Do you know someone who Doesn't have a Montblanc?

[rochester21]

Someone made a apparently dumb observation on YouTube. He said people want to make gifts that are hard to come by, but in this era everything is available online. So then people start looking for scarcity somewhere else.

 

Two observations pop in my mind.

1. Today, everyone has a Montblanc Meisterstuck. Seriously. In Europe they have become so common they are hard to sell, you can get a good condition 146 for 150 euro or new for around 200. It's impossible to find a person that uses fountain pens that does not have a 146 or 149. 

Meisterstucks are impossible to avoid, they are like Bic pens...but worse? In many families, they are given for free from one member of the family to another. 

 

Even if you don't live in Europe and say you're in the middle of the dessert with no money and start thinking about fountain pens for no particular reason, the Montblanc 146 and/or 149 immediately appear in your thoughts. 

What is everyone's grail pen? It's a 149.

Why? Nobody can give a straight answer.

 

2. Now i understand why Montblanc is releasing limited edition pens every 12 months, they practically have to. How many 146 and 149s can you sell to one person? I don't know how many pens Montblanc sells every year, but it can't be more than every other company combined. Yet it's easier to find someone who's used a 146/149 than any other regular, basic fountain pen you can think of. Do you have a mint condition Parker 21 with F/XF nib? Congratulations, you're now in the top 5% of fountain pen collectors worldwide. That's not even a joke, unfortunately.

 

The situation has reached a point where I ask people what pens do they have and a generic Montblanc 146 is always at the top of the list, while the same people never tried basic fountain pens like a Sheaffer or a Cross. Is that weird? I think it's weird.

 

With that logic in mind, it follows that anyone using a Montblanc, not even a Meisterstuck, is essentially enforcing a negative stereotype, which they happily do. I can even guess what nib size you are using, it's an M or a B. Nothing else.

 

PS. I still keep two less popular Montblanc FPs in my pen box, but I never use them. And if I did, it would be inside the house, not in public. We shall not speak of it !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AmandaW]

Me. Many pens of many brand. And nibs very varied, uef, extra fine, fine, stubs, fude... no mediums and no bold. 🤷‍♀️

 

MB are expensive here. A cheap one is probably a fake.

 

 

[VacNut]

🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️🙋🏻‍♂️

I have no interest in owning a MB. I prefer Soenneckens.

 

Used 149s are going for $400 in the backrooms of collectors.

[boilermaker1975]

I do have some MB roller balls that were given to me as gifts a long time ago.

 

I have no MB fountain pens.

[Ron Z]

I don't have any.  I buy them, service them, play with them a bit and then sell them.  The only one that I had that I regret selling is my Agatha.

[BVLogan]

I bought my first 149 in 1988 and my second last year.  In the intervening 37 years, I've only known two people who owned any MBs .... and one of them is a relative.

[Ceilidh]

Don't have one and have no interest.

[InkyProf]

Until recently, I had resisted 146s and 149s. I had a few smaller postwar MB piston-fillers (a 3-42 and a 252, for example) which I liked because they weren't everywhere. But now I own one of each, both from roughly the late 70s to mid-80s, both purchased secondhand at half or less of a new example of each. I like how they write and I like how they feel, and would rather use these than a lot of other pens at the same price point. I admit that I am sometimes a little like that hipster record store clerk who rolls his eyes at the customers who buy popular music instead of the obscure gems he listens to... but I'm trying to overcome that. Ultimately, for me, the fact that something has become ubiquitous is, on its own, no more a reason to avoid it than it is to embrace it.

 

I probably wouldn't take mine out in public either, though. 😉 

[Penguincollector]

  Most of the folks I know in real life outside of my pen club don’t own a MontBlanc of any sort. Many pen club members don’t either, come to think of it- the newer to fp types like the sparkly acrylic pens for the most part and find them boring. More for me.

 
ETA: Since most folks are disclosing numbers, I have 9. 

[carola]

No Montblanc Meisterstück pens for me, I simply don´t like their looks. My aunt wanted to give me hers (I don´t remember if it was a 144 or a 146), but I asked her to keep it as I would never use it. And once a salesperson asked me to test write a 146, which I did. This was a very scratchy experience with the pen skipping all along. No, thank you.

 

I was perfectly happy without having any Montblanc pens in my little pen accumulation, when one day a friend said, it´s not even true that you don´t like Montblancs. Okay, you don´t like the Meisterstück series and you don´t like modern Montblancs, but here... try this. And he handed me a Platin coloured 234 1/2 from the 1930s, that made me promptly go "ooh... shiny!" About a year later, this pen was followed home by a coral red 216 from the 1950s, and again about a year later, there was this light-green marbled 246 from the 1940s/1950s. They are beautiful and they are very nice writers. But the Meisterstück pens? Nope, still not my cup of tea. And probably won´t ever be.

[inkstainedruth]

@rochester21 I have a few MB inks, but none of their pens.  

A number of years ago, a guy who used to be in my local pen club handed me his MB146 one night, and was basically going, "Try this!  You'll be spoiled forever!"  Only my reaction to that was "Meh...."  And thinking, "The Parker 45 I paid less than $11 US for in a little antiques place on the eastern edge of Corry, PA writes nicer than this...."  Then, a couple of months later, the guy has me try his MB 149.  And while that did have a nicer nib than the 146 had, the pen itself was just too big and heavy for me.

A few months ago, someone else had me try the MB 22 she'd inherited from her mom, and that was a reasonable size and weight for me.  But -- as I suspected, I probably couldn't afford one -- did a quick online search and most of the ones I was seeing were black.... 😴 And the one grey one I saw was still fairly pricy, just because of the "cachet" (I can see my brother's stupee housemate wanting a MB just to show off -- and my response to him would be along the lines of "I recently paid thirty bucks TOTAL for a vintage Parker 51 Signet -- and I bet it writes better...").

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Carguy]

In 20 years I had never owned an MB then I fell in love with the JFK and bought a blue one and burgundy. Love their looks and how they write, but don’t need any more at current prices.

[Karmachanic]

Of my two hundred or so acquaintances one has a TWSBI, and one a Kaweco Sport. I have four MBs.

[Sailor Kenshin]

Everyone I know doesn't have a Montblanc.

 

I own three.

[PAKMAN]

I have MB's, numerous models and like them. I always buy on secondary market as I have no interest in paying MSRP for them. I have pen friends from here and our pen club so of course I know others that have Montblanc pens. However here in the US and in my small town in Arkansas there is literally no one that I know that has one and very few that even have or use fountain pens. 

[Misfit]

Both my brother and I who have many fountain pens own no Montblanc pens. I do have some of their inks, but no pens. 

[Opooh]

Part of the people I know have a MB but also other pens. I know them because they own pens, I even gave or will give some of them a MB ( my siblings). As for my wife, a hopeless  case, writes with everything as long it is cheap, mostly the plastic pens with name of the shop on it or bics bought by the dozen.She is like 99 % of the people I know.

 

[CS388]

I've been using Montblanc pens for decades (Meisterstuck and others).

In all that time, I've met two other users (a 144 and a Mozart) and probably 'spotted' only two, or three 'in the wild'.

Most of my friends and colleagues have no interest in fountain pens - and on the rare occasions I've talked to them about Montblanc, they are aghast at the prices!

 

[USG]

I don't have one either..... 🤷‍♂️

[Aether]

Have seen in airport shops but not for owning and do not know a person with a MB.