What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[Gloucesterman]

1 minute ago, inkstainedruth said:

@boilermaker1975 -- Bink!

I was NOT expecting that to be an R-rated (or possibly even X-rated) video....  

Reminding me now of a story I heard years ago about a minister who inherited a parrot from some relative who'd been in the Navy.  And the bird had picked up ALL the swear words from its former owner....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Sounds divine!

[boilermaker1975]

25 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

@boilermaker1975 -- Blink....

I was NOT expecting that to be an R-rated (or possibly even X-rated) video....  

Reminding me now of a story I heard years ago about a minister who inherited a parrot from some relative who'd been in the Navy.  And the bird had picked up ALL the swear words from its former owner....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

 

@inkstainedruth, sorry, I should have given a warning. But it is hilarious!

[Penguincollector]

  That poor traumatized cockatoo. May they live the rest of their long lives in peace.

[Penguincollector]

   To keep the train on the track, my plastic notebook clip exploded, so I decided I would get metal ones by Penco. I needed to buy something else to hit the free shipping threshold, and so I picked up a cerulean TWSBI Eco 1.1 stub. I have been on a shimmer ink kick lately, so it will be put to good use.

[Black16]

On 6/13/2025 at 11:57 PM, Penguincollector said:

 

  I wasn’t going to buy any pens until the show next month, but my parrot would never forgive me if I didn’t buy this pen. It’s on its way from Amazon UK (or Germany ?)I think.

I'm sincerely sorry, but also know the feeling and can relate - been there a few times, had to order pretty pens right away after seeing them here and nothing could hold me

[inkstainedruth]

On 6/14/2025 at 4:09 PM, boilermaker1975 said:

 

"No, no it's just stunned"  LOL That is a great skit.

 

When my wife and I watched the video that I posted it was the hardest we laughed together in years.

 

 

I think that may have been one of the first Monty Python sketches I ever heard (on the radio from one of their albums with the sound recording of one of their sketches -- before I even knew it was a show, and possibly before they were shown here in the US.  It was either that one or "The Dead Bishop on the Landing" one (I mean we ARE talking mid-1970s).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[lamarax]

On 6/14/2025 at 11:09 PM, boilermaker1975 said:

"No, no it's just stunned"  LOL That is a great skit.

 

It's an allegory for sending pens back for fixing.

[Penguincollector]

6 hours ago, Black16 said:

I'm sincerely sorry, but also know the feeling and can relate - been there a few times, had to order pretty pens right away after seeing them here and nothing could hold me

  No worries, we all do that to each other around here. 😝 I would have waited, but there were very few in their inventory. A thread on BMW MontBlancs had me buying two in the last few months, so it’s a drop in the bucket, really. 

[InkyProf]

33 minutes ago, lamarax said:

It's an allegory for sending pens back for fixing.

 

And "Cheese Shop" is an allegory for shopping for them in the first place (omitting the absurdist violence at the end, naturally). 

[lamarax]

1 hour ago, InkyProf said:

 

And "Cheese Shop" is an allegory for shopping for them in the first place (omitting the absurdist violence at the end, naturally). 

 

Theatrical fusion 😄

[Misfit]

On 6/14/2025 at 7:54 PM, Penguincollector said:

and so I picked up a cerulean TWSBI Eco 1.1 stub.

I have the same Eco, with the same nib. Pen twins!!

[Penguincollector]

7 hours ago, Misfit said:

I have the same Eco, with the same nib. Pen twins!!

✒️👯‍♀️!

[Arthur Pewty]

I just bought the third of my three bucket list pens, a Pelikan M1000, to join the MB 149 and the Sailor KoP. It wasn't a completely impulsive acquisition, as I've been shopping for one for some time. But Amazon Japan finally had one at a price I could talk myself into, so I impulsively grabbed it.

[inkstainedruth]

I love my Pelikan pens for the most part but don't have anything larger than an M600 because anything larger would be too awkward for me to use.  OTOH, when they came out with the M805 Stresemann a few years ago, I kept my fingers crossed that they would make one in an M400 size -- and when they DID, it was the one time in my life that I had a disposable budget for ANYTHING I wanted.  So I didn't have to resort to a life of crime robbing banks to afford it. And I saved money by getting it on eBay from Rolf Thiel at Missing Pens, and then said, "Hmmm -- what else does he have?"  And ended up ordering the M405 Blue Black as well as the M405 Stresemann (getting a B nib on the Stresemann and an EF nib on the Blue Black).  I could have saved a bit and gotten a regular M400 in the Blue Black, but there was just something about the rhodium plated trim that made it worth the extra cost....   And I saved money because he didn't have to charge me VAT and I didn't have to pay the US distributor markup, and back then eBay didn't collect sales tax.  Of course, an hour after hitting the "Buy" button, I got a phone call from PayPal, going "Did you know that a charge of X amount was just sent from your account to a vendor in EUROPE?"  And after assuring them it was in fact a legit charge, and getting off the phone, I looked at my husband and said, "OMG -- I really DID just spend that much money on ONLY TWO PENS!"  And of course Rolf didn't have a rhodium plated B nib in stock, so I have a regular 2-tone nib on the Stresemann (shrug) -- because I really did want a B nib.  And figured that if I was at something like a pen club meeting, I could tell MY pen apart from someone else's because I DON'T have the standard issue rhodium plated nib on mine. 

Those are still my two most expensive pens.  I really should put one or both of them back into rotation at some point.  But also my first bird -- a 1990s era M400 Brown Tortoise with an F nib.  That one I got for a special occasion and my husband was sort of freaking out over the price of THAT, since it was way more than I'd ever spent on a pen up till that point.  And I said, "You don't understand -- a NEW M400 is going to cost WAY more; and they've discontinued this color binde...."  And then what did Pelikan do a few years later?  Re-issued the M400 Brown Tortoise and made a liar out of me.... (well about the "discontinued color" part, anyway...).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

A second Modern Creative Design M6100 fountain pen (in a gift set with a bottle of ink) that looks like:

but this time in white with silver stripes. The green one has yet to arrive (and will likely take a few weeks), and I have absolutely no idea how the pen/model performs.

 

…

 

Actually, that wasn't my “last” or most recent impulsive pen acquisition. I picked up a LAMY Safari with M nib, when I went past Officeworks on my way home from a run, for a whopping AUD $9.

[ParramattaPaul]

44 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

picked up a LAMY Safari with M nib, when I went past Officeworks on my way home from a run, for a whopping AUD $9.

That is a huge bargain!

 

For the Americans here, the current rate of exchange is about 1AUD = 0.61USD.

[Gloucesterman]

Blue Esterbrook LJ w/ 2668 (fully functional - good sac) which I immediately swapped for a 9314F for $6.00.

 

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, ParramattaPaul said:

That is a huge bargain!

 

Yes, it is, although I have no use for another LAMY Safari, or a Z50 M nib.

 

Someone posted that find in the (private/closed) Fountain Pens Australia group on Facebook a week ago, but since I don't even have a FB account for myself, and have been sick as a benu for the past week and barely left the house, I didn't know about it. Other clearance specials apparently included Pilot Peers iro-ai with red or with black finials for $9, all gone by the time I got there of course. I think there were also ones with blue finials for $14; the signs on the empty rack were still there.

 

I just picked up the last $9 fountain pen on offer when I dropped in.

[MarcoA63]

@A Smug Dill, Modern Creative Design. What is this brand and where to find it? Googling for it returns half the world of 'modern pens'

[A Smug Dill]

19 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I just picked up the last $9 fountain pen on offer when I dropped in.

 

Well, well. My darling wife just greatly surprised me by ⑴ dropping into Officeworks on Hunter Street (in Sydney CBD), after we've already been there together yesterday after our run, when I don't think there was anything she particularly wanted to get there, but she knew I was looking for $9 fountain pens (and she isn't one to encourage me to buy more pens!), and ⑵ reported that they have put out more of the Pilot Prera iro-ai in red and in black (only with M nibs, though), still on offer for $9 apiece! I asked her to pick up one of each for me. I also asked her to confirm…

 

There are yet more of the Prera in the store today.