More than a little excited...

I bid on an unidentified vintage Parker button fill pen earlier this week.  It got here today, and I took a good, close look at the pen.  I thought I'd identified it as a Parker Challenger, or maybe a lady's duofold, based on the seller's pictures. 

That...was wrong.  Both have an imprint of the model name, and what I got only had the Parker name imprinted on the barrel.  So, not a Challenger or a Duofold.  That meant I had no idea what I'd bought.  So, I got on some forums (fora?) and did some research to figure out what I bought.  Boy howdy, did I figure it out.

What I actually have is better.  What I have is a Depression Time, also known as a Thrift Time.  It was very similar to both the Duofold and the slim Challengers, but was missing the imprint of the brand name.  Or a name imprinted on the nib, like the Duofolds often had. 

And what I have seems to be a bit rarer.

A lady's duofold would be worth around $90 to $120; a Challenger Deluxe (like what I thought it was) would be worth $120-$150.  My Thrift Time Parker?  I've seen them going on ebay for $200.  Or more. 

They are a little uncommon, to say the least.  And mine is in very good shape. 

But doing the research and figuring out exactly what model I have was an incredible lot of fun.