The Sacrificial Bids

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There was an amazing series of online auctions of weird Sheaffer pencils recently . . . the last of them to close was for a real gem, and I knew who my likely competition would be.  A bit of strategy was in order.

Since several of the lots leading up to the grand finale were along the same lines, I decided to put in some moderately low bids on the earlier lots – low enough to lose at a reasonable price, hoping to lure my competition into a false sense of security as I lost one after another that I wasn’t really serious about parting with the cash it would take to win the big one at the end. 

It was purely a head game. Did it work?  Well, I won the finale . . . and wondering how much more I would have had to pay if I didn’t is another case of If Dog Rabbit (if that phrase confuses you, try https://leadheadpencils.blogspot.com/2014/11/if-dog-rabbit.html).

And, unintentionally, I won three of these items with sacrificially low bids:

In all fairness, I probably would have bid on these even if they weren’t pawns in a larger game, and without my eye on the prize I probably would have bid more than I did.  All three are Sheaffer Balance pencils with wide jewelers’ bands – none too common.  The top one was in a size and color I didn’t have; the same went for the lower one, although what the seller thought was a deep scratch circling the lower barrel turned out to be a crack (this material for some reason is the most prone to deterioration).  As shown, it wears a fresh barrel from my parts bins in much better condition.

The middle example, though, has a curious detail in which I was keenly interested to have a closer look, even though it is identical to one already in my collection:

The seller had noted that the clip is a little bit odd – faceted and drawn to a point, like an Eversharp Coronet clip.  You can see it in this picture.  Was this some weird Sheaffer experiment?  On closer examination, I doubt it:

It looks more like someone has taken the time to file the sides of the clip down - you can see where the gold fill has been cut through, and you can even see tiny holes on the sides where the metal forming the ball of the clip has been folded over and formed.

The vintage of this Sheaffer is consistent with the Eversharp Coronet – maybe some random jeweler or owner thought it would be cool to see how it would look with more of a Coronetty look.

But note the initials on the band . . . L.P.S., with a more stylized “S” that looks a lot like the same letter as it is presented in the Sheaffer logo.  Was there someone in the Sheaffer family with those initials?

It’s fantasy and a longshot.  But kind of fun to think about.