I've been collecting pens for nearly 7 years.

Always enjoyed the Sheaffer Balance series. Acquired my first "Combo" (pen and pencil in one  writing tool) several years ago. Most combos seem to have been produced using 1929-32'ish parts.

My collection has grown and now provides me with a bit of collector's pride- however healthful or not such an emotion is.

7 Sheaffer combos are shown below.

The first four represent the most typically seen models: early style caps and clips, solid lever bar, short section, monotone nib and flat feed.

Of those first four, the Marine Greem pen (4th pen) is, i believe, the most uncommon color (and the latest color to appear in Combo?). The Jade is mint stickered and perfect. The clean color on the jade and on the black/pearl is tough to find.

The fifth and Sixth pen represent less common "Lifetime" combos with white-dot cap, lifetime nib and goldfill barrel band. I still need to find these in Jade and Black/Pearl, if they were produced in those colors. I do not know.

The last pen at first glance, raised the spectre of "frankenpen". A black combo with later clip, twotone nib, and fatter feed (i don't know the formal name for the non-flat comb feed).   Of course, this shows the danger of assuming that anomalous findings indicate tampering :-)

Nope. I've seen a catalog that shows a late Combo, only in black, with the trim noted above (a 1935 catalog). It seems Sheaffer did make combos later than i'd expected based on earlier observations. Always something new to learn.
 
 

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