What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[DvdRiet]

A blue Pelikan M400. I managed to hold off 'adding to the flock' for a long time after getting a vintage tortoise 400, but this one was such a good bargain that I couldn't pass it up.

[OldTravelingShoe]

On 3/9/2022 at 1:16 PM, A Smug Dill said:

I came close several times before in the past year to ordering this, and finally pulled the trigger a couple of hours ago.

 

Source: AliExpress item listing

 

Very nice pen, @A Smug Dill!

 

The nib reminds me of their and Pilot's 1990s nibs, and also reminds me of the 1950s-1960s (flexy) Montblancs 2xy and 3xy gold wing nibs. So now I'm wondering how it writes. I look forward to any updates and especially for a review. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

2 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

A blue Pelikan M400. I managed to hold off 'adding to the flock' for a long time after getting a vintage tortoise 400, but this one was such a good bargain that I couldn't pass it up.

1. Kudos for the vintage Pelikan 400 with tortoise shell striations, @DvdRiet, I was just telling @Chi

they seem to me the best-looking among Pelikans. De gustibus, but I am happy for you. 

 

2. I am now curious about the M400 Blue and the bargain. Or maybe if you say more you would be accused of enabling 😄

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

The nib reminds me of their and Pilot's 1990s nibs, and also reminds me of the 1950s-1960s (flexy) Montblancs 2xy and 3xy gold wing nibs. So now I'm wondering how it writes.

 

It's a modern Vicoh 14K gold nib, so I'd imagine it writes something like this one does:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/344907-lamy-benitoite-ink/?do=findComment&comment=4205686

 

[OldTravelingShoe]

21 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

It's a modern Vicoh 14K gold nib, so I'd imagine it writes something like this one does:

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/344907-lamy-benitoite-ink/?do=findComment&comment=4205686

 

Excellent explanation and example, links nicely also to the PTL-5000A I've heard about before. (I still need to place the Vicoh in the Platinum nomenclature.) Thank you, @A Smug Dill! 

[A Smug Dill]

I just ordered an Aurora 8‘88’ Terra yesterday. Alas, it has an F nib instead of one in my preferred EF nib grade; hopefully the blue PVD coating will make the ink flow drier (as coloured coatings usually do, in my experience) and thus the lines it puts down narrower.

 

At one point the retailer was going to offer me a good price on a unit of whichever Italian pen brand I choose, including the (then-upcoming) Aurora 88 Blue Mamba. If I was going to pick one with a blue nib at all, I'd take the Terra instead of the Blue Mamba (or the even newer Trilobiti), but the retailer told me at the time that the Terra, being a limited edition release the year before, was sold out and not coming back. So I was greatly and pleasantly surprised to see it back in stock some months later (at full retail price), and only mildly surprised that the units he had weren't moving quickly at all.

 

Now, though, the (last units of?) model — with F, M, and B nibs only — are/were offered at clearance prices, so I snapped up the one with the finest nib out of the available units, at a price that I don't think is any higher than I would have been offered last time.

 

21 minutes ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Excellent explanation and example, links nicely also to the PTL-5000A I've heard about before. (I still need to place the Vicoh in the Platinum nomenclature.) Thank you, @A Smug Dill! 

 

 

The Vicoh product line all have the same type of nib, the general body shape, and snap-caps instead of screw-caps. The PTL-5000A was the model on the lowest end in that product line, until it was discontinued some time in 2019 or maybe 2020.

 

 

[DvdRiet]

2 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

 

2. I am now curious about the M400 Blue and the bargain. Or maybe if you say more you would be accused of enabling 😄

Since you were such an enabler before with that Zalando deal 😉 - the pens arrived this week finally, very happy! Have you received yours? - I suppose it is only fair that I enable you with a recommendation for checking regularly, if you don’t already, the German pen forum (penexchange.de) for both private and commercial sales. I find the members are usually quite reasonable with their prices and more than willing to send pens across the border (I always offer to pay the (extra) postage of course.) I have found some really lovely pens there! 😊

[KBeezie]

Stopped by the local antique mall to go thru their magazines since one of the booths refreshed with new content. Then just for kicks was going thru the bags of miscellaneous pencils and such, and there was one big box of just "office supplies" for $12, saw a gold eversharp slip cap, most likely for their C/A ballpoints which aren't really worth anything but figured if something that old was in the box maybe something else would be.

 

 

Lo and Behold, an Eversharp Skyline.

 

 

Went ahead and purchased the box, sat in the car and sorted out everything. I put all the miscellaneous stuff I didn't want back into the box which ended up being donated to the local Good Will as school/office supplies.

 

 

The stuff I found besides the skyline isn't much :

* Esterbrook J Cap (alas, no body was found within the box)
* Esterbrook 2556 nib unit (... oddly that in there, but no body)
* Eversharp Red Pencil lead in the original tube
* Some odd advertising pens that had their barrels looking like a #2 pencil
* Some accessory clips (and whatever they were attached to)
* Red Stapler (office space popped to mind)
* Something I thought was a W/E 5th Avenue at first, but was actually a Eberhard Faber felt pen that clearly ripped off the Wahl 5th Avenue cap (cap was branded Eberhard Faber, so not a mismatch), and seems to have imitated a waterman 100 year barrel.
* Spare caps that may come in hand in the future for various Wearevers etc. Their bodies were not found in the box

 

 

I suspect since the saran wrap was ripped open on the box, that people could have pocketed various other pens if there were more like the Skyline in there. Especially given all the caps but missing bodies.

 

Anywho, just restored the pen once I got home. 

 

[Mercian]

17 minutes ago, KBeezie said:

Anywho, just restored the pen once I got home

Wow.

What a difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

 

Well done 

[OldTravelingShoe]

6 hours ago, DvdRiet said:

Have you received yours?

I did, @DvdRiet! They arrived mid-week and I've been unwrapping them at the rate of one box a day. I've inked two so far and summarized the experience here:

 

How about your acquisitions?

 

About further enabling: I credit you with enabling my Esteem x MadC exploration. I did not consider this line of pens until you wrote so nicely about them. 😄

 

So I'll take on the new recommendation; have never bought from penexchange.de. Ahem... explored pens from them. 

 

Many thanks, @DvdRiet! 

 

[OldTravelingShoe]

3 hours ago, Mercian said:

Wow.

What a difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures.

 

Well done 

I second @Mercian: @KBeezie, well done! 

[OldTravelingShoe]

7 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

I just ordered an Aurora 8‘88’ Terra yesterday. Alas, it has an F nib instead of one in my preferred EF nib grade; hopefully the blue PVD coating will make the ink flow drier (as coloured coatings usually do, in my experience) and thus the lines it puts down narrower.

 

At one point the retailer was going to offer me a good price on a unit of whichever Italian pen brand I choose, including the (then-upcoming) Aurora 88 Blue Mamba. If I was going to pick one with a blue nib at all, I'd take the Terra instead of the Blue Mamba (or the even newer Trilobiti), but the retailer told me at the time that the Terra, being a limited edition release the year before, was sold out and not coming back. So I was greatly and pleasantly surprised to see it back in stock some months later (at full retail price), and only mildly surprised that the units he had weren't moving quickly at all.

 

Now, though, the (last units of?) model — with F, M, and B nibs only — are/were offered at clearance prices, so I snapped up the one with the finest nib out of the available units, at a price that I don't think is any higher than I would have been offered last time.

 

 

 

The Vicoh product line all have the same type of nib, the general body shape, and snap-caps instead of screw-caps. The PTL-5000A was the model on the lowest end in that product line, until it was discontinued some time in 2019 or maybe 2020.

 

 

Many thanks, @A Smug Dill! Your story of the PTL-5000A explains how I got to know this pen, and by code no less - I was looking for my first fountain pen with a gold nib and found various discussion threads about this one being one of the most accessible (financially), but becoming inaccessible (physically). I was not able to find one and kept looking until I found what I thought was a good pen with a gold nib for the exorbitant price of €100. The most expensive pen I'd bought to that point and could not understand then why would anyone pay that much for such an instrument. O, tempora!  

[carola]

5 hours ago, KBeezie said:

Stopped by the local antique mall to go thru their magazines since one of the booths refreshed with new content. Then just for kicks was going thru the bags of miscellaneous pencils and such, and there was one big box of just "office supplies" for $12, saw a gold eversharp slip cap, most likely for their C/A ballpoints which aren't really worth anything but figured if something that old was in the box maybe something else would be.

 

 

Lo and Behold, an Eversharp Skyline.

 

 

Went ahead and purchased the box, sat in the car and sorted out everything. I put all the miscellaneous stuff I didn't want back into the box which ended up being donated to the local Good Will as school/office supplies.

 

 

The stuff I found besides the skyline isn't much :

* Esterbrook J Cap (alas, no body was found within the box)
* Esterbrook 2556 nib unit (... oddly that in there, but no body)
* Eversharp Red Pencil lead in the original tube
* Some odd advertising pens that had their barrels looking like a #2 pencil
* Some accessory clips (and whatever they were attached to)
* Red Stapler (office space popped to mind)
* Something I thought was a W/E 5th Avenue at first, but was actually a Eberhard Faber felt pen that clearly ripped off the Wahl 5th Avenue cap (cap was branded Eberhard Faber, so not a mismatch), and seems to have imitated a waterman 100 year barrel.
* Spare caps that may come in hand in the future for various Wearevers etc. Their bodies were not found in the box

 

 

I suspect since the saran wrap was ripped open on the box, that people could have pocketed various other pens if there were more like the Skyline in there. Especially given all the caps but missing bodies.

 

Anywho, just restored the pen once I got home. 

 

 

Wow. That Skyline cleaned up nicely!

 

[DvdRiet]

1 hour ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

I did, @DvdRiet! They arrived mid-week and I've been unwrapping them at the rate of one box a day. I've inked two so far and summarized the experience here:

 

How about your acquisitions?

 

About further enabling: I credit you with enabling my Esteem x MadC exploration. I did not consider this line of pens until you wrote so nicely about them. 😄

 

So I'll take on the new recommendation; have never bought from penexchange.de. Ahem... explored pens from them. 

 

Many thanks, @DvdRiet! 

 

 

I saw that you had posted this review right after I had already replied to this. Going to go read it in detail now.

 

I started looking at the German forum after I found it while looking for information on older Diplomats. Since then, I also check the forum sales listings for interesting pens and have bought several. Some have also led to conversations about other pens and I have been able to acquire things not listed for sale (like the celluloid said to be a prototype that I posted recently in the which pens today thread).
It has also been slowly improving my German comprehension.  

 

[DvdRiet]

6 hours ago, KBeezie said:

Lo and Behold, an Eversharp Skyline.

 

Wow! A spectacular find and a spectacular clean-up. It's a beauty!

[Misfit]

I ordered a Pelikan Classic M200 Cognac with B nib that I found on eBay. I’ve been looking at Reddit more often now. A year or so ago, someone had a Cognac model for sale with 2 nibs, including an italic nib.  I wish I’d bought that to get the pen and italic nib. But I didn’t, and found out it had been sold.   
 

I only knew of this pen because my super cool pen pal @Runnin_Ute has one. I already have Graf von Faber-Castell Cognac ink because I found a great buy on it a year or so ago. 

[AmandaW]

2 hours ago, Misfit said:

Graf von Faber-Castell Cognac ink

 

Hmmm, I had a sample of that and added it to the ongoing wish list, then forgot about it. Thankyou for the reminder. Or not.

[Misfit]

3 hours ago, AmandaW said:

 

Hmmm, I had a sample of that and added it to the ongoing wish list, then forgot about it. Thankyou for the reminder. Or not.

I really want their Violet Blue ink. I have cartridges, and like the color. I got the Cognac because it was such a good price ($10), plus that was when I was trying to decide between Pelikan Cognac and Smokey Quartz. Cognac was the only ink of GvFC that was priced that low at Endless Pens. 

[amberleadavis]

[mizgeorge]

A very minor finger slip. The TWSBI swipe in the pear green colour - couldn't resist the opportunity to get something spring-like!