I had no idea my thread would re-start the Great Inquisition over crushed ice vs. cracked ice. Personally, crushed ice sounds better to me. When I hear "cracked" associated with a fountain pen, the first thing that comes to mind is a nasty barrel or cap crack, not the description of a pen's color.

I'll try to pick 3 or 4 different Esterbrook Dollar pens every single year until I have all the colors/varieties, then probably move to the J-Series pens.

Keep in mind, Dollars came in three sizes and six colors...18 pens for a full set. But then three different clip treatments.

Total of 54 pens.

At four pens per year...well you do the arithmetic, but you're going to be at this for a while.

The reason for their higher price is that there are fewer of them. They are older than J's, made for a shorter period of time, and the plastic
(particularly for the Brown color) is more fragile than the J series...tends to get brittle and crack easily.

More.

There is a rational reason why J's have a solid clip. Dollar clips were easily sprung/broken. Hence fewer of them in good condition.

If you want to get ahead of the curve, chase $1.50 Cracked Ice pens. They're already at $400plus, and only headed north.

Good luck

Thanks for putting it into perspective. I think for now I'll just get one of each color, and move to the J-Series. I'll worry about the complete sets of different clip treatments later over time. And yes, 3 or 4 is a low ball figure. Knowing me, I would not be surprised if I ended up acquiring 6-8 Esterbrook pens a year. At least that's how many Pelikans I was purchasing a year when I got the Pelikan collector bug.

My first modern fountain pen was a Monteverde Regatta. It was a beautiful pen, but it weighted more than a pregnant moose cow. When the cap was posted, the pen's balance was so terrible that I thought it would tip over and take my arm along with it. Writing more than 3 pages with was worse that a torture session in a medieval rack machine. My shoulder was so badly out of shape after any significant period of writing that I started to prefer amputation to writing with a fountain pen. I almost gave up on fountain pens because of this pen.

Thankfully I discovered Pelikan, and that saved my love affair with fountain pens. Pelikans are some of the best "classical modern" pens in the marketplace. You get a modern pen with most of the qualities that make a vintage pen great. Discovering vintage pens has also helped tremendously.

PS: At least the Monteverde Regatta has one redeeming feature. If you are ever playing baseball with a group of friends, and your bat snaps in half, the Monteverde Regatta makes a nice substitute.

Well David, I suppose I'm going to have to be the pioneer to start putting more information about these beauties online, and getting people to take a second look at these nice pieces of Esterbrook history. I'll make sure to let you know what I think of them, and I'll take some time to give these pens a proper review. I have no prior experience with Esterbook, but I have decided to collect as many Esterbrooks as I can while the prices are still good. Something tells me if I don't start to snap these beauties off the market now, 20 years from now I'll be kicking myself for not getting them while they were cheaper and more abundant. I'll try to pick 3 or 4 different Esterbrook Dollar pens every single year until I have all the colors/varieties, then probably move to the J-Series pens.

Hello, I am new to this forum, but not new to fountain pens. I just purchased two Esterbrook Dollar pens from Dr. Isaacson, and I was wondering why Dollar pens don't seem to be as sought after as the J-Series or other Esterbrook pens? I was searching Esterbrook online and there is literally a million things on the different types of J-Series, but not a lot on the Dollar Pens. I don't understand, because they look pretty and seem to carry more history than the J-Series. Does anyone else here collect Dollar pens? If so, can you give me a hint of what to expect when I receive my two Dollar pens?