Most experienced collectors are happy to help newcomers identify old pens. A good description, however, is essential, so make sure you provide the following information:
Note that there is no standard grading scale for vintage pens. Terms such as "good", "very good", and "excellent" will mean very different things depending on who is using them. Every catalog and price guide that describes condition will therefore include a list of descriptive terms, which should be studied carefully. Experience will teach you which dealers are most apt to grade high and which to grade low.
Pictures can be a great help in identifying old pens, but before you start sending them, consider that email messages with large unsolicited attachments will often be filtered out or discarded unread. The best procedure is to crop your pictures to cut out superfluous background space, resample them so that they are not excessive in size (20K should provide a very detailed .jpg indeed), and then upload them to your own personal website (widely available gratis through your ISP). The URL of the images can then be sent along with your inquiry.
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