Valued Pen

[Inky.Fingers]

Aside from sentimental valued pens....

 

Do you save up to buy an expensive and well made pen?

 

Or do you keep buying cheap pens of all different types?

 

Does it defeat the purpose of a reusable fountain pen?

 

I stopped buying cheap pens and I don't carry a cheap pen around anymore. It just doesn't do justice to a pen that you carry around. Always carry something precious and take care of it well. Losing it would be a blessing as someone else would get to enjoy it.

 

How do you feel? Spread the joy? Never fear losing? Always a precious pen to enjoy?

[akrohn2010]

After getting my first expensive (to me, $100+) pen, a Lamy 2000 as a Christmas gift from my wife, I've leaned towards saving for more expensive, crafted pens and dabbling in ink, paper, and finding more ways to write in the meantime.

 

While my Pilot Metro is still a fantastic pen, it just doesn't have the emotion and "made for me" feel that my Franklin-Christoph or Lamy do, and the extra money for the material, details, or nib options and tuning you get with pricier pens (in general - exceptions are definitely out there) is worth spending to me.

 

In hindsight, it might have been smart to stick to a few of those cheaper "exceptions" rather than grab at the more expensive stuff - but hey, buying stuff is fun.

Edited June 10, 2018 by flyingpenman

[inkstainedruth]

I'm all over the map. I have saved up for more expensive pens, but I also love the thill of the hunt and finding bargains in the wild.

Today, the pens I used were a Pilot Decimo, a TWSBI 580-AL, and a 2018 Parker Vector (one of the reissued

Yesterday it was the Decimo, a Peliikan M405, and a vintage Parker Vacumatic; Friday is was the Decimo and the M405 and a different Vacumatic.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

I save for good looking ink, nice paper, and whichever pen makes ink look good, reliably and comfortably, hopefully at an acceptable price but never cheap feeling or looking. Of course it took me a while to learn this, I do appreciate my more expensive pens (screw caps = less evaporation!), but also cheaper ones that just work, like the Metropolitan or Muji.

 

Case in point: after rotating Sailor Souten on most of my pens, cheap and expensive, only did it look right with a $15 USD Muji, thanks to hack found on this forum. I do like specific designs but I have a clear price maximum, way below $150.

[Inky.Fingers]

Sadly all my chinese pens are unused. Just not even worth giving out.

Edited June 11, 2018 by _InkyFingers

[Runnin_Ute]

Most pens are well made and will function well when taken care of. Even the under $10 Chinese pens. Some may need some work to work to our standards however. I have pens that the acquisition cost to ME was anywhere from FREE to about $150. Among the former are a Parker IM, a Jinhao 599, a Kaweco ICE Sport, and a Esterbrook LJ. They were all PIF'd to me in one fashion or another. As cost goes up, so does price of materials and labor. The plastic that my 599 is made of is not the same quality plastic on many of my other pens. Even the Esterbrooks were made of higher quality materials.

 

Most of my more recent pens were in the $70-$150 range.

 

Today I have been using an Esterbrook J transitional, a Guider Capsule and a TWSBI 580 mostly.

[praxim]

Aside from sentimental valued pens....

 

Do you save up to buy an expensive and well made pen? No. The more expensive among my pens are carefully chosen to be ones I will continue to enjoy. I consider alternative uses for the money. Having decided to, I buy it.

 

Or do you keep buying cheap pens of all different types? Not in the sense I read that sentence. I have many pens of several brands ranging in price from US$24 upwards, but those are vintage bargains, usually not operational as received. Most of my pens are vintage, the best vintage topping out around the US$900 mark (albeit usually advertised for quite a bit more). No new pen has cost me under US$200 so those were not actually cheap in most assessments.

 

Does it defeat the purpose of a reusable fountain pen? Buying more might, it is true. Part of my pleasure is in restoring old pens then enjoying their use, both intrinsically and with the pleasant recollection that I did that. Now, I am starting to sell some of those simply to keep my collection manageable in my terms.

 

I stopped buying cheap pens and I don't carry a cheap pen around anymore. It just doesn't do justice to a pen that you carry around. Always carry something precious and take care of it well. Losing it would be a blessing as someone else would get to enjoy it. While some of my vintage pens were nominally cheap, I think that was a circumstance in which I was able to pick them up. There were a couple of pens that came with others, pens neither expensive nor preferred by me. I quickly fixed and sold them on to people with greater love for those brands.

 

How do you feel? Spread the joy. Never fear losing. Always a precious pen to enjoy.

[sidthecat]

Most of my pens have been impulse purchases, and some of those purchases have been costly. We have, however, had some lucky bargains.

[Inky.Fingers]

Ah..Vintage is a blessing and most of the time in disguise.

 

Precious they are...use it, rebuild it, and reuse it.

 

Vintage is an exception indeed. A true gem when polished.

 

AGREED.

[Mech-for-i]

Humbly I disagree ... cheap is a quantitative measurement which nowadys does not equate functionality and quality ; and certainly not for something that's old and mature engineering and technology vise such as a fountain pen goes. I regularly use all sort of pen dear and not so dear, and I own very top end ( price vise ) to very cheap pen. My carry around pen is not a fixed or a cache of fixed ones but over the years it seems that functionality to me triumph over preciousness. Sure that MB 149 I had do look the part, but my Mitsubishi Style Multi-Pen easily out do it on day to day and working writing need. And as for the questions ..

 

Do you save up to buy an expensive and well made pen?

NO , or very rarely, say for occasion when there is sentimental reason for a particular model, but I do buy expensive and rare and well made pen, usually when I spotted one that tickle my fancy

 

Or do you keep buying cheap pens of all different types?
Yes, actually cheap pen is fun ; as limited cost and selling price pretty much dictate a more well thought out design, manufacturing, and engineering. In most cases more well thought out than those pricey ones. I do not expect a $20.00 pen to had workmanship and / or material that a @2K pen had but more than often that $20 pen write just as well.

Does it defeat the purpose of a reusable fountain pen?

No it does not so long you do not thrown away the pen and keep them in working order that goes with whatever kind of pens and of whatever cost. In fact I've found that cheap or rather not costly pen promote more rigorous usage and its usually OK to just give it away if encountering someone newly interested in this hobby.

[doggonecarl]

Always carry something precious and take care of it well. Losing it would be a blessing as someone else would get to enjoy it.

 

How do you feel?

 

I lost a Montblanc. Kept me from buying a "nice" fountain pen for a long time. I do have a few what-I-call-expensive pens, and I carry them. And every time I misplace one, my heart stops.

[Noihvo]

 

 

[Bo Bo Olson]

A $10-20 new pen is a cheap pen.....a $20-30 vintage pen can be a great bargain. I have a couple of very pretty Clipper vintage pens bought for E25 that are now worth $100, in someone bought one for that. An Ego Bidding War on American Ebay.

 

Does the pen write well?....has it balance? That is important, not the price!

 

Used pens are best for price to value. Slightly used for 'new' pens.....I hate that hello stupid, it's only pre-owned :gaah:BS.

There is semi-vintage, in Pelikan pre'98-65, Vintage '65-30's. Sheaffer has a very good Tagra semi-vintage pen. Snorkel is vintage. '30's New Balance is vintage...and a decade ago....cheap. Parker P-75 is semi-vintage, P-51 is vintage, Vac also.

 

Once vintage Esterbrook was so cheap everyone was told as 'noobie' to get one first....in it was cheaper than a Safari....now is as expensive and no noobie is told today.....get one.

So you should get your self some. Do go over to the Esterbrook subsection... nice affordable pens....up from $15 to $30+, in a decade.

I only have two left...once I had 10.

 

 

I am glad you got out of The Pen of the Week in the Mail Club......pen of the month is better, pen of the quarter club is best.

I went from E19 max for a pen to up to E30 .....then E50 .........finally busting that limit with a BCHR E70 pen before falling back to 50 max for quite a while.

I do have to admit I don't chase cheaper pens any more.....well with @ 100, I am looking for special pens with in the brands I do collect. I will of course take bargains. If I need the pen.

 

 

The following was often at E100 and well over my price limit.....can be had on German Ebay for @E50-70 if you stay away from the "Buy Now Idiot" button.

Then during the South African World Cup I found one in English Ebay for E50 (then my max)....the next week I saw two go for E25 in Germany .....so being cheap didn't matter at all to a once top of the line pen, made to beat MB in the '60's. Did IMO.

With permission of Penboard.de.

 

One of my most classy, sleek, perfectly balanced semi-flex pens.

 

 

 

Two very pretty well balanced but not perfect....second tier 'no name' Clipper E25 pens (7 or so years ago); perhaps special order Mutschler piston pens, with a nice semi-flex nib with a three tail Super Constellation airplane nib imprint. Have it in rose and black also.

Austrian @ 1955 and @ E20 NOS....a real deal.....of course it has good balance, it was a write all day pen. It's not quite as solid as a first tier pen, but still quite a good pen. The BP has all the faults that I remember from the '50's BPs.

Edited June 24, 2018 by Bo Bo Olson

[Inky.Fingers]

Those are some VALUED pens you have Bo Bo Olson. Even i tried my best and with the best patience, I would better be waiting online behind you to fetch a great deal. My guess is that you carry them and use them as an EDCP. Nope¡ Those are not cheap¡ Those are prized¡

 

You are absolutely right about vintage...best value for pen anyday...just dont get one that is broken....they becomes unused parts.

[sansenri]

Do you save up to buy an expensive and well made pen?

well I do, sort of... problem is I don't always manage to save up to my target, as I get distracted buying something else before reaching it!...

Or do you keep buying cheap pens of all different types?
mhm... I've stopped that too, almost completely, it can be fun, but too often it is just too disappointing.

most of my cheap pens are scattered around, in different places I go, office, parent's house - just to be sure there is at least one fountain pen available -, in use by my sons/daughter, friends, etc.

Does it defeat the purpose of a reusable fountain pen?

not sure what you mean here

I stopped buying cheap pens and I don't carry a cheap pen around anymore.
I don't either, the pens I carry around are most often above the $100 mark, below this, too often what lacks is reliability.
I do use workhorses though, but good quality ones (eg Pelikan M200) especially when travelling around, to avoid losing VERY expensive pens

It just doesn't do justice to a pen that you carry around. Always carry something precious and take care of it well.

I do that, when going to the office I am usually happy to take even very expensive pens with me, and like the feeling, what's the point of owning an expensive pen if you can't use it

 

Losing it would be a blessing as someone else would get to enjoy it.

not sure about that...I would suffer considerably before being able to think about the finder's happiness

but I may have to meditate more on this point...

How do you feel? Spread the joy? Never fear losing? Always a precious pen to enjoy?

I haven't been giving this aspect too much consideration, very often a pen is appreciated by how good it writes (which does often relate to how precious it is, but not always)

regarding spreading the joy I do like gifting fiends and relatives with pens, even expensive ones, if occasion allows (rather than losing mine around...), but it's not that easy, there is quite a lot of resistance from non-FP users.

(at Christmas few years back I gifted my wife with a pen. When she saw the shape of the box, she gave me a harsh look and said: "I hope it's NOT a fountain pen..." I was lucky, it was a ballpoint pen...)

[jmnav]

Aside from sentimental valued pens....

 

Do you save up to buy an expensive and well made pen?

Not exactly. I focus on a pen that I want, and it happens to be expensive, then I'll have to wait for savings.

 

...or used to. Regarding fountain pens, I'm almost done, and the remaining pens that I may consider are, most of them, on my "objectively too expensive" category -which, of course it's related to money, but not necessarily only to money, i.e.: a Parker 51 at 200$ I'd consider "objectively too expensive"; a Montblanc 136 at 1000$ I would also consider (for different reasons) "objectively too expensive" too.

 

Or do you keep buying cheap pens of all different types?

Luckily I don't suffer the compulsive collector syndrome, so habitual round here so, no, I don't "keep buying" just because I need keep buying, so just being cheap is of no importance to me.

 

Does it defeat the purpose of a reusable fountain pen?

This I don't understand.

 

I stopped buying cheap pens and I don't carry a cheap pen around anymore. It just doesn't do justice to a pen that you carry around. Always carry something precious and take care of it well. Losing it would be a blessing as someone else would get to enjoy it.

I'll take this as you buying because you had to buy but, not being a robber baron, the only way for you to keep buying was keep buying cheap, right? If so, see few paragraphs above.

[Inky.Fingers]

@Sanseri -- I resonate with you.

 

Buying cheap pen defeats the purpose of a fountain pen. Buy an expensive pen to cherish and enjoy. Too many cheap pen is the same as disposable pen.

 

@jmnav -- I tried not to buy anymore new pens but vintage pens are on the exception list. As these are reserved -- can be found cheap or very expensive but precious to anyone picking these up.

 

Always try to enjoy a preciously made pen, to be loved and spread the joy. It is hard enough to not to type. Pickup a pen and write.

 

Now I need a few penpals to write and sign off as much as possible.

[jekostas]

I buy what interests me. It could be cheap, it could be expensive, it doesn't matter. I have plenty of cheap pens that I love, I have plenty of expensive pens I love. I have plenty of pens somewhere between cheap and expensive that I love.

[Inky.Fingers]

@jekostas You are where I was. Enjoy the process of these writing instruments. Don't fall too deep. You might get buried with it.

[sansenri]

"Buying cheap pen defeats the purpose of a fountain pen. Buy an expensive pen to cherish and enjoy. Too many cheap pen is the same as disposable pen."

I see what you mean.

You are probably mostly right with few exceptions, many of my very cheap pens have been left lying around in disappointment, and I agree that possibly purchase could have been avoided, in exchange of one single better pen. It's not easy to realize though unless you try.

I'm sure however each one of us may have one exception, there is a jewel rarely among cheap pens, when you find it can be surprising.

Most of the time, a better pen (and that does not always mean very expensive) can more likely give better satisfaction.

Getting fewer better pens can be a right approach (IMO) but which is the definition of "fewer" and "better" is very subjective...