My original plan was to get a box of Ferrero chocolates and repurpose the acrylic case they come in for my pens, but it's hard to justify spending Php200-400 (about $4-8) on chocolates if you're just after the box (maybe I will find them in a gift basked this Chritsmas ) so I poked around the supermarket some more and found a cheap acrylic box for Php86 ($1.80); the design is a bit cheesy but appropriate:
it's 17 x 12 cm (6.69x4.72") and 4 cm (1.57") deep.

I rigged up a simple pen holder from index card and cardstock; I'm planning to make more permanent holders with felt and museum board or foam board.
See my tiny collection ->
top to bottom: Parker Frontier, Lady Sheaffer 620, Rotring 600 in black and silver; there's a couple of spare converters. I also have a Rotring 600 lava and an Inoxcrom, but they're currently in use.

With the lid closed.
The box is too big I need more pens- my mom has promised to find some old family pens (hers, my dad's and my grandfather's- all vintage Parkers; my dad's was a 61); even if I never ink those they will be beautiful displayed as objets d'art in their own right.

You're going to be surprised how quickly that box gets filled up.

Check out cigar boxes - they make good pen display/storage boxes too. Plus they come in a wide variety of sizes. And in the US, a lot of cigar/tobacco shops will just give away empty boxes if people want to use them.

Not the one big cigar store where I live. They wanted to charge me between $15-20 for the boxes. They
said they had a regular customer that came and got most of their nicer ones to turn into LADIES PURSES!!


Once again, here is where Fleabay really shines. If you are looking for a certain box, try there, they have
TONS of them and most have reasonable shipping.

Bruce in Ocala, FL

Buy the Fererro Rocher box anyway. Buy it for the chocolates, keep it for the box.

And yeah, look out. That box is gonna fill up damn fast. When I bought my box, I thought: "How on earth am I gonna find another..."...I think it was 15 pens..."...to fill up this box?"

Now I've got so many pens I think I need another box!

now there's an idea...

Filling a box shouldn't be the end but a means to the end, if you don't buy another pen but use and enjoy all the ones you have then it's worth it.

I have sold off most of my pens and have what would be called a tiny collection but it has taken me 20 some years to pick and choose these 12 pens and I know how each one writes and enjoy writing with them all. Does that mean that I haven't bought and sold a few hundred pens, that many have gone through my hands but only a few have stayed.


Kurt

The Fererro Rocher box fits 3 Herbin bottles of ink nicely.

Make sure you eat the chocolates, not the pens.

now that Halloween is rolling in, empty chocolate boxes should be pretty easy to get... and I can always say I am buying them for the "trick or treaters"

What a crafty box. I like it!

Not free around here either. I remember in the not-too-distant past, when I was still smoking cigars, stores were glad to have you take those empty wooden boxes off their hands. Then suddenly, they woke up.

Thanks for sharing this with us, eilu. Have fun with your design - share some pics with us when you have the final result.

I think it's very cute. I actually like that it's clear. Of course I also have a weakness for cute Asian characters and stationery. Another vote for cigar boxes. You can get inserts from gopens.com.