Tag Archives: Montblanc

Don’t Get Fooled by Fake Montblancs: Greta Garbo

By on September 5, 2024
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One of the greatest screen beauties in golden-era Hollywood was Swedish-born Greta Garbo. She expressed a bold, raw sexuality uncommon in America in the 1920s and ’30s, and she maintained a famed “mystique.” Unlike so many who sought fame, Garbo famously said, “I want to be left alone,” though she was often misquoted as “I want to be alone.”

Her greatest films include the 1926 silent film “Flesh and the Devil;” “Mata Hari;” “Grand Hotel;” “Anna Karenina;” and my favorite, the Billy Wilder comedy “Ninotchka.” Garbo rarely smiled in her films, and the tagline for “Ninotchka” was simply, “Garbo laughs.” Considered a serious dramatic actress, Garbo is an absolute scream in the screwball comedy “Ninotchka,” where she plays a seemingly emotionally distant Soviet agent in Paris trying to sell stolen “White Russian” jewels to fund the communist regime when she is pursued by an unscrupulous playboy played by Melvyn Douglas. Easily one of the 10 funniest movies ever made.

Not surprisingly, Montblanc was quick to chose Garbo as the inspiration for one of its first…if not the first…Muses series limited edition pens in 2005. Celebrating the greatest female entertainers of the 20th century other muses include Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe, Liz Taylor and Maria Callas, among others.

As an early, and very desirable collectible, the Montblanc Greta Garbo is often faked. And those fakes can be surprisingly good. On first glance, the one we found can be easily mistaken for the real thing.

Here is a fake Montblanc Greta Garbo we discovered in a collection of pens.

It is easy to Google images of the Montblanc Greta Garbo set to see the original boxes and papers. (We thought we had and sold a set a little while back with photos of our own, but we cannot locate them.) The real pen has a unique serial number and Akoya pearl on the clip. The trim also is also silvery not golden. Authentic pens are also more solidly made.

The fake Garbo pen that we found looks real, but it feels flimsy and squeaks when you unscrew the cap. The clip and the golden trim are also rather loosely attached. You can feel the edges of the trim in the fake versions and maybe even wiggle the metal. The fakes likely also come with a generic converter or oddly imprinted converter with nontraditional Montblanc fonts and logos.

This close-up shows the poor quality of the fake pen’s steel nib, along with the condition of the “pearl” and trim.

In the close-up photo of the fake nib, you can see it is obviously a steel nib with an imprint that looks real. If you aren’t sure if the nib is steel or rhodium-plated, a test scribble will generally reveal a poorly made, scratchy steel nib.

Although we don’t presently have any photos of the authentic pen, we hope this helps to showcase the things to look for in the fake versions of the Montblanc Muses Series Greta Garbo fountain pen.

Don’t Get Fooled By Fake Montblancs: JFK

By on July 3, 2023
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This is an authentic Mont Blanc JFK ballpoint pen with its original boxes and papers.

In an effort to pay tribute to the United States of America’s youthful, idealist president who was assassinated, the Montblanc JFK is a special edition pen. It is a handsome pen that came in several color combinations and was most sought by American historians and fans of the late president.

As with all popular Mont Blanc pens, the fakers jumped on the design as quickly as they could, and many of their replica pens make for very convincing copies. So far, we have only carried 2 authentic ballpoint versions of the Montblanc JFK. However, we recently picked up 4 fairly convincing fakes.

These fakes include 3 fountain pens and 1 rollerball pen. The burgundy models are especially realistic when compared with the ballpoint version above that is authentic.

Four fake Montblanc JFK pens are illustrated in this photo. The burgundy models look especially convincing at first glance.

As always, it is the closer inspection that reveals what is real. Luckily for authentic Montblanc collectors, these JFK fakes are easy to spot at a glance. We have never had one of the authentic fountain pens, but those pens have a rhodium plated 14k gold nib with the 1969 moon lander etched into them. None of these fakes have that design. Only one has a convincing standard MB etching, another has a really bad etching that at least mentions Montblanc. The third doesn’t even make an effort. Seriously, it looks as if it woke up hungover on Sunday morning, completely disheveled with a cigarette hanging out of its mouth. Don’t even get in its way until it has some coffee.

 

You know it is a fake when all of the pens have the same serial number.

Another easy tell on these pens is that they have the same serial number: MBCF 5RS85.

Another dead give away is the filling system. Real Montblancs employ their piston filler system. These fakes get a little credit for having a tail piece that unscrews, but inside is a removable standard international converter. The real tail units screw in and out but don’t come off. They just manipulate the internal piston.

Construction of the pens also plays a part. The fakes tend to be squeaky when the caps or tail ends are screwed and unscrewed. There also is a strange looseness to those parts. Montblanc threading is far more precise.

Posted below are additional images of the nibs and filling system found on the fake Montblanc JFK pens. Please feel free to add your own comments and observations. Thank you for reading.

This is the fake Montblanc nib that makes a little effort.

These are the best and the worst of the fake MB nibs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo illustrates the fake Montblanc’s filling system. Real JFK pens don’t use cartridge/converter systems.

Don’t Get Fooled by Fake Montblancs: The Fauxeme

By on May 10, 2023
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Is she? Or isn’t she? Can you pick out the real Montblanc Boheme in this photo?

One of my favorite additions to the Montblanc line-up in the past 20 years was the Montblanc Boheme. What made it my favorite was the retractable nib, which made it look similar to the classic safety fillers of yesteryear. Unlike the messy and unreliable vintage pens that still remain, this modern pen took a standard international cartridge. Another nice touch in the authentic Boheme was the realistic jewel placed in the clip. Genuine, factory-made jewels, they looked like convincing sapphires, rubies, emeralds and the like.

Or maybe one of these is the genuine Montblanc Boheme. Unless you are a really dedicated MB collector, it likely isn’t easy to tell truth from fiction.

We recently acquired a huge collection of pens. Making my life easier, this collector separated his collection of fake Montblancs from his collection of the genuine article. If you’ve read my past stories about fake Montblancs, you know I’m really saying something when I say these “new” fakes were extremely impressive.

Today we will look at the fake Boheme, which I like to call the “Fauxeme.” I’ve posted 4 pens in the photos here. Can you tell which one is the real Montblanc Boheme? Don’t read ahead. Seriously. Take a guess. I’ll reveal the real McCoy in a little bit.

Making it harder to tell the truth about which pens are real is the fact Mont Blanc made a ton of different options on this line of pen. The most easily recognizable Bohemes have retractable nibs. But, MB made some with permanent nibs. I once rejected one such Boheme as an option to buy for the site because I had yet to hear about the fixed-nib models. Montblanc also varied the jewel colors and various metals and pen designs.

Which is the genuine Montblanc Boheme nib?

Fakers had a field day offering up their own designs which look insanely convincing. Look at these nibs in this photo. At first glance can you really tell which is real? The sections, collars and logos are identical. The imprinted words are different but can vary sometimes by the markets they are sold in. The one on the right is the authentic MB nib. The biggest difference between them, to me, is that when you write with the two nibs, one is clearly a scratchier steel nib. But if you are buying online, you can’t test for that.

 

 

These two Montblanc Fauxemes share the same serial number, which is a well-known fake Montblanc serial number.

We established before that Montblanc sometimes recycles its serial numbers on the pocket-clip rings. However, if you look at the database we are developing of fake Montblanc serial numbers, you can cull two pens from this herd as fakes. It would be highly improbable to get two authentic pens with the same serial number. And the numbers on these caps are known fakes.

For as impressive as the fake Bohemes are, a lower quality of manufacturing gives away the pens, when you can examine them in person. The nib seems to be the biggest tell in many cases. First, if it is a scratchy steel writer that reminds you of a vintage Esterbrook, you know you are on the right tract to unmasking the facsimile. Yet, if you get to take an extremely close look at the two-tone version of the nib, you might see where the gold coloring is incomplete or worn off.

Can you see where the gold color has faded out on this steel nib?

When it comes to the operation of the pen, the genuine Boheme has a bump sensation as you lock the nib into place to write. The Fauxeme hasn’t this feature. Also, when fully retracted, the real MB has no exposed nib tip.

Another good indicator might be the setting of the “jewels” in the pocket clip. Montblanc will do this in a very clean and precise way. In the clip photo below, you can see the poorly set “onyx” that is glued in place and sports a big gap. Yet, the “emerald” version is snuggly fit without any mess.

 

 

The pen on the left has a bit of the nib’s tip still visible when fully retracted. The authentic Montblanc pen on the right has the nib retracted out of sight, where it won’t get injured by a closed cap.

If the photos and explanation haven’t given it away already, the only real Montblanc Boheme in these photos is the lovely green-jeweled model.

With any luck, this article has helped you have a little more confidence in identifying authentic Montblanc Boheme pens. As a reminder, I am not an authorized Montblanc pen authenticator. I am sharing what I know with the public to help as best I can. If you would like your pen authenticated, please reach out directly to Montblanc, as it has an authentication service, though last I heard they charge a fairly stiff fee for their time and work. To learn more about Montblanc (and pen collecting, in general), please feel free to read through our previous stories listed under “How Do I Start Collecting Pens?“.

Notice the shoddy setting of the “onyx” jewel of the Fauxeme pen on the left. See how the “emerald” on the authentic Montblanc is a much better fit?

Fake Mont Blanc Pens Part IV

By on December 1, 2022
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Some days you just never know what you will find. Someone reached out to me with a collection for sale, and they told me the original owner was an avid Montblanc collector. Naturally, I was curious to see it. It didn’t take long to assess that this person had a huge collection of fakes. Sadly, they probably didn’t even know they had fake pens. Then again, maybe that was a good thing, as they were very happy with their collection until the day they passed.

This first batch of fake Mont Blanc pens has some really convincing models.

The fascinating thing to me was how some pens were extremely convincing, others were pretty obvious and some invented designs looked better than actual Montblanc pens! It was quite an education that I hope to share here.

In this first photo is a recreation of the Mont Blanc Writers’ Series William Faulkner. It (the bottom pen) looks very convincing…even better than the real thing, as the real pen’s color is a Spanish moss green-grey, and this knock-off pen is a cinnamon brown. The white pen behind it looks just like a Montblanc Tribute to Montblanc ballpoint. Only the real one has the exact same trim in a platinum plate not gold plate. Otherwise the serial number, Pix, small details were all identical. The red pen behind it looks just like some of the special edition MB pens that looked like the original safety fillers. However, the modern MB tribute pens were never made in red. I actually kinda like the red more than the official versions. The golden one in the back will look convincing to a novice, but on really close inspection the black cap bands were poorly painted on, and the black tail isn’t something an actual MB would have.

This second selection of false Montblanc pens shows is a little less convincing.

This second photo of fakes is also interesting. One of the things Montblanc does is make special or limited runs of slight alterations to its primary “Classique” design. Clever scammers can play on that variety by making their own unique version. Yet, with any experience with Montblanc pens and a little help from a search engine online will quickly reveal designs such as these four to be fake.

I don’t know the technical way to say this but the cap wring on the bottom pen is just worn wrong. The gold plating doesn’t wear like that on heavily used Montblancs. Plus, all of these pens have black bands around the cap bands when the pens are not black. Real Montblancs would have the black lines above show as the same color as the rest of the cap and/or remain gold. The bottom two pens might not show it in the photo, but their color and finish is far too cheaply made to be a real Montblanc. Also, not visible in the photo, some of the 6-point mountain top logos/stars are either rubbing off or poorly painted or unevenly inset into the caps. The black tails on two of the pens are another indicator they are fake.

These final two pens are much more egregiously impersonating Mont Blanc.

These final pens stretch the boundaries of faking Montblanc. The closer pen looks like it could be a pen from the 1970s, but MB never had a model quite like that…and it didn’t fit Montblanc refills. The distant pen has the outline, shape and clip of a Montblanc, but it doesn’t have the logo. Maybe technically it isn’t a fake Montblanc, but in all other ways it tries to look like Mont Blanc.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this latest segment looking into the wonderful world of fake Montblanc pens. With any luck, it helps you avoid the pitfalls of the stunningly large market of counterfeit pens.

Whoa! Montblanc Inks…Beware!

By on January 11, 2022
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Happy New Year, everybody!

Sorry for the long absence. December and early 2022 have been quite the rollercoaster. Happily, all is well now, and we hope to be back to rockin’ and rollin’ the ink-o-sphere.

Wow! Three months in the sun fades the pigment right out of modern Montblanc inks. Mont Blanc ink burns worse than I do in sunlight.

The biggest shock to me in Dawn’s and my ink tests comes from Montblanc! At $26 retail for a 60ml bottle of ink, you’d think you’d get something close to perfection…especially with the company’s luxury marketing! It is worth it to do a little math here. A 60ml bottle of ink at $26 per bottle means the price of a single milliliter of ink is 43¢. A U.S. gallon is a shade over 3,785 milliliters. Ergo, a gallon of Montblanc ink costs $1,627.55! A gallon of gasoline here in Norwich is $3.39, and a gallon of milk can be found for $4.29. It will seem as though gas and milk are a better bargain, especially after these results.

Now before you start thinking I’m being completely unfair to Montblanc, I’ve always liked its ink. At pen shows I use it as my test ink for anyone wanting to dip a nib to try out a pen. When people asked me what was one of the safest brands of ink…based on no research but word of mouth around pen shows…I’d usually tell them they could trust Montblanc best.

I hereby rescind that proclamation of safety. I got my first wind that trouble was in the air when a customer returned a pen to me after only 3 or 4 months of use with Montblanc Mystery Black ink. Its rubber ink sac had melted. At the time, I thought that was weird and worried the customer had used something far more toxic and then tried to cover it up with Montblanc Mystery Black. Nope. I doubt that now.

Back in July, 2021, I stuck a sample of 8 new bottles of modern Montblanc ink swatches in my sunniest window. These inks included: Oyster Grey, Midnight Blue, Irish Green, Toffee Brown, Royal Blue, Lavender Purple, Burgundy Red and Mystery Black.

After only 3 months in the sun, nearly all faded out! Royal blue turned a faded green. Irish Green and  Lavender Purple almost went invisible.

When Dawn and I tested the fresh ink’s pH, we were equally surprised. For a quick chemistry refresher. Everything is measured in pH on a scale from 0 (extremely acidic) to 14 (a base that is extremely alkali). 7 (distilled water) is perfectly neutral. We calibrated our pH tester at 24.6ºC.

Here are our results from the Montblanc ink pH Test:

Mystery Black          4.3
Royal Blue                3.8
Burgundy Red         4.8
Midnight Blue         4.2
Irish Green               3.9
Oyster Grey              3.9
Toffee Brown           5.6
Lavender Purple     3.8

All of these inks are quite acidic. Blue and black inks are supposed to be the safest inks. They are very acidic in Montblanc! Now, we aren’t chemists. We do not know how the chemistry between the ink sacs, pistons and converters interacts with the ink. Yet, this raw data casts doubt on the safety of Montblanc ink. Perhaps it is the special “cleaner” Montblanc uses to keep inkfeeds clear that is to blame for the acidity. The company recommends only using MB ink in MB pens. Perhaps there is more to that than just their greed of simply wanting to sell more ink.

As we still have a few of the old bottles of Montblanc ink from the 1990s, we didn’t do a UV test on them, but we did a pH test and it was even worse.

Black          2.2
Turquoise 2.8
Red            6.5
Green        3.0

Maybe you’ve had great results. I certainly don’t want to ruin your faith in Montblanc ink, if it has always worked for you. However, it might not be the gold standard I once thought it was. The information here is simply raw data, but it seems striking.

How Do I Start Collecting Pens: Fake Montblanc Serial Numbers

By on May 20, 2021
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This is one of the most convincing fake Montblanc fountain pens we have ever seen.

After 14 years in the pen business, I have just encountered one the very best fake Montblanc pens I’ve ever seen. It came with a collection of vintage pens for appraisal. I had been told it was a Montblanc rollerball, and it looks very much like a Montblanc Classique. The appraisal customer told me it was a LeGrand.

A quick inspection showed it had a serial number in the clip band, Pix written under the clip, perfect cap band nomenclature. It came with a convincing box and set of papers!

My first clue something was wrong came when I tried taking off the cap. A true Classique has a slip cap. This cap was threaded…and LeGrands are supposed to be threaded…though this pen was too skinny to be a LeGrand. Open the pen, and it took an authentic Montblanc rollerball refill. But, inside the barrel was a metal threaded space when there are no metal threads in an authentic MB Classique. There was so much right and wrong with the pen.

That’s when my brilliant fiancée recommended searching the number on the clip band.

EN1340798 is one of the most frequently used serial numbers on fake Mont Blanc pens.

Lo and behold, this pen turned out to have one of the most faked numbers for faux Montblanc pens: EN1340798. Research quickly showed it on fountain pens, rollerballs and ballpoints.

In a security fail for the actual Montblanc company, they don’t track their serial numbers. As such, many, if not most, MB serial numbers are not assigned to a pen owner or provenance of any kind. Montblanc has even acknowledged that sometimes it reuses serial numbers! Ironically, this makes the very security measures the company uses to authenticate its pens that much less secure.

In an effort to help separate the real pens from the fakes, please write in the comments section any other serial numbers you know to be fake. Thanks!

Pen Collecting Time Capsule

By on April 14, 2021
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Here are two 5″ X 7″ pen catalogs from 1994! I was intrigued by the Menash catalog as I don’t know what became of that company.

Leaving the pen-collecting life behind, a friend of mine has given me his stash of catalogs and advertising from 1992 through 1994. Its contents blew my mind.

Most of the material was from 1994, the spring I graduated high school. While it is difficult for me to comprehend that was 27 years ago, what is harder to comprehend was how big pen collecting was becoming that long ago!

I found my first fountain pen in 1985 when I was 9 and adored it. It belonged to my late grandfather, and it still worked: a 1928 Sheaffer Lifetime Balance. I used it until it finally broke down, and I became obsessed with finding other fountain pens. They just didn’t exist. Not in my 10-year-old world or the various circles I moved in. I asked adults for them, and all the adults laughed and said they threw their fountain pens out years ago because ballpoints were “so much better.” Even then, I knew that was heresy.

Sheaffer sent me an Imperial to replace my grandfather’s pen, which they could no longer fix. I snatched up those terrible Sheaffer Student Pens at the grocery store. Yet, I was the only person of any age I knew who loved fountain pens. Studying German while in a San Diego high school, my teacher told us that most German kids and adults still preferred using fountain pens. San Diego had no pen stores that I knew of, and the internet did not exist. I worked a part-time job and saved most of my money to pay for my trip as an exchange student to Germany. Most of my fellow American exchange students saved up their money so they could drink heavily in a nation where the drinking age was 16. I begged my German family to be taken to a proper stationary shop. I gleefully purchased a stub-nibbed elegant black Rotring and a bottle of Pelikan royal blue ink. I wrote with that poor beast until its threads wore off. It wasn’t until the internet got more advanced that I could search for fountain pens and finally start finding them in about 2005.

A 1992 edition of “Pen Finder” by Glen Bowen.

And sooo, it surprises me now to see that while I was searching the world over for fountain pens, there was a ground swell of people who did still love fountain pens…and vintage pens, at that! Plus, many of the people I know on the pen show circuit were innovators of the vintage pen revival.

For example, when I first met Glen Bowen, I did not know he founded “Pen World” magazine. He had already sold his stake in it, but his wife Susan was still the circulation director at Pen World. She and I bonded over the fact she went to journalism school at Northwestern with my father. When she later introduced me to Glen, I thought he was just a pen newbie helping his wife at the Pen World table. Ooops!

In this stack of publications is a protean “Pen World” magazine catalog he published in 1992 called the “Pen Finder.” It was printed at the same time as the early “Pen Worlds” but was a catalog of vintage pens he restored that collectors could buy. You had to subscribe to it. There were simply several glossy photos of capped fountain pens and some inner pages that served as an index of what the pens were and how much they cost. No nib photos. As people didn’t yet know the history of the pens as well then as they do now, I think I even spotted a few pens with mismatched caps and barrels.

The catalog index of pens for sale in “Pen Finder.” Back then it was too expensive to print color on every page of a magazine. As such there would be color pages and B&W pages.

Without the internet, vintage pen research was a slow and ongoing process. So many of those early collectors had to do their own research into the histories of pens. And much of that was very hit and miss. The internet really made it easier for everyone to get together and compare notes and research.

I love the low-tech feel of these publications. The world-famous Fountain Pen Hospital vintage pen catalog was just a photo-copier copy of pens and prices. Bexley Pens advertised new models with a beautiful glossy photo paired with a home-printer list of features and benefits.

The more professional catalogs for new merchandise were more sophisticated, but I sure as hell wish I could get my hands on some of this Montblanc and Omas at their original pricing. Brand-new, factory-fresh Montblanc 164 Classique models for $99. Omas fountain pens for $325 to $100! FPH was selling a stash of 14k gold #5 Waterman MUSIC NIBS for $50 a piece!

Vintage pen prices were all over the map. There were rare pens for $100 or $200. Really common pens for up to $800. And, yet, other pen prices haven’t changed. Standard Parker Vacumatics went for around $125.

Ads for the Bexley Giant. Note the glossy one-page sheet paired with a home-printer fact sheet. That was not unusual advertising back then. It was fairly slick and affordable.

When I finally got some guidance from my buddy Hans who taught me about vintage pens and how to repair them in 2005, I felt like we were the last two people on earth who loved old fountain pens. With his instructions, I felt as if I was somehow reinventing the wheel or reviving a long dead religion. Yet, this is evidence I was never truly alone back then. I was just searching in all the wrong ways and places.

It is easy to be glib and say, “Oh, gee, I wish I knew in 1994 what I know now.” While that wouldn’t be untrue, I really wish I knew my pen tribe then and could take the journey with them to where we are today. Fountain pens have always brought me joy, and they clearly bring many other people joy. And while I am very happy we have found each other in this grand and glorious age of the internet, it would have been nice to have learned and shared at an even earlier age.

 

Identifying More Fake Montblancs

By on January 31, 2020
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We recently received two more great examples of fake Montblanc pens from a collector to share with you. As you might recall, we wrote a much more extensive piece about identifying fake Montblancs in a piece we called: Don’t Be Fooled by Fake Mont Blanc Pens.

This time we are just going to showcase the features of these two specific fraudulent pens.

A close inspection of this pen reveals that it is a reproduction of the rubberized Montblanc Starwalker fineliner pen.

Up first is meant to be a rubberized Montblanc Starwalker fineliner. At a glance, it looks like it could be the real thing. BUT! A closer inspection proves it isn’t. The first thing you can notice in real life, and not online, is that the rubber material is very sticky as it decomposes. We haven’t experienced that in the originals, but this is common in cheaper rubbers and plastics. Those cheap, 1990s Sensa office pens with the huge “ergonomical” rubber grips decomposed to a sticky mess all the time, just like this pen.

The biggest visual error you can spot is that the tail is black and not platinum or rhodium plated like the original.

We can’t get a good enough photo of it, but the floating star inside the clear cap topper is scratched.

Plus, there is no “Pix” written under the pocket clip. While that pocket clip does have a serial number, it is a two-part number with a gap between numbers, which Montblanc doesn’t do. Lastly, the pocket clip has a more obvious weld to the cap.

Pictured is a fake Montblanc Hommage à Nicolaus Copernicus ballpoint pen. Yet, to hold in real life, will easily prove it is not the real thing.

The other pen on today’s showcase is meant to be a copy of the Patron of the Arts Montblanc Hommage à Nicolaus Copernicus. At a glance to the untrained eye, it passes. It has what looks like the anthracite-colored lacquer on the ribbed body with potentially sterling silver rings. There’s what appears to be a diamond in the clip.

Yet, the real pens had a yellow diamond or green-yellow jewel, depending on which edition you had.

Again, in real life, this pen is extremely light weight. Sometimes experience helps, and, having held real samples of the Copernicus, this feels 2 or 3 times lighter.

Another big give away is that there are no markings on this pen. No serial number, “Pix” under the clip,” no limited edition number and no “Germany.”

It is difficult to see in the photo, but you can see the edges where the white part was glued into the black part of the logo. On Montblanc’s high-end pens, there are no seams that are detectable, and we think the original pen had a mother-of-pearl star instead of a white plastic star.

One sneaky thing the pen forgers got right is that it uses real Montblanc ballpoint refills.

The last big thing they got wrong is the company brand logo of the 6-point star or snow cap representing the mountain. This one is a soft plastic that looks odd in real life, and you can see the edges of the hole they glued it into on the tail. True Copernicus pens have a seamless logo that is lacquered over to look like one piece regardless as to whether it really is.

Last but not least is the box. We received two pens in one box that is made to look like a true Montblanc box. The differences are pretty obvious. Most simple MB boxes similar to this have a leather or faux-leather outer casing in black. This is a black paper case. On the inside the company name is poorly silk screened on with some black ink bleeding into other parts of the name/logo. Annnd, the pad that holds the pen is a cheap cardboard with a paper tray beneath it. The black leather Mont Blanc cases have a padded beige or tan cloth lining, which you aren’t intended to get underneath. Papers for the legit pens are stored between leather box and the outer cardboard box. Please see the picture of the fake below.

As always, we hope this helps you spot fake Montblanc pens in your quest for inky glory as a writer or collector.

Paper outside, poor silk screening inside and the wrong pad and under-tray make this Montblanc box an obvious fake.

How Do I Start Collecting Pens? Investing

By on November 15, 2018
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“How do I collect pens for investment?” is probably one of the most difficult questions I have to answer. Like all the investment prospectuses out there state, “Investing requires a degree of risk with no guarantee of success.”

There are several strategies that can help an investor looking to profit on pens, but it is important to understand several key facts before investing.

• The market for pens is constantly changing.
• Cashing out for a profit can be difficult.
• Even the most reputable retailers on earth don’t pay full retail for pens they are going to resell.
• Like every good drug dealer knows: “Don’t get addicted to your own product.”

RULE #1: Buy low, sell high. Sounds easy enough, but it doesn’t always work that way.

MINIMIZE SELLING COSTS: Most people love the collecting side of this wonderful hobby. They love the hunt, or they love using the pens. Yet, the first thing any investor-collector should think about is how they are going to offload their pens while getting their money out of them.

All of the major retailers online, such as myself, are looking for deals like any investor. If you have a rare pen that sells for $2,000, retailers like me aren’t going to pay you $2,000 for it, just so we can turn around and sell it for $2,000. Clearly, that is all risk and no reward for the retailer. And unless you found this pen for $50, you might be really upset if the retailer only offers you $1,500 or less for a $2,000 pen.

Auction sites and payment-receiving companies such as PayPal and Square charge any number of fees and commissions. These can quickly add up and dig into a substantial part of your profits.

Your best bet might be to sell your pens one-on-one at pen shows, in free social media listing pages or some place such as our Trading Post. We charge a one-time $5 fee for a single posting. You keep your pen and handle the transaction as you see fit. There are no other fees or commissions when you sell the pen. Just tell us it is sold, and we’ll delist it.

RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH: If you are serious about investing in pens, knowledge is power. There are huge differences between why one pen might get an astronomical amount of money and why another pen that looks nearly identical wouldn’t. There are so many nuances that affect values. Plus, if you like modern pens…and even some vintage ones…you need to learn how to spot the fakes. Furthermore, it is critical to also research the trends in what is selling and at what prices it is selling.

Flexible vintage Waterman nibs such as these from the 1920s are in exceptionally high demand in 2018.

DAY TRADING: Okay. The market for pens doesn’t move nearly as fast as it does for “day traders” on Wall Street. However, if you know what is really hot on the market right now and know you can quickly find a customer who will pay full price for it, you can make a lot of money. The trick is to know the market really well and not hold on to the pen for too long.

For example: As of this writing in November 2018, really flexible Waterman nibs from the 1920s are in peak demand. Everybody wants a flexi nib! So if you can find a Waterman 52 with a “wet noodle nib” in an antique store or flea market for $25, fix it up and sell it in a few days for $150 to $200, you’ll have made a great investment.

The trouble is that what is popular can seemingly shift overnight. About 10 years ago, everybody had to have an impossibly extra-fine nib on their vintage pens. If the line was so fine that you couldn’t even see it, that was perfect. Modern Japanese nibs can get that fine, but most vintage nibs were made for fine to medium writing. Thus those vintage extra-fine nibs were hard to find. Then one day I showed up at a pen show loaded with extra fines and nobody wanted them. The fad was over.

THE LONG GAME: Most people want a blue-chip stock they can buy at age 30, hold for 30 years and cash out at 60 for a tidy profit. They exist, of course, but they are less obvious than most people might assume. Take a Montblanc 149 fountain pen. They retail brand new for around $1,000. People who aren’t into pens might assume it will only hold that price and appreciate with time…but it won’t. Gently used 149s from the 1970s through ’90s are retailing for around $400 to $450. However, if you bought it in 1979 for $150…you’re doing okay. Yet, given how little has changed about them during the past 40 years, it isn’t likely you’ll make a profit on a new one sold from an MB boutique today. Nevertheless, an early 1950s’ 149 is resurgent on the market and attracting serious money that isn’t likely to subside for some time.

Hand-painted Montblanc Mythical Creatures series pens are genuinely rare pens that might appreciate in value, as they only made 1,500 of each…unlike the Writers’ Series pens which are made by the 10s of thousands.

A lot of people invest heavily in “limited edition” pens, but I am beginning to question how long those prices will last. With the exception of the Montblanc Writers’ Series Hemingway, Poe and Agatha Christie, most of those pens aren’t holding their original retail value. The trouble is that they aren’t really limited. MB makes tens of thousands of them every year. Everybody who wants one gets one. Most people treat them gently or don’t use them at all. There will come a time in the next 10 to 20 years when everybody either starts selling them off to cash in or passing them down to their children who don’t want them and sell them. When that happens, there will be a glut on the market. Frankly, I’m already seeing signs of that now.

Yet, maybe genuinely limited pens of say 1,500 or fewer, like the hand-painted Montblanc Mythical Creatures series, will appreciate more because so few were made…and they were more handmade than the more common pens. (Although even these pens are a little down in price at the moment.)

LeBoeuf #8 fountain pens are among the rarest grail pens for vintage pen collectors. These were among the first celluloid pens ever made…and are stunningly beautiful.

Vintage pens are a different matter. Blue chips might include an oversized #8 LeBoeuf, senior-sized mandarin yellow Parker Duofolds, Nassau green Parker 51s with double jewels and vermillion Sheaffer Snorkels. Each is a rare color variant on a popular pen. Prices might fluctuate over time, but their values ought to hold.

Playing Devil’s advocate to myself, nearly impossible to find grail pens spanning 1900 to 1925ish are once again becoming much more available as the original collectors are beginning to pass on. Younger, newer collectors are not as familiar with those pens and likely haven’t the money at this stage in their careers to purchase them…and so those prices are actually crashing a bit. It is unclear at the moment if new generation collectors will ever have much interest in the earliest fountain pens. Speculators might be wise to let the prices keep coming down and snatch a few up at “bargain” prices to hold for another 20 years or so. BUT, there’s no guarantee it will pay off.

Younger collectors were laughing at me the 2018 Ohio Pen Show when I said they should hold on to their TWSBI Ecos. These are $15 pens that are a scorching hot fad in affordable fountain pens. But who is to say that these new pen users and collectors in their early 20s and early 30s won’t get nostalgic for them in another 30 years, when they start looking back on how they got into pen collecting. Who knew those 1970s and ’80s Star Wars action figures and spaceships I played with all the time would now be worth a fortune? If only I hadn’t sold them all in a garage sale at age 12.

In closing, you can make a lot of money by investing in pens if you carefully research what it is you are investing in, know well the market and trends in collecting, buy low and sell high and have an inexpensive way to sell your investments. Good luck!

James Bond’s Montblanc from Octopussy: The Sequel

By on September 20, 2018
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Two years ago we identified the sterling silver Montblanc 146 used in the 1983 James Bond film “Octopussy.” The film starred Roger Moore, Maud Adams and Louis Jordan…and a certain fountain pen that was modified by Q. The pen in the film holds a very potent acid ANNND a secret listening device.

A sterling silver with a barley design Montblanc 146 fountain pen that was used in the movie Octopussy rests on a table.

This is one of two pens used in the James Bond film “Octopussy.” In the movie the pen holds acid and a secret listening device. More recently, this one looks as if it held blue ink.

Among the pen’s other notable features is that it does not have the traditional Montblanc branded black dome with the 6-point star or snowy mountain top at the top of the pen. Montblanc got credit for the pen, it just seemed weird it branded the pen differently for the movie.

As fate would have it, the current owner of that pen read our blog post recently and sent us a photo of the original pen.

Jeremy F. is the pen’s owner, and he said there were two made for the film—his and one that has since gone missing. (Perhaps they shouldn’t have filled a plastic pen with potent acid.)

Jeremy got it from the one-time head of Dunhill, who got it from someone at Montblanc. He has since had it authenticated by Jens Rösler, grandson of Montblanc’s founder.