For Sale Estate Collection - Vintage Penn Reels, dozens and dozens

Well, you know when I bust open the closet, all kinds of things fall out!
So it has taken days, just to inventory this collection, and days more to photograph it.

I will do my best to load the photos and pricing together, I 'm having trouble with file transfer between my devices.

But basically there's every thing from a #9/0 Shark Killer, thru the classic #6/0s and #4/0, down to fresh water Level Winds like the Leveline 350, 350M, 310, 209, and so forth.

Something for everyone!

But truthfully I would love to box them up, six at a time!

The Senator #1/0 is just the most jewel like device.
These are all Made In America, which was my original motivation, along with my own father's death in building this collection of over 100 reels!

Thanks for looking.

Penn #9/0 Made in USA $150 OBO
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Let me see what's next ....then I will edit in the text......

Penn #6/0 Quantity = Five $110 each OBO
If you take four, for all the way across the rod holders, we will deal!

Oh all prices do NOT include shipping, I will weigh the box and USPS at cost.
You guys know I am a straight shooter!!

 

Penn Squidders, a very versatile reel, huge line capacity for a unit not much larger than an Ambassador 5000
You can tell I love them, I have seven!

Now that Anniversary Box, I guess I was tricked, because the reel in it is new enough to have a "modern" handle.
Not sure when that anniversary of Penn Reels occurred, I will check that out.......

As you look down the row, I think the ivory torpedo handles are oldest.'
The red and green handles the reels are in better shape.

Generally these are all 9/10 condition.
If there's corrosion (like on the #9/0 if you zoom in) I will certainly try to note it in the post.

Penn Squidder, Quantity = 7, let's say $50 each OBO
Made in USA

I have one Baby Squidder, (narrow) and it's so close to the Senator #1/0, I think I will keep it!!

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Some of the black Squidders have a "Scenic Plate", that's kind of a cool feature, and I also am unsure when Penn ceased to produce them.
If that matters, be sure to specify..

As you also see the two standard colors were red, or black.
You sometimes see other colors in Penn reels, green, maybe grey....but they get crazy expensive!

To my knowledge these were all honest, working reels, when I obtained them.
The finest ones came stored in a purple Crown Royal whiskey bag, I recall three from down the coast in Texas, three Senators, three bags.
You felt you were getting Grand Dad's stash when I received a box like that.

I have one purple bag out of the first three Igloo coolers I have counted....I put a #4/0 in it after cleaning and oiling.
All these reels I have oiled and checked for function and in storage I backed off the Star Wheel drag, to unload the friction plates.

 

brb.... (channeling Zupra) I gotta get some more pricing, and check a few facts.

If any one is looking for something in particular, shout out I can jump ahead.
I have every size of the Long Beach series, a Delmar, and a large quantity of the Super Mariner #49.

The #49 was a "go to" for East Coast tuna apparently, I had one come in rigged in WIRE, not nylon or monofilament.
That guy was serious!
I'm still hanging pictures with it, years later

At the end, I will post all the level winds.
I consider those "in shore" or Bay reels, but the larger ones I know are popular on the Great Lakes.

 

Morning all, ..........9/11...brings back memories and emotions.
God Bless America

The 25th Anniversary of Penn reels was in 1957, to date that box, and apparently there was no revision to the reel itself.
That box sticker DID find it's way onto other models, apparently but I DID find the comment:
"The Squidder is the proper reel, to be marked as '25th Anniversary'....

So as the reel in box has a modern handle I would change that for any of the colored Torpedo handles you wish!!!

Forwarding the math, the 50th Anniversary was 1982.
The 75th Anniversary of Penn Reels was in 2007

Onward thru the fog......

 

.....350M Leveline.

Two in box, one without. Total = 3
$80 Each OBO

This is a cool little piece, there's a gear driven "Travel Bar" instead of a loop bail, to guide the line back on, in an orderly manner.
Although one box is marked 350, one is marked 350M, for Metal spool, all three are metal spool in fact all three are in 9/10 condition.
Only the end plates show aging on the surface, no cracks.

Introduced in Catalog #18 (1955), it ran in production thru Catalog #36 (1976).

The "Lighthouse Box" label is indicative of the 1950s as it changed to a later design (you will see in other posts) in 1960
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I love that Hot Pink monofilament, it may find it's way onto one of my "keepers".
You can go find your own!!!

 

...hmmmmm....brb, let me gather my descriptions with the photos.
Thanks for looking....
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Oh man, I'm just cracking my knuckles, and getting started!!

What's your fishing environment?
I'm loading these in the order photographed, so the wire bail Level Winds, like a Monofil, the Peerless #9, which became the #209, and then updated itself to the #210, all are ball bearing reels. I am only slowed by the effort of finding some pricing guidelines, and then sorting out what I did as I shot the pictures.

The sweet Peerless No. 9 I would equate to the Ambassador 5000, and it has a nylon reel, not metal, yet it has the vintage torpedo handle.
I'm not going to date them except under generalities, as there's no Date Codes to my knowledge only guidance by years produced.

Even as I rebuild my boat for inshore and light offshore trolling, I only have six rod barrels.
That's two #6/0s, four #4/0s, and a couple of heavy spinning reels, tucked in, in case we catch sailfish sleeping on the surface!!

The rest were just "entertainment by shopping" I suppose, and the fact they were Made in USA, until they were not.
I don't think I have any not Made in USA

At one point the widow of the Founder of the company passed away, and SHE had all of the Special Colors, etc.
That's where most of these Mint in Box, from the '50s came from.

The special colors were nuts in pricing, among collectors.
I was just buying to go fish, and you know.....lost track of my inventory.


I have a #12/0 on a tree trunk of a rod, all roller bearing, that would handle a Marlin Grander! (1000#)

I've similarly mounted on new rods, the 4 - #6/0, 4 #4/0, 4 - #49 Super Mariner....so the rest can "return to world".

 

Penn Peerless No. 9, in 1955 it held FOUR championship categories, for fresh water fish species.

Only one on hand, red, $40 OBO
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Penn #210
Qty. = 4
All in great condition.
$90 each OBO, package purchase in quantity cheerfully accepted!
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Penn #209
Versatile inshore salt water reel, one of Penn's top sellers by volume.

Qty. = 4 Modern Handle $70 OBO
Qty. = 4 Black vintage torpedo handle $100 OBO
Qty. = 2 Red, Metal spool and torpedo handle $100 OBO

Obviously I like these a LOT!

 

Penn Monofil No. 25

Qty. = 1 Red 8/10 shape, no pitting of chrome, no cracks
$50 OBO

For example there's one of these on eBay today, in the rare Grey color, $150USD!!!
Grey and green Penns are just nuts, in the market.

Hmmm...maybe no picture.

I've got to shake out the Long Beach today, the Long Beach series was kind of a economy Senator.
Less chrome, but no less line capacity or quality of gearbox.

I'm assuming it made it's namesake worthy. dragging monsters from the Pacific Ocean.

 

Well, as a friend has once said: "You have collections of collections!!!

I think that's the compulsive side in all of us, maybe. This is MY Estate Sale, you see.......my father was an avid fisherman, starting in Baton Rouge, LA...at LSU after WW2. (See where the Hooters Girl in Denham Springs fits into the narrative... )...a favorite photo of him is a B&W photo of huge stringer of bass, between he and my "Uncle Jeff"...I've long had it on my "To Do List" to enlarge it to frame, it's stuck in my Bible...

Now he pursued the sport, in a modest way, we car camped in the summers along the banks of New Mexico and Colorado creeks as he hauled in rainbow trout, for breakfast! In fact, on his death bed, I apologized for "Losing my sister......." I was five and she was three. I returned to camp from a hike without her (there's a head strong streak, that runs in the women in the family too!) and he had to head off to search for her, where he found her a few camp sites up, eating THEIR rainbow trout for breakfast! But imagine a parents terror, and although that was simpler times, she could have fallen and drowned, or maybe a more sinister end.....

"That was one of the scarier days in my life" he replied..and he was in WW2.
But I was glad death moved slow enough, for he and I to exchange that....

Another fishing tale he told was how he convinced my mom, that fishing was an "inexpensive sport" as "all it took was a rod, reel and three lures....so for years he would open the hydro formed aluminum tackle box, pick out a plug, and say: "But,.......this was the fourth lure!!" and laugh. He fished salt water as well but only inshore, the Galveston Bay complex, and local Texas waters. Although there were legends of beach parties, before I was born in '58, and I DID find a ukulele in the top of the closet after his passing, maybe some Surf fishing also occurred.....

My Uncle Charlie (from Canton Mississippi) was an avid fly fisherman as well, with income to really support that hobby, to the point it was mentioned in his obituary.

 

No room, with the model Ferraris and my racing trophies!!!!

I actually have rigged ALL the rods I could afford, and this is the "overflow"....

 

So, my father passed away (on my birthday!!) over twenty years ago.......and his collection of gear was put away.
My sister purloined a green Ambassador 5000 and rod, for her son....my nephew also lost the aluminum Dutch Oven from his Scouting gear, (Woodbadge training, Silver Beaver award) in the forest during college.

So mom (as she does) had a fixed Idea in her mind (as she does) that one Holiday when my brother and sister were all together, we would have to "split the pie" into three equal pieces...she's a retired Math teacher, geometry, among other subjects. See how this is natural to her thinking. So, after one family Thanksgiving the fateful moment arrived, and the treasure came out, dumped out on the bed, and we picked one item each, in turn. My older brother went first...seniority.

And, there went the aluminum tackle box!!!

I might add that my brother is a banker, and maybe fishes in his cattle stock pond.. His step son (no relation) does enjoy fishing though.....
My sister, PE in Chemical Engineering (like Dad!) kayaks on Galveston Bay from her waterfront home, but loves nature so much I don't even think she would hassle to catch a fish, much less clean it and eat it. The green reel was in her garage last I saw it...

So the game went on, 'round and 'round the bedspread, into the three piles, until my brother bored (and with the major prize) folded his place at the table and went back for more ice cream....but my sister and I played it to the end, and I'm SURE there's some vintage lures in there (starting in '47 as it did) but truthfully most of the effective bass plugs have long entered permanent production and you can get them at Academy today. Now one of the earmarks of a vintage plug is the material (wood) and if it was spray painted thru panty hose (to make the scale pattern) perhaps you should not risk hanging it up on a sunken stump, and losing it.

So, at the very end....my father's humor (and perhaps his Spirit) joined us in the room...my really smart, and very talented sister (plays five instruments including the very challenging oboe)..picked up one of the last lures. and it looked rather like a white domino, for lack of a better description, rigged with treble hooks, but totally unlike any fish species,....really just a white rectangle.....turnng it over and over, even her technical background could not figure it out....she handed it to me.

Without missing a beat, I turned it over, right side up........
"Look, its the Kitchen Sink!!"


..and we laughed together, as that was Dad's wry sense of humor, thru and thru...
I'm rather sorry my brother missed that moment, but.....so it goes...

 

...anyway, none of Dad's reels are in here.
This collection is my whiplash emotional shopping response, to the story told above.

I decided I would never be short on tackle again!
My former BIL runs out of Tavernier, Key Largo, FL.

I hope some of the Florida Section will see this ad and get this back out after tarpon, kingfish, and tuna.

We have all those off Texas, of course, but most Charters you don't even need the tackle.
Just the beer, and NO bananas!!!!

 

Penn Peer 309 Red
HUGE Level wind reel!
Mint condition, it stands out even among the huge pile on the floor.
Qty = 1 $80 OBO
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Next up, the Journeyman's choice, the Penn Long Beach Series.
The sizes in the Long Beach rather parallel the Senator series, but with a simpler construction.
Sizes on hand here start with the Model 50, and run up the the huge Model 68.
At that point you are packing as much line as say a #6/0, and it would take a Hammerhead Shark to strip all that before you turned him back ,your way.....

I have two surf rods loose in the corner to add in and aa set of three or four Long Beach sizes and a rod and you could wade in a drag out almost anything.
Anything you would want to meet in the surf, anyway...

As you see I'm a fan.....would be great off the 61st Street Pier, in Galveston.
brb ...gonna take a ride before the day slips away.....
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Qty = 8, on the Long Beach Model 65!!
Qty. = 4, on the Model 60

 

The Long Beach series ran from 1941, thru 1999. before being discontinued.

A Long Beach #65 would hold 350 yards of 30# mono
Qty = 8 Made in USA
Price is $130 each OBO, that's the price guidance for one, with a Scenic Plate.
Not all eight of those are...talk to me!!

I will also add these photos are unwrapped in a hurry to build this ad.
It only takes a few seconds with Fine Polish and some oil to make any of these "as new"
If there's one with corrosion I will certainly note it and discount, as I tried to only procure quality specimens.