The price quoted by the manufacturer is a recommendation and nothing more; what a pen actually sells for is the dealer's decision. It is therefore not unusual for specialist shops, and even Montblanc boutiques, to offer long-standing stock well above or well below that recommendation. Prices run above it above all for sold-out Limited and Special Editions that are traded as collector's pieces: a Frankfurt shop had a Writers Edition Proust ballpoint ticketed at 1,000 euros in 2006. They run just as far below it when remaining stock is cleared; the last pieces of the Jungle Eye Collection in the Hamburg boutique were reduced by 60 per cent at the time.
Dealers are equally free to part with items of their shop fittings, such as the duplicate inkwell sets properly intended for display on the premises; one such set was offered for 295 euros in 2006. For buyers the message is this: a price above the recommendation says nothing about authenticity, age or quality, only something about how the dealer reads demand. With editions that are out of production it is worth checking current collector's prices; with current stock, the valid price list.