To ink or not to ink

[KendallJ]

Just in case you need some help visualizing the situation. Let's say it's this pen from Wet Inc. retailing for, oh say, $205

 

http://www.wetinc.com/pens/Vacumatics/images/VacM-717_detail_sm.jpg

 

or maybe this one...

 

http://www.wetinc.com/pens/51%20Vacs/images/P51VF-818_sm.jpg

Edited November 12, 2004 by KendallJ

[winedoc]

I say, ink that puppy... that's what pens are for.

[KCat]

i wouldn't buy it but that's not an option so I won't vote. I'd probably leave it for the Keepers of the Pristine. was a time I'd have said "ink it" but now I just would avoid the situation altogether.

 

now... if I were *given* such a pen. I honestly don't know what I'd do. i tend to view all gifts as precious so it'd be hard to get rid of it. But i don't like things that just hand around unused. sigh... such a conundrum. Thankfully, i doubt it's one I'll ever face.

[Maja]

Well, I chose the middle option ("Ok, maybe just a little. ink, but don't pull off the sticker.") I mean, I think it would be a shame if the pen was made, never to be used.....I would keep the sticker on unless I felt it was somehow harmful to the pen material (I think this was debated on Pentrace)

[mchristi]

I voted to ink it. Pens are for writing with. Having a wonderful pen should be enjoyed. Pens are enjoyed by writing with them.

 

But then, I'm someone who doesn't get the collecting of toys or other items kept unopened or unused in original packaging (keeping the packaging for some things is one thing, never opening it is another). What's the point of having that Star Wars action figure or that Matchbox car if it's still sealed in the package. You can't display it that well. I can only see some rather limited circumstances where other considerations might weight more in the balance.

 

This also connects with my wish that museums (especially art museums) would have an open storage system, so that, even if not displayed optimally, the objects could be seen by museum goers.

 

So, I say use it. Fulfill the pen's purpose. Make it what is meant to be.

 

Mark C.

[Keith with a capital K]

I own very few mint in the box, uninked pens and that is for one reason... I prefer to use my pens and think that in most cases, those pristine examples should be saved for future generations to appreciate.

 

The really nice user grade pen will be pretty much indistinguishable from the mib pen anyways and will usually come with a much lower price tag.

[Free Citizen]

I am more of a user than a collector so I say, ink it. I would remove the sticker but not throw it away. I would attached it somewhere for keepsake. Just as I still keep all my pens packaging. If you need to dispose some of them later on, they will fetch a higher price if it has original packings and stickers

Edited November 13, 2004 by Free Citizen

[Titivillus]

Just in case you need some help visualizing the situation. Let's say it's this pen    from Wet Inc. retailing for, oh say, $205

If you buy it you have every right to ink it up or for that matter back a car over it, grind it into powder, use it as a dibbler or tobacco tamper. The question comes is do you have the disposable income to buy an item that other people value greatly and use it such that the value tanks down to a user grade pen or below. Or if a uninked & stickered pen finds it's way into your collection would you sell it ( now or at a later time when it may be more valuable) and buy a user of the same style and pocket the money.

 

People may say that you sohould keep a pristine pen in that condition, I'd say do they have the money to buy the pen from you and hold it themselves.

 

 

Kurt H

Edited November 14, 2004 by Free Citizen

[Free Citizen]

People may say that you should keep a pristine pen in that condition,

Interesting, when people say that, we know they are not only users but also a fanatic collector. Or, just a trader particular about preserving its value

[roisnoir]

I'd ink it.

Pull the sticker and put it in a notebook, along with the information of where it came from, likely written with the pen in question.

Pens are meant to be used.

(Says the woman with the previously uninked, stickered murex that was inked and unstuck within 30 minutes of recieving it.)

[JeffTL]

Really depends. Pens can be enjoyed with the hands -- but also with the eyes. What to do depends from example to example -- but I, for one, actually enjoy having previously-used vintage pens. It gives them character.

[antoniosz]

If it were my only pen, I would ink it.

 

If it were a pen I collect, I would not ink it.

 

If it were a pen I do not collect, I would sell it and buy a used one for less. Especially if it were a pen of value, since mint pens may carry a 50% to maybe 200% premium over the used ones.

 

If it were your pen - it is your right to do as you wish

 

AZ

Edited October 18, 2005 by antoniosz

[Kees]

If I were a pen I’d want to be inked!

[HesNot]

I can see the dilemma - one I've not faced so it is easy for me to say "ink it"! but I haven't put forth that much cash on a NOS pen before.

[JesseD]

As some others have said, why buy a NOS pen when you can get the same pen used and in perfect working condition for much less money? There aren't that many old pens that are in perfect, unused condition left and once its inked, it can never be never inked again. If it was given to me, unless it was a very common and cheap pen, I would not ink it. The few pens left in this condition should be preserved for future generations.

-Jesse

[Slush99]

Of course! Ink it up!

[Johnny Appleseed]

Just because it has the sticker does not mean it hasn't been inked before.

 

For the most part I agree with Antonios on this one. If it were truly un-inked, I probably would not ink that pen, but then I would probably not buy either one for that price. However, niether of these are such rare pens that I would say it was wrong to ink them up.

 

There is a difference between inking a pen and damaging it. You can use some of the most rare pens in the world without causing them damage, but using it doesn't mean you should necessarily to clip it to your t-shirt when you go jogging.

 

But then, I'm someone who doesn't get the collecting of toys or other items kept unopened or unused in original packaging (keeping the packaging for some things is one thing, never opening it is another).

 

I think there is something different between preserving a 60+ year old pen that has somehow managed to avoid the ravages of time, and preserving a new object that someone made to be collectible. I hate the notion of keeping a brand new toy, or pen, unused in the box just so it will be worth something some day.

 

When I was a child, my Grandmother, always the anglo-phile and royalty nut went to England for the Queens Silver Jubilee. She sent my brother and I a pair of Corgy Silver Jubilee commemorative double-decker buses. My dad, the corgy collector, insisted that we keep them in their box, unopened, because "they will be worth a lot of money someday". I still have mine, in the box. I checked E-bay a little while back and found 9 auctions selling the same bus, still in box. Only 2 were bid on at all, and they sold for $5-10. Maybe they will be worth money some day, but there are much more lucrative investments out there. When my kids get a little older, so they can play with it without smashing it, that bus is coming out of the box.

 

If I found an unused toy bus from the 1940s, I think that would be a different story.

 

J. Appleseed

[playpen]

Does anyone ever consider how the pen feels about this? Are not all pens created to be writers? How can any of us deny anything its potential? That's like buying a stuffed toy and putting it on a shelf without hugging it. All that wasted love...

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Just in case you need some help visualizing the situation. Let's say it's this pen    from Wet Inc. retailing for, oh say, $205

At $205 I'm not buying it in any case!

 

So I'm not voting because I don't know what I'd do. I buy fountain pens to be users. The pleasing thing for me is in the using of the fountain pen. But I certainly can't afford to buy them at that price.

 

If someone were to give me a $205 pen I would probably not ink it but would put it away in a relatively safe place, I suppose. Do people really have $205 users? I suppose that some can afford such a thing, but it took me a while to put a pair of $10 pens in my bag for general use outside of the house.

[Glenn-SC]

You missed some options:

 

1) Pound it into dust with a hammer

 

2) Resell it in its current condition for a lot of money to a "Collector" and buy a "user" grade of the same pen.

 

3) Keep it "mint" but display it (in contrast to putting it in a drawer).

 

Once you buy it you can do whatever you wish with it.

 

I have pens that I enjoy without inking and more than enough others thatr I enjoy as users.

 

I would keep it mint and either sell it later for a nice return or give it to my son or daughter later on.