What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[ruby.monkey]

30 minutes ago, Gloucesterman said:

Sounds to me like it's time to get a new/larger pen chest!

How big is your current one?

210 pens. I may have to start giving some of the less-used pens away.

[Paul-in-SF]

Yesterday evening, I finally ordered a full-size Ultem pen together with an extra section made to fit a Bock 380 nib, and I also ordered such a nib from FPnibs. That will be my third Bock 380 nib pen. It's been 3 weeks since my most recent pen purchase. 

 

Speaking of storage, just today I saw a wonderfully-sized chest of shallow drawers that would hold all my pens and all my ink. It is made of a lovely wood, and seems to be in excellent condition.  I could afford it, and it is local enough that I could pick it up. I would probably suffer some domestic disturbance if I actually bought it, but I supposed I could deal with that. I just re-arranged my office desk and storage area, and with this I would have to do it again. Plus I may be having a new hobby, which might have additional storage requirements. We'll see, I guess. 

[AmandaW]

I ordered a blue Platinum Plaisir with a fine nib which will likely have its nib swapped for an 02 (extra fine) from a Preppy. And a box of Blue Black cartridges to feed it.

 

It joins a recently purchased Kakuno Papa Blue and plans to add a blue Sailor. If, I ignore the earlier couple of teal pens, my collection used to be a blue-free zone because I have no fond memories of highschool ballpoints. And now there are are all those and a several other blue inks as well. Very strange.

[AmandaW]

Uh oh, another blue pen just ordered. It's a Sailor Profitlight Shining Blue EF - a 14k nib - aus$80... was too hard to resist.

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, AmandaW said:

It's a Sailor Profitlight Shining Blue EF - a 14k nib - aus$80... was too hard to resist.

 

I ordered the Zoom nib version of that pen when it briefly dropped to below $100 (before discount) the other night. The one with Music nib was/is still cheaper…

[TitoThePencilPimp]

I liked the zoom nib on my 1911. However, it has gone unused for about a year now. Thinking of having a custom grind on each side of the nib. Maybe a medium cursive italic and a ef, if it is possible. Or a reverse architect.

 

Ordered a Pilot 823 WA clear version. I hated demo pens, but I am starting to enjoy them.

[ruby.monkey]

Steel-nib Wing Sung 630 (red with small ink windows) to replace my self-disassembling Jinhao X159.

[Gloucesterman]

3 hours ago, ruby.monkey said:

self-disassembling Jinhao X159.

Please tell us more. I, for one, am curious as to what happened to it.

[ruby.monkey]

The cap finial snapped at the point where it goes through the clip, while the pen was sitting in the pen drawer. I had never tightened it down nor bashed the pen. I put it in the 'sh1t happens' category of pen ownership and thought nothing more of it, and honestly it had been a perfectly good pen up 'til that point. In any case it had served its main purpose, which was to give me a cheap way of finding out if I would enjoy writing with a pen that had the girth of a Montblanc 149.

[Gloucesterman]

2 hours ago, ruby.monkey said:

The cap finial snapped at the point where it goes through the clip, while the pen was sitting in the pen drawer. I had never tightened it down nor bashed the pen. I put it in the 'sh1t happens' category of pen ownership and thought nothing more of it, and honestly it had been a perfectly good pen up 'til that point. In any case it had served its main purpose, which was to give me a cheap way of finding out if I would enjoy writing with a pen that had the girth of a Montblanc 149.

thanks for responding. That break sounds like a weird one.

Do you think you will/would like using a 149?

[Paul-in-SF]

2 hours ago, ruby.monkey said:

The cap finial snapped at the point where it goes through the clip, while the pen was sitting in the pen drawer. I had never tightened it down nor bashed the pen. I put it in the 'sh1t happens' category of pen ownership and thought nothing more of it, and honestly it had been a perfectly good pen up 'til that point. In any case it had served its main purpose, which was to give me a cheap way of finding out if I would enjoy writing with a pen that had the girth of a Montblanc 149.

 

The exact same thing happened to me, while I was still on my first fill. I treat my fountain pens with care, and it had never been anywhere but in my hands, in a very nice pen drawer, or on my pen rest on my desk. 

 

I kept the nib and the feed, and threw the rest of it in the trash. 

[ruby.monkey]

8 hours ago, Gloucesterman said:

thanks for responding. That break sounds like a weird one.

Do you think you will/would like using a 149?

Yes I think I would, but it's a pen I might leave for a little while just because I'd really want a flexible-nib Calligraphy.

[txomsy]

That is what I think most of us tend to ignore when we complain about price: quality control has a price. Not only at the end manufacturer, but upstream also, in all their providers.

 

When one cuts down on manufacturing costs, bad nibs happen, finishes suffer, aesthetics fail, practicality drains, etc.. but if one also cuts down in providers, the materials do also suffer and with them durability, even if it looks great on the surface, even if manufacturing is great, the final product suffers too. Plastics tend to degrade with time, alloys misbehave. Some sooner, some later. It is not all looks.

 

If a maker wants to be exacting with a product, it is not only production , also materials (and therefore the production of these as well, and so on, upstream the chain, including appropriate labor rewards -for in the end all depends ultimately on some humans- and tool upgrade and maintenance). All that adds to the cost.

 

If one wants a production based on cheap costs, as more steps are involved, the chances of a dud increase. Production price, on the other hand goes down, that is the apparent bonus (for the maker and, sometimes, the buyer too).

 

One hidden problem is that some of these troubles are not prima facie, i.e. only show after some time, so one gets away all happy from the deal believing one (and this applies not only to customers, but to greedy producers too) did a great bargain to find out (much) later it actually wasn't so. At least, later enough that one has accrued mental rewards associated with the perceived bargain and refuses to believe it wasn't so in the first place, maintaining the fallacy and the wicked system.

 

In the end -in my and only mine totally personal and subjective opinion- it all boils down to whether one cares about quality and can pay for it. Both are needed musts. It is OK if one does not care (or can't afford it) or if one wants to take the risk: a great saving may be awaiting (been there, done that, mea culpa too). You just take your chance and, if it doesn't work out, dispose of the product and get a new lottery ticket.

 

But, from the looks of it, lately, I've been adding another factor to the equation: if one can afford not caring for quality:  now, disposal is a major cost as well. Indirect, certainly: so far, for most of us, we do not pay directly for it. But with this use-and-dispose mentality, as trash accrues, contamination accumulates, climate changes, and the environment suffers, one also needs to consider if one can afford this continuous disposal of trash, or if one wants to leave all this trash behind as an additional problem for our successors.

 

Mind you, I have also taken my chances, but lately, I'm coming to the conclusion it is better to get it right once, even if it has an upper initial cost up front. My grandma had an early 20th C old radio I still keep and that caught broadcasts from all over the world and still works (test it once a decade, keep an old transformer too, as nowadays I only listen to the radio while drawing). I'm growing old and, maybe because of that, appreciative of quality, lasting goods that give more substantial savings in the long run... and I'm starting to care less for the fashion fade of the moment.

 

I also reckon one needs to try and learn from one's own errors by oneself as well.

 

But that's me, and only me. YMMV.

 

Which is why I'm restraining more each day from impulsive acquisitions. Though the Hastil and Marco Polo pens are tempting me strongly lately.

[ruby.monkey]

8 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

 

The exact same thing happened to me, while I was still on my first fill. I treat my fountain pens with care, and it had never been anywhere but in my hands, in a very nice pen drawer, or on my pen rest on my desk. 

 

I kept the nib and the feed, and threw the rest of it in the trash. 

That's a shame. At least I got my money's worth out of mine, so I don't feel too bad about it.

[miig]

I think that is amongst the more pricey impulse purchases of my last few years...

I paid 100€ extra to get a translucent barrel for the green one.

 

A shame there is no silver-black 1005... and I'd love to get my hands on one of the 1005 demonstrators. But not for 2-3k lol...

 

 

 

 

[carola]

8 hours ago, miig said:

A shame there is no silver-black 1005...

 

 

 

There is.

https://www.pelikan-collectibles.com/en/Pelikan/Models/Souveraen-Series/M1000-Basis/index.html

[miig]

Ah, thanks @carola! I didn't see that at all. A pity they are quite difficult to get, but I will be looking out for one of those.

[Penguincollector]

I found a cute little Platinum pocket pen, black with gold trim, 14k F nib. I really like the nib on my other Platinum, so I figured I would try another. It’s impulsive enough that I was looking at Parker 45s and ended up with this little cutie instead.

[InesF]

On 8/2/2023 at 8:21 AM, txomsy said:

In the end -in my and only mine totally personal and subjective opinion- it all boils down to whether one cares about quality and can pay for it. Both are needed musts. It is OK if one does not care (or can't afford it) or if one wants to take the risk: a great saving may be awaiting (been there, done that, mea culpa too). You just take your chance and, if it doesn't work out, dispose of the product and get a new lottery ticket.

 

But, from the looks of it, lately, I've been adding another factor to the equation: if one can afford not caring for quality:  now, disposal is a major cost as well. Indirect, certainly: so far, for most of us, we do not pay directly for it. But with this use-and-dispose mentality, as trash accrues, contamination accumulates, climate changes, and the environment suffers, one also needs to consider if one can afford this continuous disposal of trash, or if one wants to leave all this trash behind as an additional problem for our successors.

Congrats on your statement!  

(You are not alone!)

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, InesF said:

Indirect, certainly: so far, for most of us, we do not pay directly for it. But with this use-and-dispose mentality, as trash accrues, contamination accumulates, climate changes, and the environment suffers, one also needs to consider if one can afford this continuous disposal of trash, or if one wants to leave all this trash behind as an additional problem for our successors.

 

My wife and I have no offspring or successors ourselves to actively worry about.

 

It's interesting hearing the sudden change in my brother-in-law's change in tone and (some) political opinions, with the recent arrival of his first child; suddenly he cares (a little more) about ”the world” and its future state. Or maybe it's just now that he's made his many millions of dollars, that it somehow “enlightens” and makes someone more philanthropic?

 

The way I see it, humans will also cause problems for themselves, for each other, for the environment in which they live, and for everything else. Some problems will get solved — e.g. by the magic of fossil fuels as sources of energy, all manners of plastics and chemicals, genetically engineered solutions, artificial intelligence to which to delegate social order and maintenance of one's (and the collective's) wellbeing — for a generation or three, before those solutions are seen to have caused or highlighted new problems. One alternative to pursuing solutions to problems with technology and innovation is to just accept we could be eaten by lions, have little protection from the elements, be subject to all manners of infection and ailments, and so on as a state of life and being “natural”.

 

It's not really up to us to leave “the world” in the hands of future generations with altogether fewer problems to contend with, or less risk of existential crises. The problems will simply be different; and whatever we solve now, “one step ahead”, will simply make way for other problems and crises. Nor do I really want future generations to be more complacent, less challenged, with fewer threats to fight. If not pollution, the hole in the Ozone Layer, and all manner of novel viruses, then perhaps aliens, asteroids, and giant balls of garbage hurtling from space towards the Earth will be next.

 

In any case, the greatest “threat” to the wellbeing of my new niece in the future will no doubt arise from the behaviour and actions of her contemporaries — as in other humans. Her parents will have given her all the financial resources, and “smart” genes to boot; but (if asked) I'd be happy to get her started on an assortment martial arts and NLP, as tools (or “weapons”), with which to defend herself against others physically and psychologically. (We have already been discussing which martial arts disciplines are most appropriate.)