Newbie here again, I don't wanna break any rules, we’re not supposed to post active ebay ads but this item sold, we can chime in now? $338 US wow. so much can be said just about that. Was it a CCS member? if not he/she may wanna join? but about the ebay123 stove: Vintage Svea 123 Swedish Safety Stove Original Box with Key cleaner, TECHNICALLY ... ...YEARS ago exeter_yak, Doug, posted SVEA123 Research Project prelim, requesting pics and DATED info. That post has been the best i've seen. So are these 123 details to a stovie like a fishin honey-hole is to fisherman? You want to find out the details but once u know it u don't wanna let the secrets out? His post was great but so long ago and no updates, not that I’ve been able to find anyway? This recent ebay sale of Sievert SVEA123 (compared along w/Dutchmike's 123 for example) and accompaning pics w/sale (the windscreen had SVEA on it btw) this sale/pics may help fill in the blanks, a sm pc maybe of Doug’s research. In his post Doug was requesting we members help fill-in-the-blanks if we could. I’m curious Is there date or mo/yr Optimus took over? It was btwn 69 & 70 in Doug’s post. I’m curious does anyone know if Optimus made any changes after takeover that identifies stoves (pre-69 stoves vs 70-74 stoves)? Is it just me or would it help to seperate the 123 details from the 123R? That would be 74-ish. Is it correct to assume any 123 w/valve at 90 degrees to the vaporizor stem is 74 or newer? The keychain used on the newest SVEA123R’s has been around a LONG time. The (easily swapped) chain came along, the year was X, X is what? Before that there were different types but all those would be before X. Before I ask about different caps, the vintage 123 Stoves are 20? - over 55 yrs old now, identifying them by swappable-parts: *burner-spreader, *cap, *key - chain, *windscreen, *box has it's shortcomings. Doug’s research is FAR above my pay-grade and me, not-so smart, at the risk of stating the obvious, I’d wanna mention: a collector that has a 123 "AS FOUND", rather than noting 1 part... ONE PIC can note/show a combination of *parts, the combination increases a likelyhood of dating a stove.. and at that, it's a best guess. Pics of combined parts may also reveal a not-original combination. So yes caps: wow, there were diagrams of 3 caps and mention of 6 caps (then the slotted cap(s) came up). Re these 6 or more caps, would caps that attach to pump be even more caps? About splitting 123 and 123R can the caps be divided that way? Could orig 123 caps just be laid out in-order? It can’t be that simple can it? At some point dates can be added but is there a known sequence oldest to newest? 123 and 123R? Vaporizors 123 non-R, some have fins, yes? Is there an oldest to newest sequence there as well? (are valves same, or?) Doug requested help of our members, wanting fill-in-the-blanks dates, dated pics and more. If I saw answers to his questions of MANY years ago I don’t think I’d have any questions. So who knows what? 338 bucks, wow, all 4 now
Morning, Old Man Coleman, You have asked a ton of good questions, but all of them can be easily answered by spending a good bit of time in the Stove Gallery, and the Reference Library. The problem in trying to answer all your current questions, willy nilly, is that I just read them, and even now cannot recall, exactly and in detail, what all of them were!!! So, my suggestion to you is to spend time doing some deep research here at CCS. Start with ONE question, and see if you can find the answer, yourself, through viewing photos, and even more importantly, Catalogs, instruction sheets, and other information that is offered here at CCS. To assemble a complete compendium of "what parts go with what stove and when they were made, and by whom", is something that many of us Old Timers could probably accomplish. BUT, that would take a huge amount of time, and since the answers are already fairly easy to find in the materials already posted here at CCS, which, by the way, took Ross and our Mods and other Posters a huge amount of time to do, doing all that work again seems rather pointless, at least to me. Your assignment for today is to read every catalog in the Reference Section, beginning with SVEA (Sievert), then moving to Optimus. To make sure you see everything you need to see, please begin around 1950, or a bit earlier, and read everything up to, and including any current offerings. Once you have completed this task, you will then know the answers to all the questions you asked. Are you up for the assignment?? 8) Be ready to learn tons of great information, and I guarantee that you will do so!! 8) Have fun, good luck, and let us know how you make out. God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc P.S. The Sievert version of the SVEA 123 is the oldest, and I would say, BEST of all the versions that came after it. When Sievert sold off their company to Optimus, changes were made for several reasons, ease of manufacture, cost, etc., and the SVEA, though still a good stove, began to lose some of what made it a flat-out fantastic stove when it was made as originally designed and intended. Fast forward to today's version, which is made in the Orient: I will not buy one. Thin materials, less then good manufacturing, and more troubles than any other SVEA 123 stove. For those that want the best of what the little SVEA 123 was originally designed to do, they are prepared to pay a great deal for them and they seek out and buy the Sievert SVEA 123! I have two of the early ones, and lots of others! For many of us here at CCS, the later versions are still good enough to deserve our love, respect, and attention, up to, but NOT including the current Chinese version, IMHO. Hope that answers at least a few of your myriad questions. But, if you do as I have assigned, all the other questions WILL soon be answered, too!
Here .. Link ... I asked a few questions on dating a SVEA and got some answers and then answers changed as time went on. So, don't stop early, there are several mistakes I made along the way. There are some links, in the posts, to some of Doug's posts with answers, too. I met Doug several times this year. He is an amazing man, and a fine gentleman. Ken in NC
[[Thx Doug !! ]] Thx Doc, Thx Ken Ken gave a link, nice pic and brings up the rizer, I like the pic and that rizer approach as well and then his link leads to Doug’s post. I can dig anywhere a search leads, here, being provided direction or links is certainly a preference vs a member recalling / re-writing details. I AM NOT wanting anyone spend a great deal of time & effort on my part “to assemble a compendium” BUT if concise info is available I’d like to find it. I’m not hearing the 123 info IS available, I can dig and like Ken’s post end up at Doug’s old so-very-well-done, please fill in the blanks post, which may remain the best most concise to-date, sounds possible to me at this point. (I’m then back where I started?). My post wasn’t greatest, I’m more challenged than most putting thoughts out here, sorry. The topic "info is easy to find on this site" repeats often, i cherish site and memeber input, there is nothing better and i'm shootin myself in the foot here but count me among those to say... not. Not easy to find info. Doc u left it open, sorry. I posted this to let members know about the sale, to me, for good or bad, it was noteworthy and, I thought, informational. A price that Doc seemed none surprised. The buyer was high or that price has gotta be high, or both, no? I also suggested that going fwd, for informational value, ONE 123 pic include vaporizor, cap, chain, key & bowl-spreader. Ken’s pic does that and if his spreader is not etched we see all we can see, together, as-found, in 1 pic. Q. OP: Collectors find out the [SVEA123] details but once known may want to keep it to themselves? A. What I’m implying certainly is true (or not true) but it’s case-by-case so I shouldn’t have asked this in-general. scratch that. Maybe it’s the Gorilla in the room, I dunno but I now hear some of the fill-in-the-blanks are on the site. Good. I had been thru the stove gallery but admittedly need to better familiarize myself w/reference library. Some SVEA123 items I RE-brought-up were dating or putting in-sequence: chain, vaporizor (valve), caps… Your comment “all of them (questions) can be easily answered [here]" … I’m not seeing that. I gotta work, I LOVE the info but have limited time. My initial look at catalogues (assignment1 oy yoy), 1st SVEA123 is a 55, I viewed the 6 Sievert catalogues post-55. What did I learn: I hadn’t inquired myself about keys BUT I did notice there-in for those that commonly say triangle key is 123R. The 60, 61 key is triangle shaped. The 59 is not. The 62 I dunno. I inquired about Year X for a chain: What year? did the current style 123R chain come out? The catalogue look-see shows in 61 it was not yet in-use. (year X is... drum-roll, hellifiknow) As for Vaporizor or caps (windscreens) so far nothing more for me from the catalogues. A sequence oldest to newest of vaporizers alongside the cooresponding caps makes sense to me? By the way along Doug’s cap approach, pretty straight forward here, ARE THERE pics or drawings of caps in-sequence oldest to newest? IF it’s like a secret fishin spot, then it is what it is. If they are “needles in a haystack” OR as you imply, easy to answer, I’m not sure why the need for me or anyone to RE-hunt it down? A flipside being, IF such info is compiled, is putting it out and easy to find the best thing for collectors worldwide? in-part that answer is also above my pay grade (trade secrets, would many say “damn, now what he go and do that for!) All 4now, mark PS posting does not come as easy for me as it is for many, many GREAT posts BTW, the best thing is if this post takes off, run w/it, but I apologize in-advance if as OP I don’t keep up. thx
Greetings, All, I wanted to add a few additional comments to what I posted before. Regarding the seller of the Sievert SVEA 123 stove in question: Is he trustworthy? Absolutely! Is he honest? Absolutely! Does he know his stuff? Absolutely! Are his offerings worth their prices? Absolutely! At least they are to ME! Others seem to think the same thing, as we, the buyers, set the prices, and not him!!! For what it's worth, I've known the seller, through correspondence, for a very long time. I've bought some fine goodies from him, including my very best Sievert SVEA 123 stove. I've always appreciated the quality of the goodies he offers for sale, and can easily see why they sometimes fetch some fairly high prices!! Worth every penny, IMHO!!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc P.S. In "the old days", we saved our money for what we wanted, and then paid whatever it cost to purchase the very best we could afford to have. Nice to see that, at least for some folks, that way of doing things is still the proper way!! HUZZAH!! 8)
OMC, I am somewhat at a loss to understand why you think information is not easy to find here at CCS. Why do you think it's hard to find info? Did you do as I asked, and read all the catalogs from Sievert and Optimus? If so, you would easily have found your answers. Seems VERY easy, not to mention very interesting stuff!!! Again, why is doing it that way hard for you, Sir? God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc (who learned what he knows by doing exactly as he has suggested to you, and through 40 years of reading, doing, and learning more!!)
doc apparently i was in err thinking price was high. it seemed high, not common-place on ebay, i conceed the price point to your experience, good, good, good. all-good then. i read the sievert 55-on catalogues, and gotta work too, i ASSumed (so my bad) my pre 1970 info would be in Sievert. Optimus next up, etc, i rubbed u the wrong way sorry but it's said often both easy to find and others say not, as newbie i maybe should have reserved comment on that cuz for the most part, being new, would be why finding stuff on a site i'm not yet familiar with is not as easy as it is for u for example, maybe that's all it is. i dunno 1 Q my 1 Q was straight forward, i look fwd to finding depiction of caps (vaporizers) in-sequence. Sincere apology as well, i DO cherish experience here-in and yourself, heck, a lion-share of the credit to you directly! best regards i am out til morrow
Hi, All, Well, I made a bit of a mistake in my glowing testimonial for the SVEA seller! I thought the seller in question deals as acme.auctions on eBay. After talking to him, however, it turns out the SVEA in question was sold by someone else!! So, to set the record straight, I have NO idea who the sold the stove in question, but fully stand behind every single thing I wrote about the acme.auctions seller!!! Please post a link to the recently sold Sievert stove, and I'll see if I know that seller. No matter, though, as the seller at acme is the best of the best, and few other can match him in knowledge and honesty. HIS stuff is worth their selling prices!! I have NO idea about the other seller's offerings. For what it's worth..... Sorry for the misunderstanding! If you want the best SVEA 123 and you are willing to pay a tad for it, check out acme.auctions, and you will find what you seek. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc P.S. OK, I found what I think is the stove in question. The seller readily admits that they know nothing about stoves, and have NO knowledge of the Sievert SVEA 123 they offered. The photos are poor, but it looks like a nice early 123. If I could see it better, I could say for sure. But, judging from the inexperienced seller, and the VERY high selling price, I'd say that the price was set by very enthusiastic buyers, and would wager that the seller was totally shocked out of their shorts by their good fortune!!! As to worth: I would say that it must have been worth the asking price, as someone was willing to pay it! And, the other bidders helped to drive the final price up that high, too. So, congrats to whomever got it, and I do suspect it was one of our members, though I do not know for sure. Remember, the final price is ALWAYS set by the buyers, and if it turns out very high, as did the stove in question, then it was worth that price, on that day, to that buyer. In this case, as with many other stoves these days, "one man's trash was another man's treasure"!!! Outstanding!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
i have / had no comment on this or any seller. Buyer's price, now ok by me iffin u say so. i congradulated seller. price seller good good
Hey, OMC, I was commenting on price, mainly as a matter of course. To me, the final selling price on the stove in question, was pretty darned high, and I think that the same stove could have been found for a bit less. But, again, it was worth it to the buyer, and that's all that matters here. I have seen early Sievert stoves to that high before, and maybe even higher, though, so that price is probably not super high after all. I got mine for a good deal less, and so would not be interested at the selling price. Patience is the key, and a perfect illustration is the person who found that old SVEA at an estate sale, then turned it into gold on eBay!!! I'll bet they only paid $10, or maybe less, for it!!! BUT, they WERE the ones to found it, and they deserve the final price. Good for them and congrats to whomever scored the Sievert SVEA 123! GREAT little stove, and well worth owning and using!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc (who had to get off this danged confuser, and get some work done today!!)
Hey OleManC, Finding information can be challenging on here, depending on what you are searching, as it is with any forum and life in general. There are often more than one answer to a technical issue and multiple solutions to the same problem even before you get to the fine details. Keep rephrasing your search keyword(s) as there are multiple words/terms to describe the same part/function/procedure/etc. Regarding prices, the original Svea 123's from the 50's I've seen have sold between $30 to over $300 US as your example shows. The $30 one I've seen was not described properly by the seller and was not cleaned/polished up, but in otherwise fine condition (no box or instructions though). They normally go in the middle price range between the two extremes, the more shinier, accurately described ones, complete, getting more attention.
+1 to rephrasing your search. Doug has more to say other places, as does Ross and many others. It will take some time in the chair in front of the monitor. I know, because I too have been guilty of asking what was posted in the gallery or instruction/catalog area and having Kerophile post a link to yet another answer. Be patient, the answers will come. And, welcome to CCS, if I didn't say so earlier. Ken in NC
i'm readin-up here's pic of stove btw txt on it everywhere it can be that key & chain attached to windscreen w/that lid, do we have a match?
doc i was in a rush when i read your earlier posts and forgot u asked for link... the title i had on there Vintage Svea 123 Swedish Safety Stove Original Box with Key cleaner search completed listings here's link, can i do this? can i technically does this for 1? 1st attempt and can we put ebay links on site? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sve...pNg9Azw%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc#ht_709wt_1170
Never had a 123 of any type, but looking at others for sale with "Buy it now" tags of $179 someone's made a killing! Those who think such prices are acceptable clearly have the disposable. And having the disposable and access to the internet, is what drives such prices as high as they are. Were these items made available without access to the internet where collectors can seek and bid for their favourites, then junk stalls, flea markets and the classifieds would be the almost only place they would be available. Because that would mean serious effort in finding such stoves, the prices would reflect that effort - they would remain at a level more available to more people - and local ones at that. But, such is progress. Was the price too high? You bet. But greed has driven that price, as has collectors forums and collectormania.
I have to be honest At first reading I thought the price was a joke. After all I bought my original 123r brand new for $150NZ some 30 or so years ago and a second 123r for 35NZ. However this stove is an earlier 123 non R in its box (even if shabby) with original instructions and the stove would appear to be unfired. Like it or not unfired stoves in boxes with instructions are the holy grail for serious collectors and for some money is no object. The price is set by the second highest bidder. If 2 people bid the price always goes one bid past the point the other bidder quits. Im not interested in stoves for there collectability but accept that others are. Each to there own on this one. All my stoves could be used if the needs arise but this 123 is destined to be displayed on a glass shelf in a specially air conditioned room somewhere and one day it might come back on the market and the seller will be looking for a profit. I only own one stove in its box. A primus 71 If anyone had known it was boxed I wouldnt of won it. It most definitely had been used before and it has been used since.
while were looking at these things have a look at http://www.ebay.com/itm/NIB-VINTAGE...d=100011&prg=1005&rk=1&rkt=5&sd=221300342467& Described as new in box Really? If never fired how did it get a tide mark in the preheating dish?
Greetings, OMC, and All, OK, after looking at the photos offered, and checking my own Sievert SVEA 123 stoves, I do think that the stove in question is one of the earlier ones. I also contacted a trusted friend who knows far more than I do about the early Sievert versions of the 123. He thinks this stove could be a very early one, as it has many of the hallmarks that would indicate that conclusion. One thing that I believe is that there was one fuel cap that preceded the version that's on the stove in question, and I own one of those, though I bought it from acme.auction as a stand-alone item, and it did not come with any of my own early Sievert stoves. Also, with the fuel cap in question, I wonder whether the key is actually contemporary to the fuel cap? I would think that, with the fuel cap on the stove in question, which has flats underneath the round SRV bit, a different wrench/tool is needed to access that. If I were to hazard a guess (after crawling out on a very slender limb and passing out the saws!), I would say that, given those things, this stove, though one of the earliest, is sort of a transition from the most early one, to the second version, and as such, contains a few parts from each. I could well be wrong, but that's how it looks to me. In any case, the selling price, was the selling price, and as the Sievert SVEA 123's are most definitely the cream of the crop, IMHO, it's a wonderful stove, in any case!!! I think the reason that prices for earliest Sievert stoves, like ones that have the little brass pip for holding the key (which the stove in question has, by the way), is that they simply are the best of breed when it comes to the SVEA 123!! To me, when running properly, they are more powerful, and more amendable to simmering, than later versions of this stove. I am lucky enough to have three, but only one of them cost me dearly. Not near as dearly as this recently sold one, however!! And, aside from the fact that it's simply a better stove, as originally designed, there is something fun and attractive about owning an original Sievert SVEA 123!!! Others do not give a bucket of warm spit, and that's great for them. I love having some older Sievert versions, including the second one they designed, which is very similar to the one in question in this thread!!! Hope that helps you, OMC, in the questions you asked. Oh, one more thing, I've never seen a chain attached to the windscreen, and think that was a customer add-on, after purchase. I'd rather protect the key by keeping it inside the case, though. Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Doc
