How Much Is Your Fountain Pen Collection Worth?

[the_gasman]

... sewing machines and fabrics (she's a quilter). When she sheepishly told me about a VERY good bargain on a smaller version of her main machine I got her in the car and drove her down to the quilt store and we signed her up.

 

Bill, I guess you get to watch the football, too, though it may not be the soccer version.

 

David.

[inkstainedruth]

I have a rough idea, but would rather not think too much about it. I did decide not long ago that I had enough pens, and would try to cut the acquisition level to one or two a year.

 

Sub-question: I think my ink cost about as much as my pens. I wonder how many people share that predicament.

 

My husband would be convinced that was the case. But I don't think that's true -- for one thing, I have a LOT of samples. For another, ink is a consumable good. The most I ever paid was $50 on eBay several years ago for a full 8 oz. bottle of vintage Quink Violet -- or as I rationalize it, roughly $6.57 an ounce.... And truthfully, once I decanted the ink into smaller bottles to actually use, I gave the empty Quink bottle away to a guy in my local pen club, along with the empty pint bottle (which was 3/4 when I got it) of vintage Skrip Peacock.

Admittedly, I don't keep track of ink expenditures the way I do for pens. But it's an interesting question.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

Edited February 28, 2017 by inkstainedruth

[TSherbs]

Under $500 total

[aderoy]

My small collections would be 'Priceless' no value can be attached. Estimated would be a new deck, kitchen and bathroom but who is counting? The joy in using over rules.

[BillH]

 

Bill, I guess you get to watch the football, too, though it may not be the soccer version.

 

David.

 

 

Hockey and golf. No football, either kind (one daughter played elite soccer for years, no desire to watch anymore now). Used to watch baseball, but not anymore.

 

I do get to buy the pens I want

[TheRealMikeDr]

I don't really keep track but I'm certain it's more than my wife thinks it is.

 

Ha - that's for sure!

 

She did raise her eyebrows when I forked over $300 right in front of her for a vintage Montblanc 214 at the pen show - but I later I showed her a nice looking Jinhao - "This pen cost $3.99!!" so now she has no clue what anything generally costs as long as it doesn't have a white star.

[MYU]

Does knowing your pen collection value help with anything? Well, if it's substantial then definitely YES, for insurance purposes! Can you imagine if your house caught fire and you had only a brief moment to grab a few essentials? I keep my most prized pens that I don't use often, in a fire resistant safe. And I also have a small box of very nice pens that is tucked away in my dresser, covertly covered. I would definitely want to grab that when I bolt for the door.

 

If you have a collection that runs into the $1,000's (USD), it would be a very good idea to know what you've got and what it is worth. I'm waiting for a good bored rainy day with nothing to do, and then I'm going to catalog every pen that's worth at least $100 or more.

Edited February 28, 2017 by MYU

[richila]

I have a rough idea, but would rather not think too much about it. I did decide not long ago that I had enough pens, and would try to cut the acquisition level to one or two a year.

 

Sub-question: I think my ink cost about as much as my pens. I wonder how many people share that predicament.

My ink cost more than my pens.

[Julian_Macks]

I'm just starting out. Basically nothing. It looks like a hobby that could add up.

[praxim]

I'm just starting out. Basically nothing. It looks like a hobby that could add up.

Yes, this hobby can add up. It is also very good at multiplication and a dab hand at exponentiation too; subtraction, not so good (bank balances excepted). Edited February 28, 2017 by praxim

[Kelly G]

What's it worth, hmm....

 

There's what I paid for each pen.

 

There's what I would have to pay to replace each pen if I lost it. (And the question of which ones would I want to replace if I lost them.)

 

There's what would someone else pay for what I have if I were selling them.

 

Usually, the only amount I pay attention to is what it would cost to replace a lost pen, and I do that when I have left my pen case at a cafe (usually it's a cafe, maybe a restaurant), between discovery of "where are my pens?" until "thank you so much! I can't believe I walked off without it!" ("Again.")

 

And when I am frantically calculating the replacement cost of what's in the pen case (3-6 pens), I'm also figuring out which ones I will replace and which I won't.

 

I think I'm more careful now. The last time I walked out of a cafe (the time I'm thinking about in the example) was... 2004.

 

Okay, the Mb StarWalker slipped out of my pocket onto the train seat in San Francisco. I was on the platform, patting myself down, so I was able to dash back onto the train and find the pen. That was 2005. But I don't remember leaving my pen case anywhere (that wasn't home or work) since that time in 2004.

 

Having said all that, I enjoy writing with my pens and enjoy having them (around 40 or so, having had perhaps 200 since beginning the fountain pen immersion over about 30 years), so the worth is, I'll say, high.

 

Things are things and are replaceable, yes, but I would prefer not to have to replace my favorite pens. I'd be philosophical, though, if I had to be.

Mostly this.

I do have a rough idea of what I've paid for individual pens; rough as in my head, so who knows how long that data will remain? I have a rough idea how many pens I have; rough as in, I haven't counted for several years and so I'm in the +/- 30% range. I have a rough idea how much they might sell for. But that is as far as I go.

I figure it matters not, at least right now, as the bills are paid and no one in the family is going hungry. I only spend very disposable income on pens and not all that many these days.

That said, I have told my grown children to not throw the pens in the trash in the event I die before disposing of the accumulation

[senzen]

Not much, a couple of more expensive but banged up pens, a bunch of cheap and also banged up pens.

[loulu10]

My collection is tiny - less than 15, mostly cheap school and calligraphy pens. But I do have a couple of nice Waterman's and a Parker. When I started collecting FPs decades ago, I knew nothing about pen collectors and FP collections. So I didn't keep track. Now that I found FPN, I'm racking my collection in my bullet journal.

 

I did consider tracking my inventory in a spreadsheet on my computer. But decided it would be more fun to handwrite it with an FP in my BuJo.

[fpenluver]

Total cost so far in the lower three 0's.

The value, I do not know, but now it is pretty hard to get them at the price I paid for.

[sirgilbert357]

I don't keep track of total cost, but I know what I've spent for each pen and as long as I'm satisfied that I got a decent deal, I don't worry about it. The cost is just the price of admission, the value is in the writing and ownership experience.

 

When I dropped my Lamy 2000 and bent the nib, I sent it off to Lamy to be fixed. Well, it came back fixed -- but they had re-finished the Makrolon cap to match the brand new pen body they gave me. I was crestfallen and wasted no time selling that basically brand new back from service L2k and immediately ordering an actual brand new one to replace it. I had put a patina on the pen body AND the cap of the original one and when they sent it back to me, the finishes were ever so slightly mismatched and it ruined it for me. So, I decided to start over with a whole new pen. Worth it to me, despite paying for the pen twice plus the cost of the repair which was about 85 bucks if I recall correctly.

[Erik Dalton]

I hate to admit it, but I've done similar seemingly irrational things when it comes to my pens. Makes perfect sense to me.

Next to my dog, there is nothing I take better care of than my pens.

[torstar]

I expect if put together it might be "worth" a few thousand US, and get less than that on a sale.

[zaddick]

I try not to think about it. My family is fed and I make my loan payments. As long as the water heater doesn't rocket from the basement through the roof and land on my wife's car, I will be ok. (That would be a sight to see though!)

[Manalto]

Many thousands (rials).

[sirgilbert357]

I hate to admit it, but I've done similar seemingly irrational things when it comes to my pens. Makes perfect sense to me.

Next to my dog, there is nothing I take better care of than my pens.

 

 

Glad I'm not alone! I honestly wished I could have been happy with the service by Lamy, but I was taken aback...I even emailed them and told them they should have asked before refinishing the cap like that, as pens have sentimental value too sometimes. They just kind of shrugged it off...but hopefully they take the suggestion seriously and ask next time.