How Many Pens Make You A Collector?

[Nanor]

Heroin addicts never Set Out to become Heroin addicts...

 

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

 

[inkstainedruth]

SA, if it helps you any, I Have referred to myself as an Accumuluser.

 

(Accumulating User)

 

Bruce in Ocala, Fl

I really love that term. My husband, not so much. Although he now goes around telling him that my *real* new hobby is collecting ink....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Arkanabar]

I purchased all my pens from Joon, even after I moved to other states. I only had to call him. I missed the fact in time, he and his store I believe no longer exists.

No, I define an afficionado as someone who has more than a mild interest. I am awaiting the UPS person to bring me a pen. I have one I purchased last week. I am using it in between being here. I am perusing threads of conversation, which interest me, learning, interacting. All in the quest for what is my passion. I don't know everything, but I know some things, not afraid to ask or search Youtube.

For me an afficianado is someone who has a particular interest beyond minimal. I am responding to you, deciding what ink will go into my new pen, what replacement ink will be put into my other pens. I am contemplating the next word I am going to write with any of my pens. What wonderful multitasking going on before I post this to you.

I remember Joon's website. They had the MOST beautiful photography of any online pen store I've ever seen. His advice, to buy what you enjoy and can afford, remains excellent.

 

I was originally out to sample all sorts of things, to see which ones I liked. But I've had to conclude that I don't really want to fool around with lever fillers; I have one, and I always fret that I'll catch the lever slipping it into a pocket. Nor am I interested in sleek pens (inlaid, hooded, semi-hooded nibs), aside from my dad's "51" and the inlaid Sheaffers my inlaws have given to me; I like a bit of a stop or step or widening between my fingers and the nib.

 

I'd still like a button filler or two. And a vac fill. And possibly an ASA Pens Spear. And gawd, but the Pelikan M205 is pretty in black & chrome.

[Intellidepth]

Thanks to the Merriam Webster definition, I've instantly become a collector. Reality is, I'm still finding out what I like for different purposes.

 

Following a curious experimental path has led to multiple purchases of identical modern pens in different colours/nib widths I would not have normally made. They will become the pens handed to new curious people.

 

I have a favourite pen. It's vintage. It's old and green and has a cracked cap. I want more of that one because I enjoy it so much and want it inked with 3 different colours as every day carries.

[Bo Bo Olson]

5-6 of any one brand. If you have 5-6 P-51's you are a collector....after all you only need two or three.

 

Having 5 or so brands, that really don't make you a collector, in you have 'samples' of other brands.

Could be you are chasing nibs. If one alternates stub and CI there are some 45-50 nibs in various widths and flexes.

 

 

I do not collect MB....having a modern, a 70'-80's 146, a '50's 146 and two other '50's pens.

 

I seem to collect, Pelikan, Osmia, Geha (only the top of the line). I do not need every Pelikan, so am not 'quite' a collector. I sure need a slew of tortoise Pelikans.....sigh, if I had the money, I'd sure collect Tortoise Pelikans.

 

If you buy the prettiest of a pen brand back in the era where they made pretty pens.....no, you are not a collector....you are only sampling.

Edited March 14, 2015 by Bo Bo Olson

[Alexcat]

I think the answer is 42.

Snort

 

Alex

[mislav]

I believe it is personal decision when someone become, or do not become collector. I have more than 3 or 5 or... fountain pens but I do not consider myself to be collector.

 

If someone doesn't have any Parker fountain pen and decide to collect them all he is collector. Maybe at the time he do not own any Parker fp, but next month he will maybe have 100 of them in collection.

 

For me fp's are tools that I use every day.

[Alexcat]

 

I have a favourite pen. It's vintage. It's old and green and has a cracked cap. I want more of that one because I enjoy it so much and want it inked with 3 different colours as every day carries.

 

 

I love that description....it's so.....romantic, and kind, and just sweet: sounds a bit like I feel......old, and green( well, as. Trekkie, I could be one of the Orion slave girls. They're green)and with a cracked cap. I like that description so much I may adopt it

 

Thanks for the much needed smile

Alex

[torstar]

You are a collector when you can appreciate the good qualities of the hotel pens given out for free during conferences and stays, and take a few home, then forget they exist a week later.

[sidthecat]

Oh, dear...my fourth Waterman 52 1/2 v - that's the tipping point.

[Runnin_Ute]

 

I am not sure I'd call someone who has a memento from a special occasion a collector. My having my grandfathers railroad watch does not make me a watch collector.

Then what about the Hamilton Thin o Matic from one grandfather and the 1908 Waltham Model 1894 pocket watch that belonged to my other grandfather?

 

Of course I have a accumulation/collection of other watches. (10 Invicta's, 2 Stuhrling Original, 1 Rotary, among others)

[aawhite]

On the subject of collectors. What do you call a pen collector?

 

According to the Oxford Dictionaries web site there are words for coin, stamp and even beer mat collectors; they are, numismatist, philatelist and tegestologist, respectively.

 

So what are we called? If there is a name for a beer mat collector, shouldn't we have one?

[JonSzanto]

The closest I've seen to consensus (and it isn't close) is stylophile. Yeah, right.

 

We don't need no stinkin's badges!

[Ed Harley]

I think the answer is 42.

+!. with the understanding that 42 can be expressed in so many different ways. For instance, BACON is the 42 of the culinary world! Just sayin!

[Ed Harley]

 

Last time I counted I had more than three socks. What does this make me?

Just like socks pens are objects that I actually use.

 

I'd rather call me an "amateur" (latin "amare" = to love), because "collecting" rather sounds like some serious business and I don't have serious intentions.

Yup. If three is the magic number, one could say I collect wives. I just threw up a little!

[Dronak]

My collection began when I consciously decided that I wanted to collect--not when I had acquired a certain number.

 

I skimmed some of the earlier responses to thread, and think I'd agree with this post. I don't think having some specific number of items automatically makes you a collector of them. To me, collecting takes a decision and a goal. With fountain pens, that could be focusing on one specific brand, perhaps acquiring examples over time (vintage and modern) but perhaps not. With books or music, maybe it's getting all the work a particular author or artist (or few) produces. With trading card games, maybe it's trying to get one of every card in a set for one particular game in a process that would likely repeat for every new set in that game. I think there's got to be a target that you're aiming for, and you acquire items with the intention of hitting that target.

 

For me, fountain pens are something I use. I'm not specifically trying to collect them. Yes, I have a bunch, and probably more than I *need*, but I enjoy using them. All of my pens are currently inked and get used at least semi-regularly. My first few purchases were relatively cheap and mainly out of curiosity. The next bunch were more for brand variety. After that, it was partly brand variety and partly price; I got some pens from brands I already owned, but also added some new ones, and most weren't very expensive. My next ones might be more for nib variety. I don't have a specific goal in mind right now when buying fountain pens. I decide when/if I have money for a pen, and try to find something I think looks nice and I'll enjoy using, usually factoring in what's new-to-me about it. While I have some reason for obtaining each pen I have, there's no real, single overarching theme (or goal), so I don't really consider it collecting.

 

In short, my opinion is basically what I opened with: having a certain number of items doesn't make you a collector, but making a decision to collect and having a goal you're trying to reach with what you acquire does. Not everyone may agree, of course, but that's how I look at it.

 

Edit: Although I know this isn't doesn't have to be the case, I normally think of a collector as someone who doesn't use what he/she acquires. I have this impression of collectors buying things new, preserving them as well as possible, and not using them in order to maintain if not increase their value over time. That's another reason I don't think of myself as a collector of pens or almost anything else -- with only rare exceptions, I buy things to use them, not to save them untouched.

Edited May 21, 2015 by Dronak

[fly_us]

In my opinion, the number means nothing but the purpose of purchasing. A person purchases a lot of pens because they need to write a lot, and keep finding a better FP for daily writing is not really a collector. A person purchase only 3 or 4 FP, but never use them but put in the display cabinet might or might not be a collector.

 

To me, pens are supposed to be used. I have 8 Pelikans and about a dozen from other brands but i enjoy to use them and never consider my a collector. I used all of them, and buy it because i want to try to find out how it writes. I like Pelikans because the first expensive pen i bought is a Pelikan, i know how a Pelikan perform, hence i tend to prefer one when i search, not because i try to collect as much Pelikan as possible.

 

In brief, just to repeat again. The purpose of purchasing is what define a collector, not the number of pen.

Edited May 21, 2015 by fly_us

[dokpm0]

Uh oh, I'm just getting back into the fountain pen hobby and it looks like I'm already a collector. I have ten pens, three of which haven't arrived yet. I guess I'm also an ink collector. I have six inks, eleven if I include samples in the count. Humm, looks like I'm a dog collector too. I have three. Once upon a time I had thirteen.

[Moshe ben David]

You are a collector when ...

 

You've had your first fountain pen and used it for a few days. All the while daily doing an online package trace to figure out where your second one is and why it isn't in your hands yet!

 

We're sort of like folks who adopt retired greyhounds and call it 'chipping' (as in the Lays ad: nobody can have just one...)

[perfaddict]

It is the purpose or motive, not the number at hand, that makes the difference, IMO.