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About Our "New Old Stock" Pens

What to expect when you buy a new old stock pen from Peyton Street Pens

We get a lot of questions about our new old stock, and it’s clear that customers don’t know what to expect. Is it in working condition? Are there any cosmetic blemishes? Has any work been done to it? Will it have stickers or chalk marks?

Basically, you can anticipate a great writing instrument in as-new condition and working order.

Our definition of new old stock: the pen has not been inked and to the best of our knowledge has never been sold to an end user. The age itself can vary, but unless it’s at least 20 years old it seems disingenuous to call it “new old stock” and so we try not to.

You can trust that any damage will be fully disclosed in the description when there are cosmetic issues. If you look at the discounted pens labelled as “Seconds”, you will see pens that survived the years but with minor cosmetic damage. We will never intentionally sell these without a full disclosure of the condition.

When we purchase new old stock, we inspect it very carefully. If a pen has been in storage for 40 years, it can develop defects due to handling or atmospheric conditions. Some of our new old stock comes from faraway lands where it could have been exposed to heat, cold or moisture. This can result in corrosion or oxidation of metal surfaces, and discoloration of plastic components. Rubber parts such as O-rings and gaskets can harden or decay, and converters can dry up and stop working.

Here’s our process for readying a pen for sale:

  1. Inspection of plastic and metal surfaces including nib.
  2. Clean pen to remove dust, dirt or grit.
  3. Polish plastic as necessary with pen polish or carnauba to remove any light scratches picked up during storage or handling.
  4. Polish metal surfaces as necessary. Gold nibs can develop a reddish patina in storage. Sterling and pewter bodies can oxidize and darken.
  5. Check filling system. Replace O-rings and dried up converters as necessary.
  6. Check nib for any obvious scratchiness or misaligned tines.

Hopefully, these steps will result in a perfect pen being delivered to your door! Sometimes our inspection process fails to discover a more subtle problem, such as poor ink flow, and in this case our remedy is usually repair or replacement. Of course, we are always willing to do a refund if that’s what the customer wants.

We're collectors too, and use fountain pens daily, so we're always interested in feedback. Some of these pens are new to us, their idiosyncrasies as yet undiscovered, so we’ll be interested in comparing notes.

A message from Teri .....  I stand behind my pens and want you to be completely satisfied. If you have any concerns about the condition or functionality, send me an email and it will be responded to promptly and courteously.

Teri Morris, Owner

PEYTON STREET PENS

 

Refer to this page for tips on preparing a new old stock pen for usage.

auctions@peytonstreet.com