What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[inkstainedruth]

The second link you posted looks almost exactly like mine (especially with "Senator" engraved on the cap band).

Woah!  I just went to a currency conversion site and I guess I got kind of a steal this morning!  Is that link listing the current price for those?  Or is it just wishful thinking on the seller's part?  (I found it in a box of mostly ballpoints at the sale -- there were some other fountain pens pulled out separately, but mostly stuff like Wearevers and Arnolds, and a couple of Esterbrooks, both with 1555 nibs (which I don't need, since I have one on the first Estie I ever bought).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ParramattaPaul]

41 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

The second link you posted looks almost exactly like mine (especially with "Senator" engraved on the cap band).

Woah!  I just went to a currency conversion site and I guess I got kind of a steal this morning!  Is that link listing the current price for those?  Or is it just wishful thinking on the seller's part?  (I found it in a box of mostly ballpoints at the sale -- there were some other fountain pens pulled out separately, but mostly stuff like Wearevers and Arnolds, and a couple of Esterbrooks, both with 1555 nibs (which I don't need, since I have one on the first Estie I ever bought).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Way, way back in the dark ages of the last century, I had a Senator pen that i had bought at WC Penfolds in Sydney's CBD.  They had only recently been introduced to Australia at the time and the prices were very attractive.  I was one of the best pens for the price that I have owned and fondly remembered.  Unfortunately, I lost it in my travels.

[OldTravelingShoe]

12 hours ago, MarcoA63 said:

Souveran M1000 has arrived. It is a beauty 😊 I tried the F nib by dipping it in Parker's Quink black, it writes like an M and very wet. I will have to get the EF nib. This means re-packing it and sending it back, unfortunately. I have to ask the shop if they stock the EF though otherwise it is going to be a bit of a pain waiting for them to re-stock. The nib is huge and with a bit of flex as well 😊👍🏻

Marco

Congratulations, Marco! 

 

About the nib: could you perhaps agree with the company that sold the pen to reserve the EF nib and announce you as soon as it arrives at their place? You could be using the M nib until then...

 

This is a bit like what happens with car, bike, and computer repairs for brands: They give you a spare, typically with similar properties, to make sure you're taken care of until the original works to your satisfaction. 

[OldTravelingShoe]

9 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

 Is that link listing the current price for those?  Or is it just wishful thinking on the seller's part

TL;DR: Congratulations for getting a good German pen, from a known brand, for only a few bucks. It's certainly a good deal, and if you sell in the right market and you're a bit lucky you can get the maximum value for it. 

 

Details: It is indeed the going price, with a caveat. From what I understand, Senators are good pens, and I would consider them to be the Lamys and Kawecos of today. (Ironically, Kaweco was probably much more of a Montblanc in those days. Anyway, enough forced analogies.) 

 

Now, the caveat is that it is difficult to ascribe a level price to a somewhat rare product that has a local market outside our reference. There is a typical price on eBay, say €50 +/- 50% depending on various factors, e.g., nib material, whether Merz & Krell made the nib or not, cap material and finish. However, German pens are sold typically on German equivalents of eBay and, if I understood correctly from @DvdRiet, on the German equivalent for FPN, Penexchange.de. There are still many bargains in such markets, whereas I find eBay is generally a bit more expensive and often a bit more stable in selling for the market price.

 

Conversely, in the US the market for German pens is comparatively more expensive, because Pelikans and Montblancs seem to go through distributors that add quite a bit to the price. (The Pelikan's Perch was just reporting an example, in their Review: M605 Tortoiseshell-Black (2022): "that gives this M605 a retail price of $552. A similar minor reduction was also seen in Europe where the RRP is €430 (~$452.36). For non-EU consumers, these can be had for a retail price of €307.14 (~$323.11) from certain vendors when the VAT is excluded".) 

 

Hope this helps. 

[inkstainedruth]

I'll agree with you about the US distributor markup on Pelikans -- I saved a fair amount of money on the M405 Stresemann and M405 Blue-Black because I got those from Rolf Thiel at Missing Pens on his eBay store (not only did I avoid the distributor fees, but he didn't have to charge me VAT (since the pens were being shipped to the US).  And back then, eBay was not collecting sales tax the way they do now.  Mind you, they are STILL my two most expensive pens, and about an hour or so after I hit the "buy" button I got this call from PayPal verifying that I had indeed made such a large purchase with "a vendor in Europe" on my account (I assured them that the charge was indeed legit, and thanked them for calling; then got off the phone, looked at my husband and said, "OMG -- I really DID just pay that much money on ONLY TWO PENS, didn't I?" 

As for the Senator, I did some digging online and think the model is a "Windsor" (I saw several listings that showed a pen almost identical to mine and some of them gave the model name).  I may have to have some repair work done on it (there seems to be ink on the edges of the piston head, so I don't know ifI need to have an o-ring replaced -- or if ink has gotten behind the piston head; and can't tell if the nib assembly unscrews or not.  But for paying $1 US for the pen?  I can afford to get the repairs done.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[inkstainedruth]

Today's impulsive acquisition was that I just hit the "pay" button for a pen I won one on eBay earlier this afternoon: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155119221796

Got it for the minimum, plus tax and shipping.  The seller (who apparently is in the Pittsburgh area) had initially offered "local pickup" but then decided that the paperwork would be too complicated, as it involved having to refund the shipping charge because it automatically came up as being added in when I got the "You won" notice from eBay.

So that's 3 pens since yesterday morning, after a bit of a dry spell for me.  I have at least one extra Parker twist converter lying around (the 45 I bought yesterday morning already had the old style presser bar converter installed, but I'll have to see what shape it's in when I go to flush that pen out, tomorrow).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MarcoA63]

@OldTravelingShoe, I hope they come back to me soon. I filled the pen with Waterman's Harmonious Green and tried the nib again. Although the nib is extremely smooth to write with it lays down a huge amount of ink such that I have to use the blotter to dry it up. 🙄

Am glad I haven't ordered an M nib 😊

[A Smug Dill]

The Majohn A1 in pearlescent green with pen clip has come back in stock, and with this round of ‘sale’ promotion on AliExpress that just kicked in 12 hours ago, the price is lower than before. Bought.

 

A green HongDian H3. I've been eyeing that model for a while, but always found the asking price on AliExpress disagreeable (considering I know how much they are selling for on Taobao) when it was quite a bit higher than what I paid for several of my HongDian 1850, 517D, 525 models of pens. The price has now dropped to (barely) acceptable levels, so… bought.

 

Needed some order padding, too, to I added another two Jinhao 1001 desk pens with 03 nibs to the orders, and hope the seller gets it right this time. (I put notes in the order to make it very clear I'm expecting nibs marked 03 not EF.) Another Jinhao 80 with an 03 nib as well, from a different seller. Oh, and another Jinhao X159, too, even though I still haven't cleaned or tested the first one I got. It's just a pen that I'll probably end up offering to someone as an example of a large pen with a large nib, just so they can see if it suits their tastes and their grip.

 

I also ordered some loose ‘aeroplane‘ and 35mm nibs of no known brand, that have been supposedly ground to resemble a Naginata Togi tipping shape. Mind you, the photos of the ‘aeroplane’ nibs show a much more exaggerated geometry, so they're probably more like Zoom nibs than Naginata Togi nibs. One of those nibs can go onto the incoming Jinhao 80. I might give the other one away to someone for them to play/draw with.

[OldTravelingShoe]

16 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

The Majohn A1 in pearlescent green with pen clip

Congrats! Do you have the whole collection, @A Smug Dill? Would make for a great poster - I must've seen already fifteen-twenty models, and I wasn't even looking for them. They seem to really iterate and improve on the colors, shapes, maybe even nibs - do they have by now larger sizes, like M or even B? 

[OldTravelingShoe]

17 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

some loose ‘aeroplane‘ and 35mm nibs of no known brand, that have been supposedly ground to resemble a Naginata Togi tipping shape

Catnip! 😻 

 

How do you manage with all these nibs? I'm a bit wary of changing nibs in very stubborn pens; relatively to the PenBBS and Pelikan ease of replacing full units, I see the opposite range going to Jinhaos and Baoers that even _glue_ their friction-fit nibs.

 

My last experiment was supposed to be a piece of cake - changing the nib of a WingSung 601 from an M to a Naginata Togi-shaped nib from Bobby. And I managed to do just so, except (1) I broke the tip of the original nib, and (2) the new nib dries out very quickly. So I take the message I'm just a newbie and should learn how to manage this better. 

[DvdRiet]

Taking a significant risk buying a hand-made urushi pen from a small, private maker that I've only seen in photos. Hopefully, it will arrive tomorrow and I can then decide whether it was worth it or I wasted my money. I did have some time to think about whether to go ahead with the purchase, so not exactly impulsive as in 'spur of the moment' but I couldn't get the pictures out of my head and so decided to risk buying it online without driving the couple of hours it would take for me to go and try it out first. So definitely an impulsive buy rather than a well-considered and carefully rationalized purchase.

 

We shall see if I love it so much that I have to share it on here immediately... 

[OldTravelingShoe]

44 minutes ago, DvdRiet said:

We shall see if I love it so much that I have to share it on here immediately

🤞 May it be an exciting pen enjoyed for many years! 

[A Smug Dill]

1 hour ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

Do you have the whole collection, @A Smug Dill?  

 

Not nearly, and I'm certainly not planning on it.

 

                With Clip    Clipless

Matt black        gift?       gift?

Piano black         not interested

Cloud white      limited     not made

Pearl white

Pearl blue         hers

Pearl green       (mine)       hers

Bean red                       mine

Orange             mine

 

The two matt black ones are what we most likely will give away to friends. I've already given a matt black to one friend. I think it'll also be another friend's preferred colour and finish, given that when I let her have her pick out of four mid-range pens, she liked the Lamy cp1 in titanium oxide finish the best, and chose it over a Pelikan M200, Aurora Ipsilon, and Lamy SLAB (Studio Lx All Black). The question is only whether she would prefer the version with a clip or the clipless one. I already have the Pilot Capless (Vanishing Point) in matt black and matt blue — and a few more — so the matt black Majohn A1 is also what I'm least likely to hold onto, although my wife is of course welcome to them, not that she doesn't already have a Pilot Capless Trend (i.e. matt-finished VP with black trim, just marketed under yet another name) in violet, as well as a few more VP and Décimo pens (including a pearlescent white one of the latter).

 

2 hours ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

do they have by now larger sizes, like M or even B? 

 

Not that I'm aware. However, I have four ‘spare’ Pilot Capless 18K gold nibs lying around, which will fit inside the Majohn A1's body perfectly well.

 

1 hour ago, OldTravelingShoe said:

How do you manage with all these nibs? I'm a bit wary of changing nibs in very stubborn pens; relatively to the PenBBS and Pelikan ease of replacing full units, I see the opposite range going to Jinhaos and Baoers that even _glue_ their friction-fit nibs.

 

I had no problem removing the ‘aeroplane’ nib from a Jinhao 80, but when I tried to take the black ‘aeroplane’ nib off one of my many Jinhao 35 pens, it wouldn't budge, which is very strange considering the Lamy Z50 styled design/fit. Not even soaking the nib and feed for a minute in freshly boiled water helped. By the time I finally managed to get the nib off, the feed was deformed and crushed. Just as well I bought a bunch of Jinhao 35 for about US$1.50 each on average.

 

Trying to replace the nib (as in just the piece of metal, and not the entire nib unit) in a PenBBS that as a nominally “no.6” nib will most likely destroy the very fragile fins on the feed. The nib housing is also very prone to cracking lengthwise

[essayfaire]

I am supposedly no longer bothering with any cheap pens, other than to try out a size/mechanism.  Yet I somehow found myself in a store selling these: 

 

and was unable to resist.  I won't be keeping these(probably send them to someone here to give to students) but they are actually quite nice. Mini-review below.  I have now determined the nibs are marked EF.

 

Tested with an Edelststein cartridge, so they can fit a long.

[johntitor2002]

I just bought myself a Sheaffer Snorkel Statesman in black with gold trim! Big big fan of Sheaffer and this will be my first snorkel model. 
It’s impulsive as it was a pretty good price for a restoration sample so I’ll be trying my hand to get it back in working order over the next few days. Really hoping it works as I am very exited having not used/bought my pens for a while!
 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

I'm trying to "impulsively" buy a fountain pen on another message board, but my lord their software is buggy! I couldn't register, so they registered me themselves. Now the login doesn't work -- it doesn't give me an error message like I have the wrong password or something, it just jumps back to the previous page where it says I'm not logged in. (I also tried on my phone in case there was some hardware or software compatibility issue, but got the same result.) I have written them again, but frankly I'm not sanguine. However, if I'm successful, I'll be back here to describe the pen. 

[chromantic]

A Pelikan 200 Golden Beryl F from Pen Hero.

[Gloucesterman]

2 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

sanguine

Interesting use of this word. I had to look it up because I have only seen it used as related to blood/red.

Thank you as I now have another word in my personal dictionary.

 

[Paul-in-SF]

3 hours ago, Gloucesterman said:

Interesting use of this word. I had to look it up because I have only seen it used as related to blood/red.

Thank you as I now have another word in my personal dictionary.

 

 

I was wrong, as it turns out, not to be sanguine. They were able to direct me to some sort of back door URL where I was able to log in, and express my interest in the pen to the seller. No word back yet though.

[AgedAndFine]

Sadly, I am a sucker for a good deal, and in have recently bought a Platinum Curdias, two Platinum Procyons, a Platinum President, a Sailor Profit large 21k, a Procolor 500, a CultPens order (including lots of paper and inks, 2 Lamy Al-stars and 3 Schneider coeds).  I fear that I am rather ill......