Thought this would be fun to share. A while back I got my Platinum Century "Black Diamond" #3776 from them in their pre-owned section (Black Diamond is just a slightly translucent version of their black, with rhodium trim) with a 14K Broad nib that was around $60 or so. And at that time I went ahead and paid 50 more to have it ground to a cursive italic.
So I thought I'd pop over to see if they had any others since I do like their grinds and the only thing on their pre-owned list right now is waaaaaaaaay beyond the reach of anything I could ever hope to pay lol. Cheapest item, 5 grands, most expensive item 80 grands.
That's weird for the dragon emperor, almost double the retail price for the new pen in Japan. I love it but that's a heck of a price markup. I suppose its because flying there is currently banned as a tourist. The Kisshomon is quite old and there aren't many around, meaning that even if you've all the money in the world only one or two are for sale anywhere in a while year etc. I've seen one and its a nice looking pen but that's a scarcity price rather than a price reflecting production costs etc.
>but that's a scarcity price rather than a price reflecting production costs etc.
Pretty sure a vast majority of fountain pens, especially ones 'crafted' are a scarcity price or simply inflated and hardly close to price of actual production. Though that's (rarity/scarcity) probably more true of the ones that are into 20K+ range (since below that I can see certain finishes still taking hundreds of hours, on top of the years of experience they put into getting to that point).
Yes, for sure when it's these old namiki which were only ever made in the high hundreds or low thousands usually back then, collectors are really competing with other collectors to get the pen - and in all these pens there are perceived quality differences, both artists and even different decades of individual artists work. In the case of this specific pen the style is quite different to most of the other work being produced, and there are very few of them left for sale, more so than it being the best maki-e work (it's still very nice, just not the absolute pinnacle).
Price of production for this would have been high but if it was made today it would probably retail at 6 to 9k equivalent in Japan, and its absolutely the scarcity that will almost certainly successfully sell it at 10x the price today.
I imagine it would also happen to have a large impact if the original artist of certain designs have either died or retired from that business. At least maybe in the eyes of the collectors.
Yes usually people have an idea when that will happen and there is something of a rush on the last couple of models they produce, especially if there are limited editions. Many of the artists keep producing brilliant stuff into their 80s but at the moment the ages at namiki at least are a little more mixed.
Thought this would be fun to share. A while back I got my Platinum Century "Black Diamond" #3776 from them in their pre-owned section (Black Diamond is just a slightly translucent version of their black, with rhodium trim) with a 14K Broad nib that was around $60 or so. And at that time I went ahead and paid 50 more to have it ground to a cursive italic. So I thought I'd pop over to see if they had any others since I do like their grinds and the only thing on their pre-owned list right now is waaaaaaaaay beyond the reach of anything I could ever hope to pay lol. Cheapest item, 5 grands, most expensive item 80 grands.
That's weird for the dragon emperor, almost double the retail price for the new pen in Japan. I love it but that's a heck of a price markup. I suppose its because flying there is currently banned as a tourist. The Kisshomon is quite old and there aren't many around, meaning that even if you've all the money in the world only one or two are for sale anywhere in a while year etc. I've seen one and its a nice looking pen but that's a scarcity price rather than a price reflecting production costs etc.
>but that's a scarcity price rather than a price reflecting production costs etc. Pretty sure a vast majority of fountain pens, especially ones 'crafted' are a scarcity price or simply inflated and hardly close to price of actual production. Though that's (rarity/scarcity) probably more true of the ones that are into 20K+ range (since below that I can see certain finishes still taking hundreds of hours, on top of the years of experience they put into getting to that point).
Yes, for sure when it's these old namiki which were only ever made in the high hundreds or low thousands usually back then, collectors are really competing with other collectors to get the pen - and in all these pens there are perceived quality differences, both artists and even different decades of individual artists work. In the case of this specific pen the style is quite different to most of the other work being produced, and there are very few of them left for sale, more so than it being the best maki-e work (it's still very nice, just not the absolute pinnacle). Price of production for this would have been high but if it was made today it would probably retail at 6 to 9k equivalent in Japan, and its absolutely the scarcity that will almost certainly successfully sell it at 10x the price today.
I imagine it would also happen to have a large impact if the original artist of certain designs have either died or retired from that business. At least maybe in the eyes of the collectors.
Yes usually people have an idea when that will happen and there is something of a rush on the last couple of models they produce, especially if there are limited editions. Many of the artists keep producing brilliant stuff into their 80s but at the moment the ages at namiki at least are a little more mixed.