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I was was tired of ballpoints. I found Jetpens and really liked all the tricky products with great aesthetic appeal. In March of this year, I bought a Keweco Sport and thought it was fun. I bought a Preppy 05 and liked it too. A better writing experience than BP. I always liked the notebooks on the site and ordered them for stocking stuffers. I also liked all the stationary/tape items and bought the fun ones (full disclosure: I worked at 3M for many years). I ordered Lamy Safaris for the twin grandsons. I read on the site that you could convert a Preppy to an eyedropper. I googled and found Mr Goulet and his videos. I ordered the kit and a bottle of Monteverdi Brown. This was suddenly fun. This was not my first view of fountain pens. I had learned joined up writing in the Philadelphis schools using stick pens, ink wells, and pen wipers. Then moved on to Esterbrools.I remember my Dad had a Parker 51. But at around 7th grade, the Reynolds pen made its appearance. And M. Bic. Years passed and I wrote a lot on yellow pads with a Dixon Ticonderoga # 2. I even persisted during the period I spent 3 years at Parker in Janesville WI as part of a team to get the company into lower price points. By definition this focused me of Jotters, Vectors, and the attempt at a disposable Parker BP, the Itala. Now, many years later, after a career involving using words glibbly, I am finding a real interest in pens. And in ebay! I bought two Heros and was amazed at what could be sold and shipped at a price from China we might have considered at Parker an unrealistic manufacturing cost before marketing and distribution!. I bought a Noodlers Flex, a Waterman Kulture and a Waterman Laureate and some blue ink. I was in the pool but hadn't found the right lane. Then I saw a fun-looking school pen ... The Resolve 1745 in black and green. With just a bit of research the Pelikan comes up and I bought a black and green 120. Then I saw that classic look, indeed remembered from two years in the Army in Germany in the '50s, black with striated green. Pelikan was the lane. The aesthetics, the look, the line, were right. I now have 2 100s, 1 100n, the 120, 2 250s, 2 400s and the MK 10 (shades of the Parker 51). I also have 2 brown inks, an orange, a blue, and a black/green. I load the Pelikans with either Pelikan Brilliant Brown or Diamine Black/green, depending on the pen. I don't really know that what I have is a 'collection', but to me they are great functional designsi ncorporating attractive materials and colors. I have examples of the pens in black with green, both marbled and striated, and in brown with boyh green and tortoise/gray. I look at the new Pelikans and don't find them as attractive. I do remember the Parker FP introduced in 1984. It was very big and had lost a sense of belonging in ones hand rather than in ones pocket as a status symbol. Is this what has happened with the models that go beyond 400 and have been dubbed Souverin?