Eversharp Sterling Ventura Pen & Pencil Set – New Old Stock – Vintage 1955

Eversharp Sterling Ventura Pen & Pencil Set - New Old Stock - Vintage 1955
Photo Credit: The-Pen-Shop-of-Memphis

Eversharp Sterling Ventura Pen & Pencil Set – New Old Stock – Vintage 1955

Buy It Now Price: $180 (price as of 2016; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This is an Eversharp Slim Ventura fountain pen and mechanical pencil set in sterling silver.  The Slim Ventura model was produced from 1953 to either 1956 or 1957 and was made in the U.S.A.

-Stylistically the Eversharp Slim Ventura has a sleek, streamlined mid-century look with a touch of understated, classic design.

-This set is “new old stock”. New old stock refers to items that were shipped to a store or vendor for retail sale, but were never subsequently sold or used.  In the world of fountain pens and mechanical pencils new old stock is highly desirable because it virtually guarantees pristine condition.

-The set is in as close to perfect condition as you can get.  Not only does the set come in its original red suede case, but the pen and pencil themselves retain their original plastic wrappers and individual price tags!  Both the pen and pencil have no visible wear, dents, dings or other defects.  These features are all consistent with the item’s new old stock designation.

-Then entire body of both the pen & pencil set is solid sterling silver.  In addition, the nib of the pen is solid 14 karat gold.  These upscale luxury materials were only used in pens and pencils of excellent quality.

-This set was high end and expensive when it was new in the mid 1950s.  The retail price for the pair was $25 ($15 for the pen and $10 for the pencil) which, adjusted for inflation, translates into more than $220 in 2016!

-I like the investment potential of fountain pen and pencil sets, especially when they are in excellent condition like this one.  Mechanical pencils, in particular, are rather undervalued in the marketplace today.

-This is a situation where you calmly brandish your credit card in the nice seller’s face while shouting, “Take my money!”  This pristine sterling silver mid-century pen & pencil set will undoubtedly sell for multiples of its current $180 asking price within the next 10 to 20 years.

 

Cons:

-The Eversharp company was in decline by the early 1950s and the Slim Ventura was its final bid to produce a top tier product.  While the Slim Ventura was a fine product line, it was not as iconic as some of the contemporary models released by other pen companies – notably the Parker 51 and the Sheaffer Snorkel.  Eversharp was eventually acquired by one of its chief competitors – the Parker Pen Company – in 1957.

-The seller has stated that the pen and pencil set you receive will be tarnished.  This is to be expected for a silver item that has sat around unused for the last six decades.  The seller has stated that the set shown in the photos was polished in order to be more photogenic.  If you were to buy a set, you could choose to either polish it or leave it in its original, tarnished state, at your discretion.

-Fountain pens have a rubber ink sac that slowly deteriorates over decades, even if the pen isn’t used.  Although this set is new old stock, there is a fair chance that the ink sac will have to be replaced for the pen to function properly.  New leads will also have to be procured for the mechanical pencil to work.

-You will have to decide whether you want this pen and pencil set to strictly be a presentation/investment piece or a functional set.  If you start using the set, even gently, you will undoubtedly lower the resale value slightly compared to leaving it completely unused.

The Halcyon “Shotgun Days” of Antique Investing

The Halcyon "Shotgun Days" of Antique Investing

Investing in antiques is not – to put it politely – considered mainstream at the current time.  Contrary to first impressions however, this state of affairs is actually a good thing.  It allows savvy investors to acquire investment-grade antiques for low – sometimes ridiculously low – prices.  And yet, despite how opportunity laden the field of antique investing might be today, it is nothing compared to the halcyon era of the mid to late 1990s.

The golden age of antique investing was 15 to 20 years ago.  At the time, gold traded at less than a quarter of its current value – around $300 a troy ounce – while silver spent most of its time hovering near $5 a troy ounce.  No one cared about precious metals – or any other tangible investment for that matter – and this complete disinterest translated into phenomenal deals in antique stores.  During this period it was possible to walk into an antique store with only one or two hundred dollars in your pocket and walk out with multiple investment-grade antiques!  These were what I term the “shotgun days” of fine antique investing.  Investment-grade antiques were so ignored and underpriced during this time that a good antique store would have fine, investment-grade antiques strewn everywhere.  If you walked into such a shop and fired an imaginary shotgun randomly, you would always hit something worth buying.

It almost didn’t matter what you bought – sterling silver hollowware, Edwardian jewelry, old gold pocket watches – everything was an investment gem that, at a bare minimum, tripled or quadrupled in value over the next decade or two.  A discerning eye was always useful to help find the true diamonds in the rough.  But even “messing up” and buying a subpar antique didn’t mean you lost money.  It only meant you didn’t make as much as you could have otherwise.

One coin dealer in business at the time confided to me that “When gold was trading at $275 an ounce I couldn’t give gold bullion coins away.  No one wanted them.”  Fine antiques were treated no better than gold bullion; both were shunned in a similar manner.  Antique stores would have mountains of beautiful antique American sterling silver flatware for sale for $10 apiece, if not less!  A highly desirable vintage mechanical chronograph wristwatch might sit abandoned in a dusty pile of junk with a $35 price tag on it.  It was as easy as paying the dealer a pittance and taking your newfound treasure home.  The dealers didn’t care.  They just wanted to move the inventory and pocket their $5, $10 or $20 profit per item.  And so it went.

I instinctively understood just how great the bargains were, but, as a broke college student, a hundred dollars was far more than I usually had in my checking account at any given time.  This was torture for me as I was unable to buy much.  Instead I window shopped and feverishly plotted.  If I had only had two or three thousand dollars I could have assembled an investment portfolio of fine antiques to equal any pharaoh’s hoard.  As frustrating as that experience was for me, it forced me to really ponder the fundamental rules of investing in antiques.  Today you can profit from my hard-won past experience.  Believe me when I say that investment-grade antiques are still incredibly inexpensive, even after tripling or quadrupling in price.

The Bittersweet Goodbye of the Physical Antique Store

The Bittersweet Goodbye of the Physical Antique Store

The decline of physical antique stores in the United States has been brutal and swift.  In the late 1990s – a mere 20 years ago – almost every small town, rural outpost and city neighborhood had one or more quaint antique shops.  But the passing years have not been kind to these noble sentinels of the past.  While there are no hard statistics available, in my experience more than half of all physical antique stores have closed over the last couple of decades.  For example, see my article on The Great Boston Antique Store Massacre.  And these shops are not being replaced.  While there are several different factors behind the trend, it is an undeniable sea change in the industry.

Antique shops’ natural market, Baby Boomers, have begun their long march into the green pastures of retirement.  But a side effect of this situation is that many of the notoriously acquisitive generation are beginning to downsize their living arrangements.  And downsizing translates into selling stuff.  So collectibles, obsolete electronics, old exercise equipment and closets full of outdated clothing are going into Salvation Army donation bins or getting sold off for a few dollars at the local neighborhood garage sale.  And people who are liquidating stuff are not people who are buying stuff, especially not stuff from antique stores.

It is also difficult to overstate the impact that the Great Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 has had on antique stores.  That massive financial dislocation gutted the market for dozens of collectible categories nearly overnight.  Few people today, in the wake of the economic disaster, have the discretionary income to indulge in unnecessary dust catchers anymore.  Before 2008, many collectible categories like glass, figurines, memorabilia, quilts, furniture, etc., used to be longtime mainstays of the antique industry.  But suddenly because of the crisis, antique dealers lost a large part of their regular sales.  And there was no product segment to fill the gap.  Add to that the pressure from continually rising commercial rents and soon many antique dealers found themselves in financial trouble.  Some dealers struggled on for a few years past the initial crash, hoping things would turn around.  But once it became clear that a recovery was not on the horizon, these holdout dealers finally capitulated and went out of business.

The last reason physical antique stores have largely disappeared is due to the rise of the internet.  As the pool of potential buyers has thinned, many antique dealers have migrated online, setting up shops on sites like Etsy, eBay or Ruby Lane.  Online stores have much lower overhead than physical stores, so fewer sales are needed to cover fixed expenses.  There is no rent to pay or sales staff to hire.  In addition, an online antique shop immediately gains access to potential buyers all over the world and can effortlessly consummate sales at any time of the day or night.  These advantages are the final nail in the coffin for physical antique stores, leading many dealers to close their storefronts and switch to selling online exclusively.

While it is obvious that most physical antique stores will be going the way of the dinosaurs, I do not think they will disappear altogether.  I imagine that some antique stores in urban areas with a large enough population density to support them will be able to soldier on, carving out solid niches in their communities.  These survivors will probably cater to the successful professional classes.  I expect they will tend to carry either high-quality, high-priced traditional antiques or funky, vintage upcycled decorative items.  They would be worth visiting, if you can find one and have the money to spare.

I also want to be clear that I do not believe the decline of the collectibles market or physical antique shops implies anything about the future prospects for investment grade antiques.  Yes, people have discovered that they can live happily with much less junk in their lives.  But investment grade antiques are not junk.  They are the best of the best in the antiques market – a highly selective group of dazzling art that drips with style and history.  And they are portable as well, so space is rarely a constraint.  The world of antique stores may be changing forever, but investment grade antiques still have a bright future ahead of them.

1970s 18k Gold Diamond Cufflinks

1970s 18k Gold Diamond Cufflinks
Photo Credit: Oakgem

1970s 18k Gold Diamond Cufflinks

Buy It Now Price: $750 (price as of 2016; item no longer available)

Pros:

-This is a pair of solid 18 karat white gold and diamond vintage cufflinks from the 1970s.  They exhibit a classic modernist look, with textured gold enhancing the small, brilliant cut diamonds in a deceptively simple, yet timeless design.

-The rectangular cufflink faces measure 17 mm (0.67 inches) long by 9 mm (0.35 inches) wide and have beveled edges.  These pieces are fairly heavy for cufflinks, weighing in at a substantial 10.9 grams (0.35 troy ounces).

-The goldwork on these cufflinks is good, clean work.  There are no metal burrs or pitting indicating subpar quality.  This is most evident when examining the reverse of the cufflinks.

-The cufflinks are set with 6 brilliant cut, white diamonds of equal size.  Although the measurements of the diamonds are not disclosed by the seller, we can infer the weight of the stones using the overall measurements of the cufflinks.  Using this method the diamonds conservatively weigh an estimated 5 points each or 0.30 carats total weight.

-At the current gold spot price of $1,260 per troy ounce, these vintage cufflinks contain about $330 in gold.  Diamond melee (small diamonds) are much harder to price, but a low-ball figure would be $250 per carat, assuming they are at least medium quality stones.  This gives a total diamond value of very, very roughly $75 (0.30 carats x $250 per carat).  Adding both gold and diamonds together, the intrinsic value of the cufflinks is probably $400 or slightly higher.

-An intrinsic value of $400 gives a solid floor under the value of the cufflinks, representing 53.3% of the selling price.  In my opinion, the cufflink’s high intrinsic value relative to the selling price, coupled with their unmistakably high quality construction, makes the $750 asking price fair.

 

Cons:

-The seller has provided no close up photos of the cufflink’s hallmarks.  This makes it impossible to verify that the pieces are marked as 18 karat gold.  Of course, there is no particular reason to disbelieve the seller’s assertion either.

-The seller gives no measurements or weight estimates of the diamonds contained in the piece.  There aren’t any close up photos of the diamonds either, so the quality of the stones is very difficult to judge as well.  However, it would be very unusual for vintage cufflinks of this quality to be set with poor quality diamonds.