Indiscriminate Collecting...

[oregano]

I do not know, I have also done the same thing but I feel like I have an awesome pen collection. However, I do not collect, I use. I have made my purchases with no "plan" or "theme" except if I like it I buy it. I too do not have pots and pots of money to throw away. There are pens I have that I do not use as much as others and I have a couple that I have not used in years but I regret no purchase or feel I wasted any money because they all have their place. One major difference, of the 30 pens I have only one is Vintage, the rest where bought new or were modern pre owned pens all bought from reputable dealers (except the 1 vintage).

I don't think this is a coincidence. By far the pens that I've been most disappointed in and ended up re-selling over the last year were vintage and purchased on ebay or online, including from reputable sellers. Mostly I was surprised by the color of the pen I received--to give specifics, since Holly Golightly asked--I was after specific Pelikan tortoise colors; I discovered the camera picks up the layer of green underneath, when in reality many are a honey brown color.

 

With modern pens you have the benefit of trying them out multiple times at a store. With vintage, appearances and condition are mostly unknown until you see it. A lot more things can go wrong!

[markh]

It is easy to let enthusiasm get in the way of good financial sense.

 

 

1. That's the point - it's a hobby, not a business.

 

2. Only making pen decisions that made "good financial sense" would limit me to a box of a dozen BIC stick pens at 10c each. What fun would that be??

 

3. Letting "enthusiasm get in the way of good financial sense" translates in my mind to "education is expensive." That's how you learn.

 

I own way (way, way...) more pens than you show. I can only write with two at a time (one in each hand )

I never let good financial sense get in the way of a little fun. at least when it comes to pens.......

 

Everyone practices their hobby differently - De gustibus non est disputandum - in matters of taste, there can be no dispute.

 

Just have fun....

 

 

 

.

Edited January 25, 2015 by markh

[Cryptos]

That's an interesting way to misunderstand the message.

[shawndp]

Looking over the last year in review where my pen acquisitions reached all time highs I feel a lot of what the OP is saying to be relevant to me as well. I bought pens because single aspects of them appealed to me and then never really even wrote a cartridge worth of ink with them before putting them away. I bought a few "vintage" pens that I looked at and just put away, I got caught up in the Kaweco craze and have 3 that don't appeal to me anymore, I bought more Watermans than I ever could need and most are F nibs that I realize are not my cup of tea... It is like the OP said an inefficient way to spend money. It's not spending the money that bothers me, it is that it was that there was a better way to spend that money. The OP has some of the best advice I have read on the internet in a while! The worst advice that is tragically common here is "don't buy an expensive pen, buy a couple of cheaper pens and stuff". No, buy one pen that you really like, because you only write with one at a time (I know I do - unless an FP is a 2 handed endeavour). With all the money I threw away I could have bought another Starwalker and at least I know I love writing with that!

[HollyGolightly]

I certainly see the wisdom here, and I do agree that it's silly to buy dozens of terrible pens as opposed to one that you love to write with. I just wish I knew more about what I was looking for. The setback here is that I am only realizing what my preferences are in terms of nib size and ink flow or what I might potentially want to look at. My frame of reference is also terribly narrow. Ideally- I would love one or two splurge-worthy pens I was enamored with, but I am not yet at a place where I am confident I would be able to chose even one with success.

[ac12]

Here are a few ideas to focus your collecting:

• Specific brand; Parker, Esterbrook, Warever, etc. (with some brands this can be a pretty big selection, which leads to the next focus idea)
• Specific Model; Parker 45, Esterbrook J, Pelikan M200, Sheaffer Snorkel
• Color/finish; blue, black, clear/demonstrators, flighter, gold, silver, lacquer
• Nib type; hooded, inlaid, triumph
• Feed type; lever fill, button fill, piston
• Country of manufacture; Italy, France, Japan
• Time period; pre 1900, 1900-1920, 1920-1940, 1939-1945 (WW2), 1945-1960, current. Your school years.

Some of this will blend. Examples: Sheaffer 1900-1930, Parker button fillers.

 

I have most of my collecting focused, and the other part "whatever catches my interest."

Who knows, one of the "whatever catches my interest," may grow to become one of your focused collection groups. This is a joke with the Esterbrook folks, "you can't just have one."

[Cryptos]

Yes, it seems that there really are two stages here that are worth addressing. The first is trying to find out what you really want, and the second is buying the best example for your money that you can find. The first of these is something that we have to answer for ourselves. With a little luck we may have some access to pen clubs or shows or bricks and mortar outlets where we can try them out. Obviously that becomes a whole lot more difficult when all you have is the internet - at least this is the only mitigating factor for me regarding finding what I like. However, the second point is that once our ideal is identified (as far as it ever can be) we should take a little time to ask around, do some research, request some help instead of buying the first seeming bargain that shows up - which is what I fell into.

 

Let me offer a concrete example. I bought a 51 Vac for $29. I paid a further $15 to ship it to me. Still a bargain, yes? I was told it would need a new diaphragm, for safety, so I shipped it to a restorer, another $15 shipping plus $20 for repair plus a further $15 shipping return. So far this is now costing $94. No longer a bargain. In this particular case it came back with a new diaphragm but poorly set up for the nib and feed. I got angry and sent it to another member for a look. Another $15 in shipping. It was sent back to me free of charge but the pen still didn't work properly, so in the end I gifted it to that member, another $15 in shipping. All told this pen cost me $124 and I have no pen to show for it.

 

Now, if I had someone give me advice as in the OP, or if I had the brains to even ask, I could have got a damned good fully restored Vac 51 for probably less than $124. And I would still have a pen. Essentially $124 tossed down the drain in the current case.

 

If I can encourage others not to make that mistake then good! Obviously this is a slightly extreme example, but it is an example of some of the difficulties people may face depending on their available local resources.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Cardboard_Tube

[kbrede]

I'm enjoying the ideas in this thread.

 

This is the way I'm thinking about this. In order to start getting a grasp on what I really prefer in a pen, I need to experience a lot of different pens sizes, nib sizes, inks, papers, etc. I also know that my preferences are a moving target and will change as my experience grows.

 

So my plan is to start with a Franklin Christoph pen, with three nibs. I won't get them all at once but I'd like to have models 3, 19 and 66. That would give me three different sized pens with a variety of nibs to swap between them. I've also got a Platinum 3776 I picked up at a good price on the way, to contrast the Japanese and German nibs.

 

I think those four pens should give me a good start. Everyone is going to have a different approach but I think the OP's advice is sound. Do your research and it's prudent to have a plan.

Kent

[amk]

This is an interesting discussion. I suspect all of us have been through a good bit of buyer's remorse from time to time.

 

I too have looked at my pen boxes recently and seen a few pens that really do nothing for me. Some I acquired because I found a bargain I couldn't ignore, some because I hadn't yet really found what was to my taste. It does, to be honest, make me feel a little bit sad when I see the (bleep) I've collected (ugh, Conway Stewart made some really horrible stuff in the 1950s), or even the decent honest pens that I just don't like much any more, like my Lamy Vista (why? when I have a whole collection of Lamy 2000s?) and the very slim Sheaffer fashion I used for years (why? when I have a big fat Targa with a fat broad nib?).

 

But you LEARN through collecting, The investment is part of the process of learning.

 

By picking up clunkers I have started to learn repair skills, and I have increased my confidence. (Recently found a Pelikan 100NN - now that is NOT a clunker! - for almost nothing with nasty big burn marks on the binde - and after taking a bit of advice here sanded it down with micromesh very carefully, so it looks very nearly perfect. Now to get that piston working!) By picking up cheap Chinese pens I have started learning nib grinding skills. I have a big box of spare parts so that now I can go looking for nibless classics with a good chance of making them work.

 

I've also, just occasionally, picked up a pen on the offchance and found I loved it, and it set me off on a whole little subset of collecting. (One Varuna .... and now I am a stalwart of the Indian pens forum! One Osmia ... and now I love my piston fillers!)

 

Admittedly clunkers are not for you unless you enjoy fiddling about. But I must admit I'm looking at that set of pens in the original post and thinking someone didn't do too badly... nice 51s, for a start!

 

Perhaps we should work on a sort of know-yourself checklist for beginners.

• Do I enjoy fidding around with things? do I enjoy, for instance, a bit of DIY, motorcycle repair, sewing, jewellery making?
• Do I have very decided tastes or am I a bit of a magpie?
• Am I a completist? Am I going to feel a compulsion to get *all* the colours of Parker 51, for instance?
• Am I interested in vintage pens or just modern pens?
• How important are nibs to me - am I going to want to scribble away happily at work, or do careful calligraphy?
• Am I a user or a collector? Where on that spectrum do I belong?
• How much money do I have to put into the hobby?
• How much space do I have to store the darn things? :-)

Perhaps we should all, also, go through a little check every so often to see how we are progressing. What have we learned? what have we made bad mistakes on? what buys were even better in retrospect than we thought they were at the time? where do we go next?

 

And yes, I have lots of pens that don't do it for me any more. So now I need to acquire a new set of skills, to do with advertising, packing, and shipping them out :-)

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is not about regret, it's about learning lessons. The pens I have, well most of them, I enjoy having. That said, I just wish I had gone slower and with an eye for better quality and armed with the knowledge that can be had here free for the asking. As it is most of these are nothing more than beater pens. Usable but cosmetically flawed or too worn. And I got stung quite a few times buying online - so that's why I would encourage caution and education.

 

Like I said in the OP, if you have funds to waste this is not going to be a big deal: spend away.

Learning is good. People have different approaches.

 

Please understand I never had 'funds to waste,' nor do I now.

 

I started using fountain pens way before teh innerwebz existed, and my style has been: Oooo, pretty shinyyyy, WANT!

 

If I could afford it, I got it.

 

Gradually, I began learning what suited me and what didn't. I sold some pens and have given away about 150 so far.

 

I learned that I needed to save some cheap pens for science experiments, like the Glitterfication Project. Some I will keep for sentimental reasons, like my mother's Esterbrook. Others, for their oddness.

 

I also learned to give pens a second, even third or fourth chance, and sometimes all I needed was The Perfect Ink.

 

Ink and paper, too, yes. Oooo, shinyyy, want. It's been a wild carousel ride and I still love it.

[AZBennett]

The advice is good advice, but only if you, a) need it and heed it. I too went quickly down the fountain pen rabbit hole. And subsequently made some mistakes, most small but a few large ones as well. I shifted my focus from collecting to repairing within my first couple months of purchasing my first FP. Mostly because I am at heart a vintage FP lover. I have three modern FPs and use all three, and only have two more modern pens on my wish list. But my stable of vintage pens is much larger and my wishlist of vintage pens is HUGE.

One of my earliest mistakes was buying up lots of beater pens without knowing what I was doing. And while I taught myself pen repair with them, I also have a lot of garbage that can't be salvaged. But I habe quite a bit more knowledge now and knowing myself I would have thrown caution to the wind and gone down the rabbit hole regardless of the advice I received. But other may well benefit from the OP. Or hopefully they will.

[bsenn]

Indeed! It's like a kind of trap.

Oh, and avoid stuff that looks like this, unless you're into weird mismatched stuff:

 

 

Just saw this on eBay.

 

 

Hey, I resemble that remark! But seriously, was going through the parts bin one day and realized I had enough parts to put together this Frankenpen. I wouldn't dream of selling it on eBay like that Estie however (just use it at work where people think my pens are eccentric anyway...).

 

 

 

Brian

[SockAddict]

Here's a thought for newbies just falling into the rabbit hole: Maybe make sure you like a pen before you buy three more of the same model. Maybe play with each new pen a little bit and think about what you like and why before you move on to the next. I've seen several new users who say something like, "I don't even have my first pen yet, but I just ordered my fifth!" If those are inexpensive pens, you're not out much, and you'll probably learn something useful. But if they're pricey, and you don't like three of the five, say, it could be a problem!

 

If, like me, you have to do most of your shopping online, figure out how to quantify your tastes as much as possible. I don't like heavy pens. Well, how heavy is heavy? I have a 30 gm. pen that's about as heavy as I like. I know that number, because I always compare new pens to that. 45 grams? Sorry, don't care how gorgeous it is or what a good deal it is, I'm not gonna use it, so I don't buy it. And, yes, I have an expensive lesson in the form of a heavy pen sitting on my dresser.

[Runnin_Ute]

Here's a thought for newbies just falling into the rabbit hole: Maybe make sure you like a pen before you buy three more of the same model. Maybe play with each new pen a little bit and think about what you like and why before you move on to the next. I've seen several new users who say something like, "I don't even have my first pen yet, but I just ordered my fifth!" If those are inexpensive pens, you're not out much, and you'll probably learn something useful. But if they're pricey, and you don't like three of the five, say, it could be a problem!

 

If, like me, you have to do most of your shopping online, figure out how to quantify your tastes as much as possible. I don't like heavy pens. Well, how heavy is heavy? I have a 30 gm. pen that's about as heavy as I like. I know that number, because I always compare new pens to that. 45 grams? Sorry, don't care how gorgeous it is or what a good deal it is, I'm not gonna use it, so I don't buy it. And, yes, I have an expensive lesson in the form of a heavy pen sitting on my dresser.

I totally agree with this. For the better part of 15 years I had only two pens. A Lamy Al Star and a Waterman Phileas. So when I bought pen #3 (another Phileas) I had an idea of what to expect - even though it was a different nib. (M vs. F on the earlier one) I didn't like the nib as much as the other one, but it is better now after some use.

 

Like you, I buy mostly online, and have one pen at 30 grams, tried a Jinhao 159 which was given to me - to big and heavy. Gave it away. But 30 grams is at the top end weight wise. I don't post (mostly) and while I haven't sold off or given away a bunch of pens, acquisitions recently have tended to be Parker or Pelikan. Go figure. I now have 3 45's - all different. A flighter, standard and a desk pen. A 51 Special aerometric - not sure if I will get another 51 or not. Two Esties - a green J and a black Bell Systems LJ gifted to me by the OP of this thread. Even if it has a funky nib (2464 Rigid Broad-manifold) . I have some other nibs (1555 Gregg, 9550 EF, Venus Fine) The Venus Fine is currently on the J which came with the 9550 when I bought it.

 

I know I have been very fortunate - even with 6 ebay purchases, only one has been less than perfect. It had been used with India ink to test which soaked out fine, and the nib is a bit scratchy which can be fixed/replaced easy enough. Not a big deal. Two FPN Classifieds purchases as well. That doesn't count the other ebay purchase which I lost the pen.