Resist! How Do You Hold Off The Next Purchase?

[kalali]

Am I seeing a business opportunity here? Rehab for Fountain Pen addicts? Looking for investors...

[BrandonA]

I find it easy

 

1. Have a pen buying strategy that forces you not to buy any old tat

 

2. Have a budget and only spend money allocated to the pen fund

 

3. Don't go aimlessly searching eBay looking for pens or anything for that matter as you will always find things that tempt you

Edited October 27, 2013 by BrandonA

[sadiemagic]

Two strategies:

 

Pull out some old ones I haven't inked up in a while to see if that satisfies my urge for variety or something new

 

If it's a costly new purchase, select an existing pen to sell and then once it sells put that money towards the new one.

 

This latter strategy is working pretty well to winnow pens that I like but don't love.....

Edited October 27, 2013 by sadiemagic

[Sudhir]

Am I seeing a business opportunity here? Rehab for Fountain Pen addicts? Looking for investors...

 

[BookCat]

Buy a cheap Chinese copy for a fraction of the price. For example, I would love a Parker Sonnet, so have purchased a Baoer 388 for under £5 instead!

[Moxoftritonytes]

I use only one pen at the moment and don`t feel the urge to buy another for this one has a really superb nib that can`t be beaten. Not by the priciest Montblanc. So no need for me to go out and buy another pen.

[JotterAddict62]

I try to stay away from this thing called the interweb. It doesn't work.

 

Try to keep on a pen budget. That works sometimes.

 

Stop going to auctions. Who am I kidding..

 

Stop going to antique shops. Winter is a coming. i get cabin fever at least once a week on Fridays.

 

The best way I keep from my next purchase is to not buy any pen that is not a Parker. This seems to work for me as I only collect the one pen maker. I try to limit myself only to add to my advertising Jotter collection. The ones I think are neat looking. Another way I refrain from buying is to sell off some of my doubles and bank the funds to buy the big ticket item I see that is not a pen. I just stay with collecting Parker Pens and anything that is related to Parker like small displays, signs and whatever else that comes along. I still say to myself pen collecting is better than drinking alcohol as I am an alcoholic that has been sober since Oct 87. I'd rather be a pen addict at lease the pens will be around longer than a hangover that is gone in two days.. I seen that I bought a pen lot of 6 last night for $10 and I have bids on a few more and still looking at a number of advertising Jotters. I just try not go go overboard on buying each week.

[sandy101]

A pen budget? Every month I put a fixed amount of cash into the pen box. That's your budget - so If I put £10 a month away, I could afford to buy a nice Japanese Mak-e fountain pen at the end of the year, unless I buy another pen in the meantime,

[Pen Nut]

How do I resist my next pen purchase ?Dead easy. I dont

[rishikhanna]

Sometimes, i remind myself of the pens i have which need repair / nib tuning.

 

I tell myself why not invest the time and money in getting the pens i already have up to a 100 percent.

 

So a replacement nib, a trip to a nibmeister, a new sac etc - may provide some respite from the urges, at a fraction?of the cost.

[I like mango cheesecake]

tis hard, yes, I know. I just bought another pen today off ebay.

 

Even harder is keeping up with my horological hobby. I also just picked up another watch last week.

[Jadie]

Find a grail and save for that. Every pen I see in the meantime, I treat as an enemy/obstacle to getting what I realllly want.

 

Or, better yet, remember that I have friends and family and use the money to buy them gifts instead (lots of birthdays and holidays coming up soon)~!

 

Write something with my existing pens so I can remember how much I already like what I have. Count my blessings, remember that the nib outweighs anything else in a pen for me, and that I already have all the nibs I want/need/use...etc.

 

Regularly checking bank account statements is a good dose of reality, too. I like mine well padded, so to speak.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I have three strategies.

 

The first is that I wait. That gets me over that initial "falling in lust" with a pen. Those few pens that I purchased after such a long waiting period turned out to be amazing and wonderful and totally worth it. With most pens, the lust is over and I don't care.

 

The second strategy is that I ask what new role the pen will fill. For example, do I want a stub? Do I want a pen for green ink? A Konrad to experiment with Speedball nibs? Most likely, my answer is that I don't actually have a use for the pen. But, maybe it will replace another pen. Since the pens I have are all pens I like, this isn't easy. (Admittedly, a replacement for one of them is on the way.)

 

The third strategy is to put the pen into context. I don't have a pen budget, but I do have a budget for fun items. That $400 Pelikan m800 is a new front door. That $200 Delta 82 is a whole bunch of books. That $100 Namiki Falcon will put trim around a bunch of windows. Actually, living in an unfinished house is a great incentive not to buy a lot of pens! I need to improve the quality of my life, and pens will not give me the biggest "bang for my buck."

 

By the way, these strategies work with anything. Spending within a budget also works and allows you to plan for an item rather than buy during that emotional high.

[Edwaroth]

Tell yourself, "NO!, that is one of the ugliest pens on the planet and grossly overpriced" Then go and buy an Aurora and save a couple hundred quid.

[SnorriRafn]

By not having the money or an easy access. I have to buy everything online here in Iceland. Also, just buy some new ink or paper!

[The Blue Knight]

By loosing your favourite pen then you feel so (bleep) when think of fountain pens so you do anything not too. That's what happened to me I lost my Parker Sonnet and I do still use my fountain pens however I have no intention of buying any more for the foreseeable future as I really can't bare to loose another so I only use my fountain pens at home and have to use a Pilot G1 or Stabilo Bionic for uni notes as these are the only 2 disposable roller balls I've found that work for me.

[79spitfire]

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-laughing024.gif

[WirsPlm]

By loosing your favourite pen then you feel so (bleep) when think of fountain pens so you do anything not too. That's what happened to me I lost my Parker Sonnet and I do still use my fountain pens however I have no intention of buying any more for the foreseeable future as I really can't bare to loose another so I only use my fountain pens at home and have to use a Pilot G1 or Stabilo Bionic for uni notes as these are the only 2 disposable roller balls I've found that work for me.

Oh no!

 

Have you thought about getting into cheaper pens for every-day carry? You can get halfway decent copies for the Parker Sonnet for <$10, or you could branch out and get cheap Pilot pens (I think I've lost 2 Varsities so far, but I really don't care, because you can't even buy lunch around here for the cost of 2 Varisties), etc. There's lots of options that for cheap FPs for regular carry.

 

As for resisting new purchases, what I find does help me is a focus on specs and technicalities (size, weight, capping, filling system, etc). I want to get familiar with the different aspects of FPs, so if a pen has some feature that I don't already have in my collection and is within my price limit I'll get it (price limit is $20ish) and not feel guilty. This way I can try out the different things FPs have to offer without committing lots of money to something I don't like. I'm getting to the point where there aren't many features of FPs that I haven't experienced, so I'm not that interested in getting new pens. I have lots to play around with that I haven't been able to try yet, it's not like FPs are going away, and if something does come up that I know I'm interested in I'll be happy to consider it.

 

If I need to remind myself that I don't really want a new pen that will just take up space, I start going through my currently inked pens and using them all. That distracts me from the other pen, and also reminds me that I have more than is reasonable to use, and reminds of why I started buying FPs in the first place (which another pen won't really help with, since after all, I can only use one at a time).

Edited October 28, 2013 by WirsPlm

[Bill Wood]

I have been with the same 'accountant' for 33 years. Keeps me on the straight and narrow. Funny, she always seems to have money in her purse.

 

By some ink instead !

[mrchan]

 

Have you been successful in averting, or significantly delaying, the next in a long line of purchases? If so, what have you done to push it back?

 

No.