What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[inkstainedruth]

Well, the other night at the Ohio Pen Show, I ended up putting in a bid in the silent auction for four vintage Esterbrook desk pens -- simply to get the 9312 nib which one of them had.   And apparently was the ONLY bidder....

Fortunately, I think I have a buyer lined up for the other three, and maybe even the one I wanted just the nib for....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: If that works out, I'll have recouped most of the cost of the four pens (certainly for the three I didn't want).  If not?  I've got one REALLY expensive nib....   But that was, I think, the ONLY 9xxx nib that I haven't been able to get before now.

[senzen]

I did a lot of research on the Diplomat Excellence and then shelved the idea for years, other interesting pens showed up as its price got higher and higher; on a whim I wondered if Amazon Japan sold any, given that they've had Pelikans at pretty good prices; lo and behold... $112, taxes and shipping included. Amazon UK through Amazon US said they had some, but when checking directly show no inventory btw.

 

Not the medium nib I wanted but a fine in a pleasing if boring black and chrome finish, green and midnight blue didn't look that good to me. I might get it at the end of the month from a friend who'll be receiving it possibly soon.

[A Smug Dill]

42 minutes ago, senzen said:

Not the medium nib I wanted but a fine in a pleasing if boring black and chrome finish, green and midnight blue didn't look that good to me.

 

There's always Oxyd Brass and Oxyd Iron variants for the Diplomat Excellence A². I got the Oxyd Brass, love it, and was hoping to get an Oxyd Iron as well from LCdC at a discount some time. I guess that's not going to happen now!

 

[gweimer1]

On 11/7/2022 at 4:00 PM, inkstainedruth said:

Well, the other night at the Ohio Pen Show, I ended up putting in a bid in the silent auction for four vintage Esterbrook desk pens -- simply to get the 9312 nib which one of them had.   And apparently was the ONLY bidder....

Fortunately, I think I have a buyer lined up for the other three, and maybe even the one I wanted just the nib for....  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: If that works out, I'll have recouped most of the cost of the four pens (certainly for the three I didn't want).  If not?  I've got one REALLY expensive nib....   But that was, I think, the ONLY 9xxx nib that I haven't been able to get before now.

 

Yeah, it was an Esterbrook bonanza in the auction.   I got a whole bunch of pens, including a number of shop models, off-catalog, and a few early plastic Dollar pens.   I won a couple Deluxe pens; one has a 9312 and the other has a 9284.   
Which desk pens did you get?  I might be interested.

 

 

 

[Aysedasi]

I've just bought a red broad-nibbed Duofold Maxima.  

[inkstainedruth]

@gweimer1I got the lot which was in the bottom LH corner of the first display case: grey mackerel and red mackerel barrels, black and brown solid colored barrels.  I think they were lot #54.  All with 9xxx nibs, and all appear to be "shop models" with weird engravings on them including what appear to be date codes, and misspellings of the word "BARREL" (as "BARRELL") on some of them.  Some also say "SWAGED NIBS" and I have no idea what that even means (well I just looked the term up, and it has to do with forging/metalworking and hoping that I can actually HARVEST the nib and feed off the one pen.... 

Like I said before, I didn't really need all 4 of them (and do NOT normally do desk pens at ALL).  I may have a buyer lined up already -- if a price can be negotiated.  Did a quick search of "sold" listings on the Bay of Evil last night, and the prices are all over the map  so I'm going to have to spend some time reading over those listings a LOT more carefully as to condition, what the nibs were, etc.  And of course, then pricing the three pens with the nibs I already have accordingly, and then figuring out how much to drop the price on the one where I'm harvesting the 9312 nib (assuming of course that I can...). And not lose too much money in the process....  

I may have overbid.  Or underbid.  I tried to calculate how much prices might have gone up since the last time I bought an Esterbrook, and bid accordingly at X dollars times four.  But this was not like ANY silent auction I've ever run across before (normally there will be a piece of paper with each lot and you can check back and see how you're doing).  I once went to an auction of plants to raise money for the Phipps Conservatory, here in Pittsburgh, and knew from SCA silent auctions to hover around the one thing I really wanted as the end time grew near -- only to find that NOBODY outbid me.  In retrospect, it was likely because it was a small apple tree, and unless you have one for cross pollinating, you won't get any apples -- but since we had a crabapple in our yard at the time, I wasn't worried (they'll cross pollinate with regular apples just fine).  Of course then we lost the crabapple in a storm, go figure.  At least the quince tree I got another year is doing just fine, and we've had quinces off it the last couple of years.  And now I've got to figure out where they got stashed because I want to try making quince pie....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[gweimer1]

8 hours ago, inkstainedruth said:

@gweimer1I got the lot which was in the bottom LH corner of the first display case: grey mackerel and red mackerel barrels, black and brown solid colored barrels.  I think they were lot #54.  All with 9xxx nibs, and all appear to be "shop models" with weird engravings on them including what appear to be date codes, and misspellings of the word "BARREL" (as "BARRELL") on some of them.  Some also say "SWAGED NIBS" and I have no idea what that even means (well I just looked the term up, and it has to do with forging/metalworking and hoping that I can actually HARVEST the nib and feed off the one pen.... 

Like I said before, I didn't really need all 4 of them (and do NOT normally do desk pens at ALL).  I may have a buyer lined up already -- if a price can be negotiated.  Did a quick search of "sold" listings on the Bay of Evil last night, and the prices are all over the map  so I'm going to have to spend some time reading over those listings a LOT more carefully as to condition, what the nibs were, etc.  And of course, then pricing the three pens with the nibs I already have accordingly, and then figuring out how much to drop the price on the one where I'm harvesting the 9312 nib (assuming of course that I can...). And not lose too much money in the process....  

I may have overbid.  Or underbid.  I tried to calculate how much prices might have gone up since the last time I bought an Esterbrook, and bid accordingly at X dollars times four.  But this was not like ANY silent auction I've ever run across before (normally there will be a piece of paper with each lot and you can check back and see how you're doing).  I once went to an auction of plants to raise money for the Phipps Conservatory, here in Pittsburgh, and knew from SCA silent auctions to hover around the one thing I really wanted as the end time grew near -- only to find that NOBODY outbid me.  In retrospect, it was likely because it was a small apple tree, and unless you have one for cross pollinating, you won't get any apples -- but since we had a crabapple in our yard at the time, I wasn't worried (they'll cross pollinate with regular apples just fine).  Of course then we lost the crabapple in a storm, go figure.  At least the quince tree I got another year is doing just fine, and we've had quinces off it the last couple of years.  And now I've got to figure out where they got stashed because I want to try making quince pie....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I'd give you $60 for the lot, after you take your nib.

[Doug C]

A Montegrappa Beauty Book.

[Surlyprof]

13 hours ago, gweimer1 said:

Yeah, it was an Esterbrook bonanza in the auction.

 

That's quite a collection.  The art deco clips on the red, green, silver and umber ones are fantastic!

 

 

[Paul-in-SF]

On 11/5/2022 at 6:07 PM, Rosendust said:

I am waffling on the Pilot Vanishing Point once again. It has been my grails for quite some time now, and I just did celebrate a sorta milestone birthday, on Fountain Pen Day no less, maybe I should treat myself? Though a problem I am running into is that none of my preferred retailers have Medium nibs in stock...

 

Thoughts?  

 

Consider the Fermo. Although you give up the fun of clicking (it's a twist mechanism instead) the Fermo is slimmer and lighter, and the clip seems to me to be less obtrusive. I'm still testing mine for keeping the nib from drying out. 

 

In fact a new Fermo was one of my recent impulse buys, along with a Lamy Dialog CC (still too fat), a Pelikan M605 in green stripes and white, a Platinum 3776 Century in translucent green with SF nib, and for vintage pens, an Onoto 6235, Plexor Oversize, and my favorite of all of them, a Delta 366. I lurve lurve lurve that Delta, it has rapidly become a pry-it-out-of-my-cold-dead-fingers pen for me. This was over the past month or so. I had been in kind of a purchase drought, and suddenly, the flood came. 

[A Smug Dill]

On 11/8/2022 at 9:07 AM, senzen said:

on a whim I wondered if Amazon Japan sold any [Diplomat Excellence fountain pens], given that they've had Pelikans at pretty good prices; lo and behold... $112, taxes and shipping included.

 

I usually filter out all the listings that are not (tagged by brand as) Pilot, Platinum, Sailor, and Nakabayashi (for Taccia) when I browse Amazon.co.jp for fountain pens; but you got me looking more inclusively yesterday, and pens of certain makes that don't appear in the list of brands when filtering -- including MUJI, Travelers Company, and yes, Diplomat -- were shown to me. Now, I wouldn't say the Diplomat Aero and Excellence A² pens sold by Amazon.co.jp are that well-priced generally; but one listing with a title that the system failed to translate properly from Japanese caught my eye. It was for a Diplomat Excellence A² in Midnight Blue with chrome trim (and, less than ideally, an F nib and not an EF nib); and the price was cheaper than I could have gotten from LCdC even with stacked discounts, never mind Cult Pens, and even less so stockists here in Australia. Only one was unit in stock, and it worked out to be roughly $120 (which is less than US$80 today) before shipping; and I may be able to finesse an extraordinarily low effective delivery charge. (Edit: It has shipped! Looks like it cost me $125, so just under US$84, all up including shipping from Japan. Edit #2: There's one Diplomat Excellence A² in Evergreen with chrome trim and a Medium nib currently available for even less. Edit #3: … and now the price of the latter has dropped to just below US$70, excluding shipping.)

 

After umming and ahing, I went for it, instead of the cheaper and much better value Platinum #3776 Century that had been sitting in my shopping cart for over a week.

 

Edited November 13, 2022 by A Smug Dill

[Gloucesterman]

Went to a small flea market last weekend. Wandered around for a while but didn't find much. Just before leaving I was talking to a woman about pens and she mentioned that she thought she might have several. Sure enough, she did BUT wanted way too much (imho) for them. Standard Esterbrook LJ/SJ (not sure which) for $65.00 unrestored; a "J" with a 9128 nib (definitely needed major cleaning and a sac, $125.00. I talked with her a bit and (I am pretty sure it went in one ear and out the other). Oh well, only so much one can do.

 

One final stop yielded the an excellent find - a Parker Eyedropper, Lucky Curve, gold nib - medium (?) flexible, BCHR excellent chasing and markings w/ original (I think) eyedropper filler w/ ossified white rubber bulb -- ! Oh yes, it's a

#18 1/2 - 1-9-94-->6-29-98 and 1-2-05 -->6-06-05. This one will definitely go on the selling/trading block as soon as it's cleaned up. Wish I could get some good pictures of it but I don't have any camera equipment and there is no flash on my cell.

[inkstainedruth]

On 11/9/2022 at 6:28 PM, gweimer1 said:

 

I'd give you $60 for the lot, after you take your nib.

Let me think about it.  (That's certainly more than the other person was offering, although not as much as I paid... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Aysedasi]

On 11/9/2022 at 2:06 PM, Aysedasi said:

I've just bought a red broad-nibbed Duofold Maxima.  

Turns out after plenty of soaking and cleaning out of old ink, that the pen is really very nice.  It has a very enjoyable broad stub nib.  It wasn't cheap, although I paid a lot less than I've seen Maxima's go for recently on eBay.  

[senzen]

2 hours ago, Aysedasi said:

Turns out after plenty of soaking and cleaning out of old ink, that the pen is really very nice.  It has a very enjoyable broad stub nib.  It wasn't cheap, although I paid a lot less than I've seen Maxima's go for recently on eBay.  

 

That sounds like a really nice pen.

[chromantic]

I ordered a Sailor PG Slim Manyo Nuts today, with a Manyo Plum to follow in exchange for the Leonardo MGZ 2.0 I'm returning.

[Runnin_Ute]

A Newton Majestic in Dupras Brown Tortoise with 1.1 from Shawn just today. 

[Penguincollector]

I bought a Todco T- some number today: a lovely little BCHR eye dropper with a flexible warranted 14k nib. It was very spur of the moment. I was just discussing rubber pens with the seller, who has forgotten more than I know about anything, and next thing I know I have a new pen. 

Edited November 20, 2022 by Penguincollector
Added photo

[avlisyar]

Purchased an original Narwhal Demonstrator in Rose Gold made for Galen Leather at Vanness Pens.

The Rose Gold and Stub Nib just sucked me in. with any luck, pen should arrive by Monday.

[essayfaire]

Marking papers with a Pilot Metropolitan in burgundyish pink with F nib and Yama Budo.