What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[AmandaW]

23 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Actually, I was of a mind to recommend a PenBBS 494 piston-filler... Unfortunately, I have seen knock-off versions of it,

So is there anything that might raise confidence that an offer is a good one? What do we look for?

 

I love my wine red 51a. I posted about it just a few days ago...

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

So is there anything that might raise confidence that an offer is a good one? What do we look for?

 

The nib should have the inscription 棉 (the Chinese character for cotton) inside a circle, with the words MARSHMALLOW and SHANGHAI (separated by two five-pointed stars) bending above and below the circle.

 

These aren't PenBBS 494, even though they are listed as such in (at least) one AliExpress seller's store; a PenBBS 494 looks like this. However, not every pen that looks (exactly) like that are PenBBS 494; as you can see, the nib is different. To be fair, though, the latter is not being listed as PenBBS 494 where I found it; and the pen body most likely came from the same factory and were made with the same machines as the PenBBS 494, so if all you want is a piston-filled demonstrator in which to house a Pilot steel nib, the generic ones probably work just as well.

[VivienR]

Jut brough a Lamy Scala Dark Violet (79) on a sale (40€). I like the Lamy Al-Star and Safary because they are colorful, but never was found of Lamy's design language, although the Scala looks way better in hand than in pictures. 
The next one possibly will be some another Chinese one. They are relatively cheap but many are writes quite good. Like the Duke 551 Confucious. 

[amberleadavis]

I found a Pelikan on ebay listed as an M400 - though the seller thought maybe it was an M600. It was an M800!!!!  For less than $200.  I'm thrilled.

[A Smug Dill]

18 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

It was an M800!!!!  For less than $200.  I'm thrilled.

 

Congratulations on your sumgai score!

[DvdRiet]

27 minutes ago, amberleadavis said:

I found a Pelikan on ebay listed as an M400 - though the seller thought maybe it was an M600. It was an M800!!!!  For less than $200.  I'm thrilled.

So it really was, as you suspected, an M800?? Woot! Woot!! That really is a very nice sumgai score! Congratulations!

[OldTravelingShoe]

@A Smug Dill, @DvdRiet, thanks for teaching me sumgai!

 

To quote @Glenn-SC:

Quote

Sumgai is short for "Some Guy".

 
"Sumgai" is that mythical person who always manages to buy an extremely rare pen for an extremely inexpensive price, usually from the Seller from whom you are trying to buy; as in, "Yeah, I had a whole box of those yellow Parker pens but I sold them all yesterday to Some Guy for $5! Can you believe it?"

 

The term is now used for any person who buys something very valuable for a very low price.

 

Lesson learned. 

[inkstainedruth]

9 hours ago, jchch1950 said:

Please let us know if you like the Hanzi nib. 😃

I will, but it hasn't come yet.  It just got to the Columbia, MD post office yesterday, so I'm not really expecting it till later in the week.  

We'll see how I like it -- I tried someone's architect nib at a pen club meeting a couple of years ago and didn't like it (the pen owner loved it).  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[77Kalem]

Lamy Safari is very popular where I live (Turkey) but there are very few collectors and people do not really know how rare these beauties are, lately I came across this FP in a e-trade platform and could not pass by obviously and today just by another chance I have found the Dark Lilac ink  in a Facebook Local Fountain pen sales group and the ink joined the party. 

[essayfaire]

11 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Dear @Misfit, thanks for sharing this. I have not written a letter in a long time, that is, physical pen on physical paper, and I've been planning to but it's a slow process. Good to know others take their time, too. 

In the early days of the pandemic, when we were clueless about everything and barricaded in at home, I took up a letter-writing project as a way to stay sane and give structure and meaning to my days. I originally called it "Letter-a-Day" but at some point started referring to it as "Covid Letters."

 

I wrote a letter every day, not just for the excuse of ordering more stationery, though I had to order more letter sheets two or three times.  I started out writing to my close friends and family, but as the pandemic continued, with nothing but mounting cases and death tolls to greet me, I arrived at a point where I had written to all the obvious choices.  I branched out and wrote to everyone on my Christmas card list.

 

The pandemic continued.  I branched out farther: teachers from elementary school, music teachers, friends of my parents or parents of my friends from childhood.  

 

I started logging not just who responded, but how; I received phone calls from people who I did not know had my phone number.  I got emails.  I received handwritten replies from people who I thought never wrote.  It was fascinating to see not just who responded(sometimes it was the people I never expected to hear back from) but in what manner.

 

People who responded by mail got return letters.  My letters got less shallow and more contemplative and philosophical, depending upon the recipient.

 

With the exception of a single day when I was ill, I wrote a letter each day for 95 days in a row.  At that point, I decided that I had written all that had to be communicated from my end with all those with whom I wished to communicate, and while I would continue to correspond with those who responded, my project was finished. 

 

I am still now in regular correspondence with some people who I did not exchange letters with before.  Letters, even in my lousy handwriting, are a lovely reminder of who we are and where we are.  Our ideas, our feelings, and their physical expressions, can all travel far.

[OldTravelingShoe]

3 minutes ago, essayfaire said:

In the early days of the pandemic, when we were clueless about everything and barricaded in at home, I took up a letter-writing project as a way to stay sane and give structure and meaning to my days. I originally called it "Letter-a-Day" but at some point started referring to it as "Covid Letters."

 

I wrote a letter every day, not just for the excuse of ordering more stationery, though I had to order more letter sheets two or three times.  I started out writing to my close friends and family, but as the pandemic continued, with nothing but mounting cases and death tolls to greet me, I arrived at a point where I had written to all the obvious choices.  I branched out and wrote to everyone on my Christmas card list.

 

The pandemic continued.  I branched out farther: teachers from elementary school, music teachers, friends of my parents or parents of my friends from childhood.  

 

I started logging not just who responded, but how; I received phone calls from people who I did not know had my phone number.  I got emails.  I received handwritten replies from people who I thought never wrote.  It was fascinating to see not just who responded(sometimes it was the people I never expected to hear back from) but in what manner.

 

People who responded by mail got return letters.  My letters got less shallow and more contemplative and philosophical, depending upon the recipient.

 

With the exception of a single day when I was ill, I wrote a letter each day for 95 days in a row.  At that point, I decided that I had written all that had to be communicated from my end with all those with whom I wished to communicate, and while I would continue to correspond with those who responded, my project was finished. 

 

I am still now in regular correspondence with some people who I did not exchange letters with before.  Letters, even in my lousy handwriting, are a lovely reminder of who we are and where we are.  Our ideas, our feelings, and their physical expressions, can all travel far.

@essayfaire, this is a very warm yet powerful story. Thank you for sharing. I feel inspired.

 

(In a sense, I think we need these kinds of stories even more now than during the pandemic.) 

[dragondazd]

1 hour ago, 77Kalem said:

Lamy Safari is very popular where I live (Turkey) but there are very few collectors and people do not really know how rare these beauties are, lately I came across this FP in a e-trade platform and could not pass by obviously and today just by another chance I have found the Dark Lilac ink  in a Facebook Local Fountain pen sales group and the ink joined the party. 

Woohoo!

[AmandaW]

2 hours ago, essayfaire said:

Letters... are a lovely reminder of who we are and where we are.  Our ideas, our feelings, and their physical expressions, can all travel far.

 

Thank you for writing your post. I highlight that last part because it gives pointers, I hope, for what one might say in a letter. I'm sure I'm not alone in having the mind go blank when staring at a blank page.

[Paul-in-SF]

10 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

 

Thank you for writing your post. I highlight that last part because it gives pointers, I hope, for what one might say in a letter. I'm sure I'm not alone in having the mind go blank when staring at a blank page.

 

It's difficult for me to work up to ideas and feelings, it seems too intimate (to me) for a letter to a stranger. It's a shame, but I can't seem to push past that (apparently innate) reticence. 

[Misfit]

In the first letters, I wrote about inks and pens. If the profile here gives any ideas, I’ll write about those. If the person likes to read or listen to music, I can ask what genres they like to read, what type of music they listen to. Then tell what I like. If they live outside the US, I’ll tell them about where I live in the US. One person mentioned birds, and I was counting birds for Project FeederWatch at the time, so I mentioned birds. He sent me photos of birds in Australia. 
 

Over time, I can honestly say some of my pen pals are now friends. Not in the traditional sense when you meet in person. But yes, friends. And sometimes, if a correspondence is long enough, people feel more comfortable opening up in the letter to the pen pal than people in their everyday lives. 
 

One person stopped writing to me. I think because of the long delays in my responses. I had to drop one, because I didn’t want to send a photo of me to him. Otherwise, it’s been a nice experience. All my pen pals came from here on FPN. 

[Misfit]

Turns out the AliExpress coupon was “up to $5”. I’m not as keen to purchase again. It’s a new day, and if the pattern stays the same, my Mom will sleep most of this day. 

[essayfaire]

33 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

 

It's difficult for me to work up to ideas and feelings, it seems too intimate (to me) for a letter to a stranger. It's a shame, but I can't seem to push past that (apparently innate) reticence. 

Feelings don't need to be emotions, they can be sensibilities.  Would you share an opinion on the first day of a class if the teacher posed a question? I would, but I like to play with ideas in a way that doesn't necessarily mean I have any personal affinity for those with whom I'm discussing them.

I find that writing about what I do, and what I notice in the world around me, can be personal without being intimate.  I'm not shy, but am reserved.

 

 

@AmandaW, I agree with @Misfit; I often write about books I've read or music I've discovered, keeping in mind what I think might be of interest to the recipient.

 

@OldTravelingShoeI am still in a pandemic, but it is one in a very different stage than the wholly unknown world we were in when I undertook my project.  

 

I do need to find a source for reasonably-priced personalized letter sheets.  The ones I had ordered are smaller than I like, and only like some of my pens.  When I ordered from a second company I connected the dots and realized that it, in fact, was the sister company of the first one, and was selling the same wares at a different price point to a (supposedly) different audience!

[AmandaW]

3 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

even more now than during the pandemic.) 

 

The actual pandemic has only just started here in Western Australia. Our borders were shut for two years and now open - the virus is in and we are in our first real wave of local transmission. Like many, I'm stuck at home with my risk factors. We have had plenty of difficulties with shortages and restrictions (and still do now... what toilet paper?), but this is the first real virus wave. We have had a bunch of short sharp lockdowns that successfully quelled it each time it came in, now the authorities are letting it do it's thing and people are dying.

[ParramattaPaul]

42 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

 

The actual pandemic has only just started here in Western Australia. Our borders were shut for two years and now open - the virus is in and we are in our first real wave of local transmission. Like many, I'm stuck at home with my risk factors. We have had plenty of difficulties with shortages and restrictions (and still do now... what toilet paper?), but this is the first real virus wave. We have had a bunch of short sharp lockdowns that successfully quelled it each time it came in, now the authorities are letting it do it's thing and people are dying.

And with the WA/SA border being opened, my eldest granddaughter, her husband and family are now getting settled in as he begins his newest RAN posting in Perth.

[AmandaW]

43 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

And with the WA/SA border being opened, my eldest granddaughter, her husband and family are now getting settled in as he begins his newest RAN posting in Perth.

 

I hope they brought their own groceries with them. The empty shelves at the supermarkets are still real, as are the price hikes and the purchase restrictions distressing. I've had it with trying to manage with the two packs of frozen veges we're allowed to buy (if there are any, of course). Oh, yeah there are fresh ones, but who does the extra work to prepare them? And who has fridge space to store those?  Eggs? Forget about it.

 

The new arrivals are not exactly welcome.