Do You Collect Expensive Wine - Or Do You Raise A Toast With It?

[Lam1]

I use all of mine (I believe I have 50-odd, in total, 13 of which are Pelikans and a further 13 which are all Germans).

 

Christof: is that what you paid for the 112: Fr40,50? I think you should be using it! It's obviously not such a valuable fountain pen, after all! (Can I buy it from you?)

 

And I was thinking that Christof was trying to sell it for 40.50 euros... in fact, I was about to send him a PM saying that, if it was free shipping, I would take it!

 

I ink all my birds, and other brands, seconds after they land at home. But then again, I don't have, and never will have, any means to acquire the kind of pen shown by Christof in the post above...

But I think I am both user and collector, because I have way more pens than I need (I hope my wife doesn't read this ).

 

As for wine, it was always my favorite drink. We must have like 70 bottles or so of decent stuff (as well as a few single malts, etc.) that are going to waste because I don't drink anymore... Anybody wants to trade for a few birds?

[Christopher Godfrey]

Lam, I sent you a PM and only <now>, when looking again, do I see your words about not drinking any more...oh, dear! (I'm sure we are <meant> to drink wine -- after all, why else would we have the vines?)

[Lam1]

Lam, I sent you a PM and only <now>, when looking again, do I see your words about not drinking any more...oh, dear! (I'm sure we are <meant> to drink wine -- after all, why else would we have the vines?)

 

 

Christopher, I agree: there can be no other reason for the vines.

But there is the matter of shortness of money: it was either wine or pens. Come to think of it, wine was cheaper...

[jmccarty3]

 

 

Christopher, I agree: there can be no other reason for the vines.

But there is the matter of shortness of money: it was either wine or pens. Come to think of it, wine was cheaper...

 

 

This reminds me of a wise saying:

 

"When wine, women, and song get to be too much, stop singing."

[Christopher Godfrey]

<"When wine, women, and song get to be too much, stop singing">

 

Sound of clapping! (Why isn't there a whatsits for clapping?) Anyway, I really like that...

[Lam1]

This reminds me of a wise saying:

 

"When wine, women, and song get to be too much, stop singing."

Wise indeed. Love it.

[FrankB]

We are speaking of personal choices. I am also a wine drinker. Well, actually I am a wine-o. I frequently buy good wines and they find their way rather quickly to the table. I did on one occasion long ago buy a case of cabernet sauvignon to keep for a long period to see how the wine aged. I opened a bottle from time-to-time, every 12- to 18-months, to track the ageing. I discovered that the wine improved to about four years, then deteriorated. Slowly, but it did deteriorate.

 

I guess fountain pens do not spoil and one could keep them for a long time. But, like some of the others here, I consider pens to be tools, and meant to be used. Yes, I do have some uber expensive limited editions. But they, too, are tools. I use all my pens, including my lovely LE Pelikans. Like enjoying wine by drinking it, I enjoy my Pelikans more by using them than just looking at them.

[stephanos]

I buy pens to use them. In principle.

[Bo Bo Olson]

RM40.50....that was just before Hitler stole the Gold.

A 20 RM gold coin had 7.15g of gold...14.32 or 40RM....like up to '33 we had a $20 gold coin in circulation.

Today's gold price $41.63 per gram = $596.15 for that 40.50 RM price...today.

 

 

Fran B...you have to have the proper brick cellar for storing wine...one with an dirt floor...at least in your closed off wine section.So the room can breath and it keeps the temperature and humidity stable.

 

Then all you have to do is give the wine a turn every year or so...in your slanted bottle holder...to keep the cork wet.

Eventually, you will have to have a real vinter come over and remove the leas from your 30-50 year old bottles.

 

Sigh....the idiots the house belonged to where I rented for ages, cemented the floor, so I got damp walls!!!!

 

My little mini-cellar (apartment) now....is not some place to store for the ages some wines can do. As soon as my wife retires...we are going to go to the flea market and empty it. Then we are going to buy one of those special wine refrigerators....

Going to a flea market 2-3 times a year is not doing the trick. It was once to the roof...and it's only 4-5 packing cartons at a time.

 

A young vinter on German TV said most 'good' wines that most can afford; a white wine should be drunk after 7 years and a red after 12.

 

Way back when....when the '76 Vintage (so marked only for real special years) , a vintage of the century year (once ever 10-15 years) was 6; I got a bottle of Taittinger Champagne and put it away for 6 more.

 

Normally I only drink one glass of a bottle Champagne with my wife to make her happy. It was straw yellow, and she got no drop more than me. That was the day I learned what real Champagne was.

My wife's reaction to that.

 

And I'd had 'medium' good ones often enough...ones with names most recognize.

There is a vast difference between good and grand champagne, that is properly aged.

 

I must admit, I do cheat when I'm traveling. I have my little pocket wine book, or my wallet cards, telling me what years of which wines I should try.

When I go to Scotland, I my pocket single malt guide for lunch in a pub and in the hotel or big pub my wife don't know me....I have my Big 14x12" book of Single malt book with me....I scribble in both.

Why should I take a wild guess, when I can get local that matches the tiny touch of water one puts in it. They have a spigot on the bar for that.

 

Before everyone here stones to me death with empty whiskey bottles....go to Royal Crown com, and find out about 'breaking' the whiskey. All you need is a teaspoon of water to release the aroma.

You do drink your good whiskeys in snifter glasses, .. yes?

Edited May 1, 2016 by Bo Bo Olson

[TSherbs]

I gave up alcohol, and I don't miss wine.

Edited May 1, 2016 by TSherbs

[inkstainedruth]

Once more the collector vs. user question...

 

I am both. I collect and I use. But not the same pens!

 

There can be lots of reasons to buy pen over pen...

 

- maybe you are just looking for the perfect pen. (be sure, you will never find it)

- or you just can't withstand buying beautiful things

- or...you are working on a collection. That's what I do.

 

Some people say that it's a shame, or at least wasted money to own beautiful pens which were not used. I say, the pens of my collection are 50 - 100 years old and some of them are difficult and expensive to replace. Some of them are near mint and othes NOS, but I have lots of very good vintage user pens. Why should I risk damage, lost or even signs of use when I can avoid this?

 

Would you really use this NOS Pelikan 112 from 1936?

 

And a question which should be asked to all "user" people is: If you just use your pens, why do you need 50 or more of them?

 

Just my opinion....

 

C.

 

PS: And I love expensive wine - and drink it! A collector has to focus, you know.

 

If I owned the pen in your photo, then yes, I would use it. Would it leave my house? Probably not... (but then I've got a Morrison ringtop with a gold-filled filigree overlay that doesn't leave the house either, because it unscrews itself from the cap when it's on the lanyard -- and I'm betting I paid a lot less for the Morrison).

If I had 50 Pelikans (which I don't) I would use them. They might not all be in current rotation, but I would use them. The only pens of any brand which I don't use are ones that need to be repaired (needing new sacs or diaphragms, for the most part; but one of the Parker Vac Shadow Waves needs celluloid work for a crack in the cap; and I've got a 51 Vac and a Sheaffer Snorkel that need to have a pro check them out to see what shape they're in). Why do I have 100 or so pens at this point? It's a matter of "OOH, shiny!" of some form or another (it could be as simple as "Hey, I like writing with pen X, and I can get one in a different color" -- which is how I ended up with so many Noodler's Konrads and Parker Vectors.

Right now I have five birds: two from the 1990s, one from the 1980s, one from the 1950s, and one modern M200 (replacing -- more or less, the one I lost in March). They all have different nibs. They all get different inks in them for one reason or another (for instance, the M400 Brown Tortoise has a really juicy F nib and likes brown inks -- why only brown is a good question, and one for which I don't have an answer other than "That's just how it ended up"... I've had all sorts of colors the Café Crème with the B nib (the pen that got lost) and I expect to do the same with the replacement Café Crème, which has an italic (possibly a stub) nib on it.

The other M200 has a medium nib; rounding out the flock is an M100 with a 1 mm nib, and the 1950s era 400, which has an OB nib.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Bo Bo Olson]

Ruth I really fell in love with OB's and OBB's....which are 1/2 a width narrower than today's.

The old OBB's I have are narrower than my modern MB Woolf's B nib. Or so it seems.

 

My first OB was a pen I didn't want....that was in the live auction lot....being so ignorant....got cured by Lambrou's book. That was an 'odd' looking MB 234 1/2 KOB Deluxe made in '52-54 only. Odd because I only knew the new modern 1950 to now cigar shaped ones, and didn't know the '20-30's had flat tops. It was my second OB and it was a Kugel nib at the same time.

My first was a 140 OB....

 

Back when I use to count which pen was "best"; that MB KOB ended up #1 pen, and the pen I was after a 400NN...was only after the nib to put it on my '90's Tortoise....was a rare '56 400nn....Friction Fit. . So much for plan A....still ended up my #2 pen for ages.

 

Now I must have 5-6 #1 pens and 7-9 #2 pens.