X-mas Imperiasl

Lower Right

*Cadmium Yellow Imperial
*Bunch of early Laque Sheaffer Legacies
*Sheaffer Grand Connaisseur chased black
*Namiki Sterling ?Asian? Series?
*Sheaffer Grand Connaisser fluted gold-plated
*Pelikan gold filled modern Toledo M730

[ethernautrix]

Your method mocks my one-at-a-time method.

Looks like you bought more pens at once than I have currently, hahaha. But, ah, where are the Nakayas?

[plistumi]

Your method mocks my one-at-a-time method.

Looks like you bought more pens at once than I have currently, hahaha. But, ah, where are the Nakayas?

Ummm, here's one.


Hahaha. David's methods are fascinating to say the least. the collection looks much better in person.

[david i]

Not sure what a Nakaya is, but it sounds nice.

No, this hoard was mostly USA-made. Fun pens though, a quite nice mix of old and new-ish.

regards

-d

[da vinci]

Wow what a great haul! I do like a sterling silver Sheaffer

[Jeph]

So that was David's impulse buy. I am still waiting to see the pictures of the stuff he was hunting for!

[david i]

So that was David's impulse buy. I am still waiting to see the pictures of the stuff he was hunting for!

How did Lt Uhura say it... "be careful what you wish for"?....

-d

[david i]

So that was David's impulse buy. I am still waiting to see the pictures of the stuff he was hunting for!

And awwwaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaay we go...

In the first image at start of thread we saw an on-the-fly shot of a collection I bought there in one fell swoop, along with a couple overflow pens. A few had already gone to new homes.



Here are pens I bought as individual clusters during the show. Some nice stuff here, some fairly advanced, targeting my usual 1920's-1940's USA focus. I'll offer some clues and descriptions. Feel free to ask questions and to make observations.
s

1. Victor Telescoping pen
2. Wahl-Eversharp late 1920's-or-so Rosewood HR Flat Top made for the Gregg Writing School. Besides the plaque on top do you see the tell?
3. Wahl-Eversharp 1940's made for Gregg Writing School. Besides the plaque on top do you see the tell?
4. A near modern pen and a rare addition to my collection (i keep few modern pens), Stipula Etruria OS 991 10th anniversary edition, complete with original box, etc
5. Moore "A"series probably early 1940's, small 70-A. Killer plastic not well shown in image.
6. Sheaffer 1940's all gold-filled pen, 1920's. Noodle Flex nib
7. Sheaffer 1920's Coral (pure orange in this case, not the generally recognized vintage "Coral") flat-top, off catalogue d/t bandless cap and chrome trim. Rare pen.
8. Sheaffer Balance Deluxe Premier, off-catalogue (lined wide cap-band) oversized set in striated Marine Green celluloid. Near Mint pen
9. Sheaffer PFM II (Pen For Men II), the fat Snorkel-pen from ~ 1960. Green. Nearmint
10. Sheaffer Balance Admiral in striated Gray Pearl with particularly clean cap trim
11. Sheaffer Balance Canadian with quite scarce canadian-only cli. In fact, I first observed this clip after writing my PENnant article (you should subscribe to PENnant) about Canadian Sheaffer Balance. Must give Paul a short addendum one of these days.
12. Sheaffer Balance oversized (Premier) in jet black.
13. Sheaffer Balance Admiral (standard girth long pen, non-WHite Dot) with Cadillac logo
14. Standard size Wahl-Eversharp Skyline, slightly better model with striped celluloid cap
15. Wahl-Eversharp Skyline, oversized set-- the Executive Skyline--. I own two other colors. In ten years hunting I saw my first brown Executive at the LA Pen Show. Then managed to find another an hour later. Yeah, baby...
16. Wahl-Evesharp Skyline in Modern Stripe ("Moire") celluloid. Originally a lower-price model, these are very popular today. This one is clean with nice flexy nib.
17. Wahl-Eversharp Skyline all gold-filled in a better pattern, chevron.
18. Modern-ish Sheaffer Legacy all brushed-gold filled. Thrown in to a big buy for $10 (heck, the gold nib assembly likely is worth $90) by owner who wanted to be rid of it, as it has a company logon on cap.

I will post the better tray a little later.



regards

David

[ethernautrix]

That is a beauty, plistumi!

As for David's acquisition, I have the converter "collection" to match. I suppose all these converters are a testament to the number of Sheaffers I used to own. Funny, now none of the Sheaffers I have is c/c.

[Jon Szanto]

Hehehe... I think it is kinda funny that Dr. I's posts ended up being hit by a spam-bot!

Great haul, David, as usual. Will wait for your full accounting on FPB, if nowhere else. I'm sure you found some great pens, hope you sold a few as well. I almost laughed up my coffee when you saw me with my meager pen case open and asked if I was selling! Good seeing you, as always.

[lsmith42]

You people need to comprehend the concept of booty shots... All I see is pens...

[Jerome Tarshis]

Yes. I am with Loren on this. When I read the phrase "booty shots" I am not expecting to see pictures of pens. And, as between two kinds of eye candy, I prefer what I had in mind.

[Farmboy]

You people need to comprehend the concept of booty shots... All I see is pens...

Yes. I am with Loren on this. When I read the phrase "booty shots" I am not expecting to see pictures of pens. And, as between two kinds of eye candy, I prefer what I had in mind.

Gentlemen,

I believe those pictures can be found on FPN.

[Scrawler]

Yes. I am with Loren on this. When I read the phrase "booty shots" I am not expecting to see pictures of pens. And, as between two kinds of eye candy, I prefer what I had in mind.

Obviously not enough pirates in your upbringing.

[david i]

Yes. I am with Loren on this. When I read the phrase "booty shots" I am not expecting to see pictures of pens. And, as between two kinds of eye candy, I prefer what I had in mind.

Obviously not enough pirates in your upbringing.

The somewhat entertaining and ironic element to this situation is that my quite appropriate usage of "booty" likely has been around centuries longer than the TMZ sort

-d

[VertOlive]

Love that seafoam green Parker!

Oh. I think my heart stopped when the Nakaya rolled by...

[Sandy Fry]

I was a little disappointed this year. Maybe a little knowledge is dangerous. Last year was fun as it was my first show. Now, armed with a little knowledge, I thought some of the pen prices were outrageous!
I went looking to buy 2 pens but only got one...Delta Dolce Vita piston filler. More than happy with it and got it for a good price. I was also looking for a Visconti Opera crystal but the only vendor who had one wanted $450 for his " test pen " which had been filled and used several times ( and probably not just at the LA Show by the looks of the caked hard ink inside ) but said he could order me a brand new one for....wait for it.....$450! So, he wanted me to pay $450 for a well used one that he could get for me new at the same price! Craaaazzzeeeeeee!!!!! Needless to say, I did not order from him.
I was tempted by the Visconti Divina Desert Springs but I really want the Opera Crystal and was proud of myself for resisting the temptation.
Was it just me or was the show much quieter this year??? Did not seem as busy as last year to me or maybe it was just because last year was my first show and I was a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of pens?
All in all...happy with the Dolce Vita ( actually set out to buy the oversize but I have enough c/c fillers so went with the medium sized piston filler ) and disappointed in not getting an Opera Crystal.
@ David i...wish I had the funds to buy that many pens at once....nice set you got there!

David

[Jon Szanto]

Sandy, when you talk about pen prices, are you mainly focusing on new(er) pens, or vintage, or all? I tend to not shop for new pens there, as it is not only not my focus, but unless I *need* to try one, I'm figuring there is no way to get a better price than online.

*My* reason for going to these shows is to see things I can't see anywhere else, and that is primarily pens that are no longer in production, vintage and recent. When I'm looking at used - as they all are, save for NOS - I relish the opportunity to really examine it, and not just look at pictures of them. In this light, a pen show is irreplaceable.

My take was a bit weird: I only realized, in hindsight, that I hadn't actually attended on Thursday before. I did this year, and when we walked in just after lunch, I almost freaked - what happened? There were only about half the tables occupied, and I thought 50% of the show had gotten stuck in the snow and ice! But that was just the slowest of the trading days, and by Friday the room was full, just as in years past. Lot of good pen and parts hunting, even better conversations, a good event for me. I do note, maybe like yourself, that with a different focus comes a loss of some of that "overwhelming" nature of a first show (this was my third). I actually enjoyed it more because of that.

[AltecGreen]

My take was a bit weird: I only realized, in hindsight, that I hadn't actually attended on Thursday before. I did this year, and when we walked in just after lunch, I almost freaked - what happened? There were only about half the tables occupied, and I thought 50% of the show had gotten stuck in the snow and ice! But that was just the slowest of the trading days, and by Friday the room was full, just as in years past. Lot of good pen and parts hunting, even better conversations, a good event for me. I do note, maybe like yourself, that with a different focus comes a loss of some of that "overwhelming" nature of a first show (this was my third). I actually enjoyed it more because of that.

Thursday always play out the same. It is usually 1/3-1/2 full with a pick up towards the end of the day. Jon, you left too early on Thursday. By 4-4:30, things were a bit more lively. We did lose a few of the regulars from back east like Paul Erano.

Excluding Sunday which has a different bent, Thursday saw more business than Friday or Saturday. I spoke to a lot of dealers and they all said Thursday was their best day. It is true that many people had not arrived or set-up on Thursday but the big money changed hands on Thursday including several large collections. I did 75% of my business on Thursday and that is unusual. In fact, I could have finished all of my pen buying business on Thursday. It was that good.

Saturday last year was a ghost town but there was more traffic this year. Sunday was still pretty busier than in many years past but probably saw a bit less of a crush than last year. This is a good thing for the dealers since they had problems keeping up last year. The distribution of traffic was better this year since it was not all concentrated on Sunday.

As for Sandy Fry, modern pens can be hit or miss in LA. LA is more vintage focused. For modern pens except Japanese pens, try the DC show or one of the other medium sized East Coast show. Many of those shows have more of a focus on current production pens. I don't really feel that pens shows are the best for modern pens in terms of prices. Often, the prices are higher than buying online. This is especially true for current production pens. However, Pen shows are great for hunting down out of production moderns or used modern pens but then prices are then determined by the laws of supply and demand. Pens shows are good for pens like a Nakaya which has fixed pricing and the ability to get the pen tuned in person.


I'll discuss more of my impression when I post my LA report tomorrow. I just finished processing the 700+ photos.

[Jon Szanto]

Thursday always play out the same. It is usually 1/3-1/2 full with a pick up towards the end of the day. Jon, you left too early on Thursday. By 4-4:30, things were a bit more lively. We did lose a few of the regulars from back east like Paul Erano.

It is true that many people had not arrived or set-up on Thursday but the big money changed hands on Thursday including several large collections. I did 75% of my business on Thursday and that is unusual. In fact, I could have finished all of my pen buying business on Thursday. It was that good.

Yeah, I sort-of knew that about Thurs, but forgot that I hadn't experienced it. Try to remember (or correct me if I'm wrong) that those "big money / large collection" things are mainly involving just a few people who are already in the know, a different kind of beast than browsing through the room. At least to me, I have felt the Thurs activity is for those who are already big players in the collection game, and I'm certainly not part of that.

We'll see what next year brings.

BTW, that totally pisses me off that Paul was there and was gone by the end of Thurs! He was one guy I wanted to hang with, but we had obligations. I'll have to write him, I really find him to be a real inspiration.