Are You A User, Collector Or Both?

[penxade]

Do you collect fountain pens?

 

Do you mainly keep functionality in front of collecting in priorities.

 

Or are you a balance between the 2 please?

[SteveE]

Actually, I'm neither. I consider myself an "accumulator." I have around 125 pens, all sorts of pens, and I try to use them all. My accumulation of pens has no focal point or direction. It is just the result of about 25 years of buying pens that I want to use.

 

I guess if I must "force" myself into one of your categories, I'd be a user -- and a happy one. This hobby is a lot of fun, and is only as engrossing and costly as you want it to be. People can get a lot of enjoyment from a couple of inexpensive Chinese (or other origin) pens. They can learn a lot about how pens work and how to repair and maintain them without breaking the bank. Or. . . they can spend as much buying pens as most of us do buying things like cars and houses. I'm not sure, though, that the individuals who spend huge (to me) sums of money necessarily get more enjoyment from the hobby.

 

This type of question comes up from time to time, and it is always fun to toss it about.

[linearM]

I am both. I have a collection of over 70 pens and try to have them all in rotation at one time or another. There are about 30 people from Finland to Japan, from Sweden to Australia and places in between that I write to, so I try to keep my pens busy.

[WaskiSquirrel]

I own too many pens, but I consider myself a user. If I'm not writing, what's the point of a pen? If I'm not writing with it, it's just clutter.

[delano]

When I started this hobby, I had one pen. A Lamy Safari that was my work horse for the better part of a year. Now,I have 30. But all of them, even the vintage, are in rotation.

 

I would classify myself as a user, not a collector, because there is nothing particular of which I try to get the whole set. I only buy pens for their beauty and writing experience, not their rarity or collectibility.

[Studio97]

I have too many fountain pens, quality ball points and roller balls and a large run of disposable pens. I am a bargain hunter. I just received a new Waterman Hemisphere FP today. I'll see how it goes. I am hard on FP nibs which may be due to my lefthandedness. So I buy more and dare I say I'm a FP and misc pen hoarder. I use them all. This is all due to my parents who kept coffee cans full of pens. Few of them worked.

[Bisquitlips]

I am both.

 

Some pens I have attained for their beauty. Others for their utility. I have a Lamy Al-Star with a 1.1 italic that I enjoy writing with as much as any of my more expensive FPs. But I enjoy carrying and admiring the Omas Arco or the Montblanc Agatha much more than the Lamy. Each has their place.

[saranw71]

I use what I collected

[perfaddict]

Actually, I'm neither. I consider myself an "accumulator.",,,,

 

 

I use what I collected

 

 

These more or less categorise what i am.

[Blue_Moon]

User. For the past year, I've been decreasing the number of pens I have. I'm down to 27 pens, and still have plans to go lower.

[Keyless Works]

I'm a user...I always think I want to be a collector though. I have a number of nice vintage Italian pens but I use them sparingly and wonder why I waste so much money on them. An Extra Lucens or Tibaldi is no better than the equivalent American like a Parker Vac (the Italians are actually worse in most cases) but cost 4-10 times as much.

[vans4444]

I was a collector, but now I am mainly a user.

[Buzz_130]

I started with some modern pens with no rhyme or reason, and then I fell in love with vintage pens. I had aspirations of becoming a collector, but I couldn't focus tightly enough on one type of pen to make the collection feasible (time and money). Now, I'm a proud user of fountain pens who likes to show off (when asked) some of my favorite pens. Interestingly, most people gravitate toward the modern pens, but I mostly carry vintage.

 

Buzz

[marcelo]

Definitely a user. I have 4 pens but use only 2 since I do not have the opportunity (should I call environment?) for writing with the others, both being too expensive and kind of ostentatious for my everyday - a Parker Premier and a Caran d'Ache Léman.

[Charles Rice]

I'm a user with too many pens.

[DanceOfLight]

IMHO collector = a person who buys a pen primarily NOT to use it... Then there is me, who buys a pen with the intention of using it, but a few are so beautiful that.... i become a collector :-/ . So yeah...

Edited May 10, 2015 by DanceOfLight

[deepak23]

I am primarily a user. All my pens come into rotation one time or other except for a few. These are pens that I am collecting ie handmade Indian ebonite pens of different vintages. The modern ebos I use, but the vintage ones and the rare to get go into the 'collection' unused.

 

BUT as the number of pens keep increasing, many may not find the way back iñto rotation.

[ISW_Kaputnik]

I have used all my pens, and would never buy one that I didn't intend to use. On the other hand, having used them, there are some I keep around just because they're interesting to me, but without any great likelihood of using them again. I have given some away, and keep planning to sell others, thinking that I have "too many", but that's not necessarily going to keep me from buying more later.

 

So where I used to deny being a collector, using substitute terms such as "accumulator", or "acquisitor", I now just admit it, although I collect in my own way. The collection has no clear focus or goal, it's just pens that seemed interesting to me at some point. It includes pens that get inked frequently, ones that will almost certainly be used again (eventually), and others that might never write another word in my lifetime. It's organized in a way that makes sense to me if I want to find something, and I keep a list in case I forget how many Esterbrooks or Parker 21s I have.

 

And I'm a user, too, of course. I don't think I could keep this level of interest if I weren't filling notebooks with my fountain pen scrawlings.

Edited May 10, 2015 by ISW_Kaputnik

[Runnin_Ute]

Primarily a user. Although I have about 18 pens. They all get used to some degree.

[Dronak]

I consider myself a fountain pen user rather than a collector, because I buy pens with the intention of using them. With a dozen pens, I suppose there's a bit of collecting in there, too, but specifically collecting isn't my goal. I buy pens I think I'll enjoy using, and right now, I am able to use them all regularly enough to keep ink flowing. If that changes, I may have to cut down on the number of pens I use regularly, storing away my less favored pens, but I'd still say I'm primarily a user.