Buying from eBay - be aware...

I really do like eBay. I buy a lot of pens there, though I don't do a lot of selling.

The thing you have to be careful of on eBay, are those lemons you occasionally get. I've only gotten 1 or 2, but they were pretty bad.

Here's one of them, that I thought I'd share with you all.

This is a Parker 51 I bought a while back, to add to my collection. I ended up selling it in the end, but that's besides the point.

This pen was a "good" condition 51, on eBay. Let's take a close look.

The jewel - Oh wow! Really bad job here on this cover-up. The original jewel sheared off, and someone glued down the top of a different jewel onto it. Why? I don't know. Seems harder to me to glue one on, than to just replace it.

The old jewel was a normal white jewel. The glued piece was from a "honey" colored jewel. 

And then, a "delightful" hood crack.

There it is again!

So guess what - I got a bad one! Worst of all, after all this damage, you'll never believe what happened when I finally dip tested it. The tipping on the nib popped right off!

Overall I had to invest about $70.00 worth of parts just to get this pen working again. Not a good deal at all in my book. :(

So, now you don't have to feel so bad about your bad eBay buys. It happens to all of us.

My advice for you all - Be careful, and buy restored pens from trusted repairers whenever possible.

That's it for today. :)

Regards,

Tyler Dahl