What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[gweimer1]

54 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Is OPS actually happening?  I hadn't heard.  I know that Terry had finally snagged another site for it, but then lockdowns happened last year.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Last I heard, yes.

[sirgilbert357]

The Dallas Pen Show is still on, but everyone will be required to wear masks. I can't wait to go...I really hope it doesn't get canceled like last year's.

[essayfaire]

On 8/30/2021 at 4:04 AM, A Smug Dill said:

 

 

 

 

 

So, my obsessive compulsive buying of good quality and/or interesting items is not confined to the fountain pen hobby; but it has simply been my main focus in the past couple of years.

This is exactly why though I have cleaned out closets and storage I still like to follow the 20/20 rule of thumb - if it would cost more than $20 or 20 minutes to replace, keep the darn thing.  My house doesn't look minimalistic but I still get to have paper copies of those books the library only now has in "e" format.

 

I don't currently have a horse.  I have a nice saddle which may or may not fit any future horse I may have.  I did give away the relatively inexpensive Wintec leadline saddle once my youngest child hit age eight!  

 

 

[Aysedasi]

Thinking back to the title of this thread, am I the only person for whom every pen acquisition is impulsive.....? 

[inkstainedruth]

Well some of mine are pens that I heavily researched first to know what a good/fair price would be, and what the differences between models were, like I did for my Ciselé Parker 75.  Others have been "Oooh, shiny!" purchases; or "too good a deal to pass up".   Or simply, "Well, I liked X pen, and this is a different color/different nib width from what I already have...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[NgunnawalJack]

16 hours ago, Aysedasi said:

Thinking back to the title of this thread, am I the only person for whom every pen acquisition is impulsive.....? 

Possibly, but I’m worried I’m falling down that rabbit hole.

🤔

[A Smug Dill]

17 hours ago, Aysedasi said:

Thinking back to the title of this thread, am I the only person for whom every pen acquisition is impulsive.....? 

 

Nobody knows. Who in the world can possibly know about everyone else (that has ever acquired one or more pens, if you want to narrow the scope down somewhat from seven billion people)?

 

When I ordered my first four Monami Penna pens, it certainly wasn't impulsive; I've been looking for a retailer or seller of it for a while, and even tried local stockists of Korean cutesy stuff, including some that nominally have/had one or two Monami products in store according to signage. It took the total price of four such $4 pens to qualify for free international shipping; and I waited until there was an sales campaign on AliExpress, such that the spend on those Penna pens contributed to triggering an up-to-10% discount (or, more specifically, $3 discount for every multiple of $30 spent on eligible items) on the day.

[Paul-in-SF]

Some questions are just rhetorical -- "a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect or to make a point rather than to get an answer" -- and not literal.

[A Smug Dill]

2 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

… "a question asked in order to create a dramatic effect …

 

… sometimes falls flat.

[NgunnawalJack]

10 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

Some questions are just rhetorical

And some people just have to answer them.

😇

[Aysedasi]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Nobody knows. Who in the world can possibly know about everyone else (that has ever acquired one or more pens, if you want to narrow the scope down somewhat from seven billion people)?

 

 

I'm sorry, but give me strength.......  

[Aysedasi]

1 hour ago, NgunnawalJack said:

And some people just have to answer them.

😇

 

Oh yes......... 

[christam]

A Pilot Custom 845 Urushi Red fountain pen, B nib.  I've been looking at them for a while but the order today was impulsive in the sense that when I woke up this morning I had no intention of buying another pen.  Yet.  Possibly not until Fountain Pen Day.  Or even Black Friday.  I'm also sadly certain that I won't be strong-willed enough to put it away after it arrives for "someone" to give me for Christmas.

[maclink]

8 minutes ago, christam said:

 I've been looking at them for a while but the order today was impulsive in the sense that when I woke up this morning I had no intention of buying another pen.

Fair enough.  You made a good choice there however.  I can understand what you went through.  

 

I'm currently in a phase where the thought of a new pen makes me frown - 'what are you really going to do with it?' Add it to the rest in storage and occasionally used? That feeling is strong for me now.

 

However, I know this could change.  Afterall, I am still waiting for the MB Egyptomania that I ordered 3 months back.

[christam]

1 hour ago, maclink said:

Fair enough.  You made a good choice there however.  I can understand what you went through.  

 

Afterall, I am still waiting for the MB Egyptomania that I ordered 3 months back.

 

Thank you for your understanding 😄.

 

And I'm still waiting for mine too, ordered on 1st June.  If I think about it, I can probably blame that wait for today's impetuous spending!

[JonSzanto]

I don't tend to purchase too many pens that are easy to find and buy, pens you can get from many vendors and are common sights, as I don't buy a lot of modern/current production pens.. Most are more difficult to find, some remarkably so. Impulse is a somewhat loaded word, so while I may spot a pen I have been looking for for years and purchase it immediately, I tend to not consider that impulsive, but simply the only time to actually make the transaction.

 

For me, an impulse purchase is just a pen that looks interesting, has some historical merit, or just delights me in some way. I don't overthink it, I don't try to justify it, and the decision to buy may be for the most superficial of reasons. I don't know if it would be my most recent, but a friend asked about cool celluloids, and I added the following quick photo to the thread. The 2nd pen from the left was purchased as a BIN on eBay the very second I saw it, because the pattern was just nuts and I've never seen anything like it. I haven't restored it yet, and not sure I will. It holds it's own simply as an example of the creativity of 2nd tier pen-makers in the Golden Era of fountain pens.

 

 

(l-r: Conklin Symetrik, 3 Diamond Points - all circa 1930s-40s)

[inkstainedruth]

Those Diamond Points are really attractive looking -- especially the grey and black one with the zig-zag pattern.

For me it was a gold color overlay ringtop lever filler that I happened onto in an antiques shop on the outskirts of Erie, PA this afternoon, with what appears to be a Parker nib on it.  Bought it strictly for the nib (which may need a little work) and assumed it was a no-name (although the engraved pattern on the barrel and cap are similar to a sterling overlay Morrison ringtop I have, it clearly is not a Morrison -- those tend to have the name on the lever).  But I just now noticed that there was some lettering on the bottom edge of the barrel, so I pulled out my loupe with the light, and while part of the wording is not legible, I *think* the pen might be a Mabie Todd Swan!  

Not too shabby for $9.99 US plus sales tax. 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: After logging out earlier, I did a little bit of online searching, and found a similarly marked pen (admittedly in MUCH better condition and with the correct nib) and I'm now pretty certain that the pen I found this afternoon *is* a Mabie Todd Swan (beyond that, it's anyone's guess).  I found a link to a pen that Peyton Street Pens repaired and sold a while back:

https://www.peytonstreetpens.com/mabie-todd-usa-swan-fountain-pen-ring-top-gold-filled-flexible-fine-superior-restored.html].  The engraved design on the barrel and cap look very similar, not to mention the general size and shape of the pen.  The imprint is more clearly marked than on my pen, but enough is still legible on mine that it seems to match what was on the one they sold.  I'm missing the jump ring connected to the ring on the cap (and of course there's the replacement nib).  There is a slight difference to the end of the lever, and  but that could also be the angle at which the photo was taken.  But overall, I'm pretty confident of the ID (for the most part).

[A Smug Dill]

On 8/14/2021 at 4:55 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I thought I said I'm not going to give Leonardo Officina Italiana another chance, but somehow just now I did. I hope it doesn't disappoint me the way Parker did when I gave the latter a chance to redeem itself. On the way next week is a Leonardo Musis Oplontis. Hmmm, what was I thinking?

 

And Leonardo disappointed me once again. Not even with a significantly more expensive pen than the Momento Zero could it get the nib right. I haven't really been that keen on the pen, so it's only today, a fortnight after I received it, that I finally decided to inspect the nib under a loupe, before inking it to try out its writing performance. (That's not prudence as a hobbyist to me, but a lack of faith in a product, and a bad sign. I dislike ‘having to’ inspect a nib under a loupe, and would generally only do so if a nib exhibited performance issues that warrant troubleshooting and problem resolution.) The tines are misaligned, and even after accounting for the misalignment (without trying to fix it), I'm not convinced the two halves of the tipping are exactly the same height, never mind being perfectly symmetrical.

 

I haven't quite decided whether to send the pen back for a refund yet, or just keep it as another example of a poor purchase decision and proof to show my friends just how bad Leonardo can be, joining the ranks of Parker in my esteem. But it's definitely not a brand I'd recommend to anyone; if I comment positively on any of the aesthetics of the styling or material on one of its models, I'll be sure to balance it with the recommendation that one expects a inferior writing instrument out-of-the-box for the price, compared to other Italian brands such as Aurora and Santini Italia.

 

Edit:

 

Screw it; I'm sending it back.

 

 

[MuddyWaters]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

And Leonardo disappointed me once again. Not even with a significantly more expensive pen than the Momento Zero could it get the nib right. I haven't really been that keen on the pen, so it's only today, a fortnight after I received it, that I finally decided to inspect the nib under a loupe, before inking it to try out its writing performance. (That's not prudence as a hobbyist to me, but a lack of faith in a product, and a bad sign. I dislike ‘having to’ inspect a nib under a loupe, and would generally only do so if a nib exhibited performance issues that warrant troubleshooting and problem resolution.) The tines are misaligned, and even after accounting for the misalignment (without trying to fix it), I'm not convinced the two halves of the tipping are exactly the same height, never mind being perfectly symmetrical.

 

I haven't quite decided whether to send the pen back for a refund yet, or just keep it as another example of a poor purchase decision and proof to show my friends just how bad Leonardo can be, joining the ranks of Parker in my esteem. But it's definitely not a brand I'd recommend to anyone; if I comment positively on any of the aesthetics of the styling or material on one of its models, I'll be sure to balance it with the recommendation that one expects a inferior writing instrument out-of-the-box for the price, compared to other Italian brands such as Aurora and Santini Italia.

 

That's strange. Don't they use Jowo nibs, which usually come pretty reliable in the great majority of the time?

 

I got some ranga dip pens impulsively. 

[JonSzanto]

My six Leonardo pens have been excellent since day one. I would not hesitate in future purchasing of their work.