When buying a new expensive pen how important is the box for you ?

[Driften]

I also keep boxes incase I decide to sell the pen later. Pens with all their packaging sell faster and sometime for more money. I would rather the pens were cheeper then a fancy box, but knowing companies the pens would get just as high priced any ways. If we are not going to see actual savings a nice gift box is good.

[inkstainedruth]

I suspect that the reason for the fancy packaging is that a lot of people buying fountain pens are not like the people on here -- a lot of people are collectors, or buying a gift for someone for a special occasion. And in those cases the box matters. And in a niche market, the manufacturers are going to cater to the market....

Me, on the other hand? I'm largely buying vintage pens, so for most of mine the packaging is long gone. I do like the packaging for the modern Pelikans I've bought, because the box includes a nice little drawstring bag or sleeve. And the TWSBI box includes the wrench and grease container. And the boxes for the Decimo and the Vanishing Point because they had the directions for filling and such. But mostly? Naah. Don't really care. I saved one box from one of the Noodler's pens because of the artwork. But only one.

I did pick up a pen with a box a few months ago in an antiques store in NW PA; it was a cardboard Esterbrook box -- but the pen inside was a vintage Parker Parkette! Not bad for six bucks....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

@inkstainedruth

 

But then, collectors will be more likely to know in which kind of box a particular model of pen is shipped by the manufacturer. If I recall correctly (it's been a while!), my Pilot Vanishing Point raden models – now selling by retail for roughly three times the price of whichever is the Limited Edition VP pen of the year – came in plainer 'gift boxes' than the 2012 LE in the same product line.

 

There's a difference between a box that holds wider appeal and make it easier to sell, and a box that makes a 'collector's item' of a fountain pen authentic and secure its resale value among collectors.

 

A fancy box frustrates me that too much of what I'm paying for is the box and not the product, and because I might be tempted to let it take up space along with all the other unneeded (bleep) in the house.

 

I do appreciate a good paulownia box, such as that used by Platinum for their Izumo pens.

Edited October 9, 2018 by A Smug Dill

[mitto]

...but I like vintage pens coming alongwith their original boxes.

[A Smug Dill]

...but I like vintage pens coming alongwith their original boxes.

 

I was questioning whether original, when it comes to the box of an expensive pen, equates to nice, commensurately expensive-looking or otherwise having visual appeal in its own right. My point was that, especially with collectors, the original box would trump a 'nice' box any day, even if the manufacturer used to just package the pen for retail in a suitably-branded cardboard box.

[them700project]

Pen boxes are tossed in a storage tote and gone forever to me unless I decide to sell pen