Montblanc As a Status Symbol

[torstar]

20 hours ago, jmccarty3 said:

That's one of the nicest things about pens as compared to watches. No need to send a pen back to Switzerland every five years or so for maintenance. Don't get me wrong--I love my watches, but they are a couple of orders of magnitude more expensive to buy and maintain.

 

dude sitting next to me at a business meeting last month was wearing a higher-end Patek Philippe,

 

clearly a status thing, and that's.... okay... 

 

I imagined how long I'd survive on the subway flouting that for all to see... 

 

 

[Junebe]

I don't buy Montblancs because they are way more expensive than what I am currently willing to pay for a pen. But in terms of brand recognition, I agree with others that it may not be so well known. Or at least it depends heavily on location, age and social environment. Before starting using fountain pens and reading forums I wouldn't know what a Montblanc was.

 

I fully agree with the last post by @txomsy, and I am pretty sure he meant Escoda brushes instead of Skoda. Escoda being a Spanish brand I will allow myself to note it 😉

 

@Format I believe you were referring to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called Darmok. Season 5, episode 2.

[Format]

1 hour ago, Junebe said:

I don't buy Montblancs because they are way more expensive than what I am currently willing to pay for a pen. But in terms of brand recognition, I agree with others that it may not be so well known. Or at least it depends heavily on location, age and social environment. Before starting using fountain pens and reading forums I wouldn't know what a Montblanc was.

 

I fully agree with the last post by @txomsy, and I am pretty sure he meant Escoda brushes instead of Skoda. Escoda being a Spanish brand I will allow myself to note it 😉

 

@Format I believe you were referring to the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called Darmok. Season 5, episode 2.

 

Thank you, Darmok rings a distant bell.

 

 

[JCC123]

Darmok and Jalad when the walls fell!!

[mulrich]

22 hours ago, torstar said:

dude sitting next to me at a business meeting last month was wearing a higher-end Patek Philippe,

 

clearly a status thing, and that's.... okay... 

 

 

Up until last week I had never heard of Patek watches; still no chance I'd recognize one in public. I've never been tempted to collect or own super fancy watches. I wore a $30 Timex expedition for 20+ years before converting to an Apple Watch. 

[inkstainedruth]

On 9/30/2024 at 1:26 PM, torstar said:

 

one idiot in my life grabbed a leaky pen and held it at eye level and was being stupid with it

 

he came close to turning the piston filler and unleashing a stream of black ink onto his white dress shirt

 

i made a wish.. but then did the mature thing and asked him kindly to put it back and he did

 

 

Okay, admittedly I thought you were going to say that the guy did a variant of what IIRC Denholm Elliot's character did to the guy on the German tank in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- only to HIMSELF.  

After all, as his character says, "Don't you see?  The pen _is_ mightier than the sword!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Al-fresco]

Do Montblanc make nice pens?  Yes.

Are they worth the advertised price?  Not to me.

Why do I own 3 Montblancs? Because you can pick up good, little-used examples at a far more reasonable price.

 

My conclusion:  I love people who buy Montblancs as a status symbol, or get them as unwanted gifts, keep them in a drawer and eventually (they, or their executors) sell them on.  
 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

[yubaprof]

6 hours ago, Al-fresco said:

Do Montblanc make nice pens?  Yes.

Are they worth the advertised price?  Not to me.

Why do I own 3 Montblancs? Because you can pick up good, little-used examples at a far more reasonable price.

 

My conclusion:  I love people who buy Montblancs as a status symbol, or get them as unwanted gifts, keep them in a drawer and eventually (they, or their executors) sell them on.  
 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

My sentiments exactly! Of my several Montblancs, only one was purchased new and that one was a gift from my wife. 

[torstar]

During my peak pen buying years these were must-have LEs.

 

1994 – Oscar Wilde 

1995 – Voltaire

1996 – Alexandre Dumas

1997 – Fyodor Dostoevsky

1998 – Edgar Allan Poe

1999 – Marcel Proust

2000 – Friedrich Schiller

 

The sudden addition of metal and chrome took a lot out of the enjoyment starting with... 

 

2001 – Charles Dickens

 

Little since then has been tempting.  I bought a later LE, it's not enjoyed, as a tribute to a mentoring collector who had died that year...

 

 

 

 

 

[torstar]

20 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

Okay, admittedly I thought you were going to say that the guy did a variant of what IIRC Denholm Elliot's character did to the guy on the German tank in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- only to HIMSELF.  

After all, as his character says, "Don't you see?  The pen _is_ mightier than the sword!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Good morning laugh, thanks!!

[Doug C]

34 minutes ago, torstar said:

During my peak pen buying years these were must-have LEs.

 

1994 – Oscar Wilde 

1995 – Voltaire

1996 – Alexandre Dumas

1997 – Fyodor Dostoevsky

1998 – Edgar Allan Poe

1999 – Marcel Proust

2000 – Friedrich Schiller

 

The sudden addition of metal and chrome took a lot out of the enjoyment starting with... 

 

2001 – Charles Dickens

 

Little since then has been tempting.  I bought a later LE, it's not enjoyed, as a tribute to a mentoring collector who had died that year...

 

 

 

 

 

I have an Oscar Wilde mechanical pencil and I do like it. I have to agree that they are now little more than conversation pieces. 

[torstar]

12 minutes ago, Doug C said:

I have an Oscar Wilde mechanical pencil and I do like it. I have to agree that they are now little more than conversation pieces. 

 

Almost bit on a Wilde FP a decade ago.... 

[inkstainedruth]

16 hours ago, Al-fresco said:

Do Montblanc make nice pens?  Yes.

Are they worth the advertised price?  Not to me.

Why do I own 3 Montblancs? Because you can pick up good, little-used examples at a far more reasonable price.

 

My conclusion:  I love people who buy Montblancs as a status symbol, or get them as unwanted gifts, keep them in a drawer and eventually (they, or their executors) sell them on.  
 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I've gotten a couple of MB inks that way -- at an estate sale company's showroom sale, for a fraction of the original price.  I like the Permanent Blue-Black pretty well (although I don't use it a lot -- I have way too many blue-black inks already).  The other one I got at that sale surprised me by how much I DID like it: the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry homage ink Encre du Desert:  I don't normally like reddish browns or brown leaning reds, but that one has a lavender undertone to it that was surprising.  

Both bottles were full or nearly full, and were a fraction of the original retail price.  As opposed to the Jimi Hendrix homage ink, for which I DID pay full price (and am just kicking myself for NOT buying a second bottle of it when I had the chance even then...  -- because the price of THAT ink has TOTALLY gone through the roof on eBay....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Lam1]

17 hours ago, Al-fresco said:

Do Montblanc make nice pens?  Yes.

Are they worth the advertised price?  Not to me.

Why do I own 3 Montblancs? Because you can pick up good, little-used examples at a far more reasonable price.

 

My conclusion:  I love people who buy Montblancs as a status symbol, or get them as unwanted gifts, keep them in a drawer and eventually (they, or their executors) sell them on.  
 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

 

This works well if one wants the classic black pens (146, 149) with M nibs.

But good luck finding a 149 calligraphy, or origin or orient express, etc., at discounted prices!

Same goes for O3B nibs and, way worse, 3B nibs.

 

As for the Classique, it is a real risk to get one from 3rd parties if one is not a connoisseur! There are tons of fake ones out there.

 

Although MB are not cheap (and I would love if a 149 were 100 bucks, of course), their regular pens are hardly more expensive than most other brands, at least if you buy them wisely. The great advantage they have is the choice of nibs, which only Aurora surpasses (but only for #6 nibs). For example, I can get a new MB 146 with a BB nib for about 38 euros more than a Black Aurora 88 with the same nib and in the same authorized store (the Optima is more than the 146, although not black). At that point it is really just a matter of preference. 

 

As for the 149, most other pens with #9 nibs cost about the same (yes, I know about the regular KoP for about $400, with a "wide range" of nib choices and "ample" ink capacity). Now, try to get a pen with #9 BB nib, or an OB, etc. You have all the choices in the world, just as long as it is MB. (Ok, Santini presumably has choices of nibs, but all I'll say is that I'll not talk about that one. Period.)

 

Edited to add: Forgot to say that Leonardo does have some wonderful pens with #9 nibs which can be a little bit (but not that much) more affordable. Although they don't have the range of nib offerings that MB has, Leonardo does offer a wonderful 1.1 stub which I recommend (about the same behavior of a 149 BB, if memory serves).

[Al-fresco]

8 hours ago, Lam1 said:

 

This works well if one wants the classic black pens (146, 149) with M nibs.

But good luck finding a 149 calligraphy, or origin or orient express, etc., at discounted prices!

Same goes for O3B nibs and, way worse, 3B nibs.

 

As for the Classique, it is a real risk to get one from 3rd parties if one is not a connoisseur! There are tons of fake ones out there.

 

Although MB are not cheap (and I would love if a 149 were 100 bucks, of course), their regular pens are hardly more expensive than most other brands, at least if you buy them wisely. The great advantage they have is the choice of nibs, which only Aurora surpasses (but only for #6 nibs). For example, I can get a new MB 146 with a BB nib for about 38 euros more than a Black Aurora 88 with the same nib and in the same authorized store (the Optima is more than the 146, although not black). At that point it is really just a matter of preference. 

 

As for the 149, most other pens with #9 nibs cost about the same (yes, I know about the regular KoP for about $400, with a "wide range" of nib choices and "ample" ink capacity). Now, try to get a pen with #9 BB nib, or an OB, etc. You have all the choices in the world, just as long as it is MB. (Ok, Santini presumably has choices of nibs, but all I'll say is that I'll not talk about that one. Period.)

 

Edited to add: Forgot to say that Leonardo does have some wonderful pens with #9 nibs which can be a little bit (but not that much) more affordable. Although they don't have the range of nib offerings that MB has, Leonardo does offer a wonderful 1.1 stub which I recommend (about the same behavior of a 149 BB, if memory serves).

 

All valid points.  I do not see much chance of picking up a calligraphy nib at any price I'd be prepared to pay for one. I have got a fine, a medium and a stub nib though.  

I agree that there are many pitfalls out there and people should, ideally, buy from dealers they trust.  The point of my post (which was largely tongue in cheek) is that the wide availability of good Montblancs on the used market is due, in part, to many of them being previously owned by people with little or no interest in fountain pens. To the extent that It's far easier to find a reasonably priced secondhand Montblanc than, say, an Omas.  In fact one of my used Leonardo's cost much more than any of my MBs and, whisper it quietly, it's not as reliable a writer.

Off topic:
As you mentioned Leonardo nibs:  I'm afraid I never got on with their 1.1 stub so the nice man at Write Here offered to swap it for a fine Elastic nib and I absolutely love it.

Nice to meet you!

[Pete of Killeen]

On 9/14/2024 at 9:52 PM, Lam1 said:

.......

But the majority of the population doesn't have a clue:

I once went to a restaurant in which they brought a MB ballpoint (Generation) and left on the table for me to sign the CC slip, the server clearly had no idea that that was not a 50 cent pen.

Wow!  I loathe to even hand over a cheap 60$ Cross black and white camp patterned roller ball to someone for a quick jot.

[Pete of Killeen]

Well I can say in the month-ish Ive been participating in this world of FPs I quickly have come across many people saying a Montblanc is a must own pen.

I thought well these pens looks so "plain" compared to a lot of what I see.  But slowly started liking the looks of Starwalkers and the 146 limited.  BUt I recently sprang for 750 for a Platinum Limited and thought do I really want to spend  1,040 on some  plain blue etched plasticky thing and promptly started looking into older 146s. Can say for around 440 shipped I have a nice older well cared for 146 on the way from a seller in Derby....still likely plasticky----haha.

 

Oh in my circles growing up and even now Cross/Parker is/was about as fancy as it is/got.

[Doug C]

1 hour ago, Pete of Killeen said:

Well I can say in the month-ish Ive been participating in this world of FPs I quickly have come across many people saying a Montblanc is a must own pen.

I thought well these pens looks so "plain" compared to a lot of what I see.  But slowly started liking the looks of Starwalkers and the 146 limited.  BUt I recently sprang for 750 for a Platinum Limited and thought do I really want to spend  1,040 on some  plain blue etched plasticky thing and promptly started looking into older 146s. Can say for around 440 shipped I have a nice older well cared for 146 on the way from a seller in Derby....still likely plasticky----haha.

 

Oh in my circles growing up and even now Cross/Parker is/was about as fancy as it is/got.

Pete,

 

I have a Starwalker it is okay; no different than other pens.

[kazoolaw]

It’s not purple, which is not necessarily a good thing.

[Doug C]

4 hours ago, kazoolaw said:

It’s not purple, which is not necessarily a good thing.

If only it was ..🤩 (private joke)..