What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[Penguincollector]

6 hours ago, Al-fresco said:

We have a green pen club?  I never knew - I’ll get on it. My nib shows no signs of flex but I love it.  As an EF I’d rate it as slightly thicker than a Japanese medium. It’s nicely tuned.  Not sure if it was made in Italy or if they were contracting out to Bock at this time. I haven’t experienced any of the problems of skipping or drying out that some of the reviewers have experienced.

    Wow, if that’s the EF, I wonder what the B is like!  I’m glad yours is trouble free. I can’t wait to see more pictures!

[DilettanteG]

I keep saying,"I'm done buying," and then I buy another pen. The latest is a Pelikan M200 Italic Special Production. I think these came out in 2009 and for some reason I passed on it then at about $125. I ended up snagging one on eBay last night for quite a bit less, but used with no box or papers. I already have one of these medium italic factory produced nibs and I just really like it.

[inkstainedruth]

Got a notice last night from eBay that the seller of a pen I've been watching for a while had made an offer.   So, after a long-distance consultation with the husband, accepted the offer.  And it should be arriving later in the week: https://www.ebay.com/itm/282489261841

Yes, it's me.  Yes, it's YET ANOTHER™ Parker Vector....   Forgot that eBay is now collecting sales tax, and the shipping isn't cheap, but still it's not a horribly expensive pen.  And it turns out that I apparently still have a spare twist converter, so I can cross that off the shopping list for the time being (I do have to order some other stuff, including more Namiki Black ink for Mr. Cute & Fuzzy since he's misplaced one bottle in his home office and has largely gone through another bottle, and nobody had it with them at B/W this year....  So have been perusing various websites to see who's got it in stock and what else they might have so I can it the threshold for free shipping....  I also need a Pelikan converter because I swiped one from one of my P22 pens to put in the 1980s era NOS P1 Twist that was swag at last fall's Pelikan Hub.  And after the discussion on another thread, thinking it might not be a bad plan to get a backup bottle of Edelstein Tanzanite if possible, and just realized this morning that I should probably ALSO get a back up bottle of Edelstein Topaz, since I've been running that through the 3rd iteration M200 Café Crème, which has a B nib.... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PithyProlix]

I hit the Caran d'Ache mother lode today. No time to think much or else someone surely would have bought them out from under me. Condition on some might not be so great - will see when they arrive. The seller made videos for me so I got a fairly good look. Only two are fountain pens but ...

 

These will be my first CdAs, a brand I've always been very curious about. Metal sections will be ... interesting.  I'm guessing on some of the model names so if you can help me ID them, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

(Hmmm. Is this post considered gloating? 😅)

 

Lagoon limited edition, mother-of-pearl on sterling

 

Varius (correct?) in rosewood, maybe (?). Hopefully the stains are just dried ink.

 

Varius Ivanhoe (correct?)

 

Leman (correct?) but seems to have a special cap maybe?

 

mint Leman ballpoint - some sort of limited edition for Thailand

 

Haven't tried to ID this one. Did not get a video. Barrel might be very rough or maybe it is a weird reflection.

 

Seller decided to throw these in as 'freebies'.

 

Boxed and ready to be packed for shipping! 😘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lithium466]

Very nice, @PithyProlix!

[Gloucesterman]

Very, VERY nice!

[Doug C]

Kaweco firebird Lilliput. 

[chromantic]

An Aurora Optima 365 Cappuccino Tortoiseshell a couple weeks ago. Not really thrilled with the color - the photos made it look creamy brown but it's actually a kind of an orangey-brown, nice enough but will be hard to find a matching ink. I will say that it's probably the smoothest, nay, velvetiest nib I've encountered, truly a wonderful experience.

Then I pre-ordered the new Blanca from Novelli.

[Misfit]

If you bought a pen on March 14, it’s your Pi-Day pen. 

[AmandaW]

I ordered a Schmidt nib unit FH241 for my Pinkly. I tried to like the medium nib, but will be happier with the fine nib. It will feel like a new pen.

[A Smug Dill]

6 hours ago, chromantic said:

it's actually a kind of an orangey-brown, nice enough but will be hard to find a matching ink.

 

I've used Graf von Faber-Castell Cognac Brown in mine from time to time for a matching ink.

[Surlyprof]

On 3/14/2024 at 7:29 AM, PithyProlix said:

I hit the Caran d'Ache mother lode today. No time to think much or else someone surely would have bought them out from under me. Condition on some might not be so great - will see when they arrive. The seller made videos for me so I got a fairly good look. Only two are fountain pens but ...

 

These will be my first CdAs, a brand I've always been very curious about. Metal sections will be ... interesting.  I'm guessing on some of the model names so if you can help me ID them, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

(Hmmm. Is this post considered gloating? 😅)

 

Lagoon limited edition, mother-of-pearl on sterling

 

Varius (correct?) in rosewood, maybe (?). Hopefully the stains are just dried ink.

 

Varius Ivanhoe (correct?)

 

Leman (correct?) but seems to have a special cap maybe?

 

mint Leman ballpoint - some sort of limited edition for Thailand

 

Haven't tried to ID this one. Did not get a video. Barrel might be very rough or maybe it is a weird reflection.

 

Seller decided to throw these in as 'freebies'.

 

Boxed and ready to be packed for shipping! 😘

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very nice find.  The fountain pens are particularly gorgeous.  I’m sure the ink stains on the rosewood or walnut one can be lightly sanded off and refinished.  I used to use those “freebies” for sketching at work because they were nicely balanced, came in fun colors and took a Parker refill.  I used to pay $50-60 for them back then!  The red one looks like one of their limited edition models.  Congrats.

[gweimer1]

On 3/7/2024 at 7:03 PM, PAKMAN said:

I don't know what my next impulsive pen purchase will be but I know where and when! Arkansas Pen Show in two weeks!

 

I have new goodies to tempt you...  

[brindle]

TWSBI Eco, in Persian Blue, medium nib. 

[Gloucesterman]

Platinum pocket pen w/ 18K flexie nib.

Now to dig in to my drawer and find a converter (or at least a cartridge) to use when it gets here next week.

[inkstainedruth]

Well, the Vector "Electra" came in the mail today.  It's actually even better looking than in the photos, and may well be NOS (date code suggests 3rd quarter 1990).  It's a US production one (most of mine are actually UK production) so that's kinda interesting, as is the fact that I didn't realize it was packed in what I presume is the original box -- there's a sticker on the outside of the box bottom that says:

VECTOR   ELECTRA FPN 

FINE NIB

Yeah, I'm presuming that the abbreviation is for "fountain pen" or "F pen" -- although it would be super amusing if it stood for "Fountain Pen Network".... 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[PithyProlix]

The Caran D'Ache windfall (see my post above) arrived. My first experience with this brand and what a way to start!

 

I'm a BuJew (Buddhist Jew) in my late 50s and I finally understand what it's like to be a kid on Christmas morning ... albeit one that already knows what presents are contained in the boxes. (But still, upon unpacking them, I realized that the build quality and craftsmanship surpassed my expectation.) The 'Christmas eve' anticipation was also there while the pens were on their way to me and, for the first time in my experience, the post office failed to update any the tracking information after the package arrived at the original drop-off office. The anticipation was replaced by the fear that they might be lost or stolen and would never come. Then, out-of-the-blue, I heard the horn of the delivery-person's motorcycle, looked out a front window, and he was holding the box!   

 

Condition is very good and up. I'm super happy.  Maybe a family portrait tomorrow and perhaps I'll do a write-up on them with some decent photos sometime.

 

The ink stains were actually fairly minimal and pretty easy to remove, even on the wood. But there was a pretty large amount of something like an adhesive on four of the pens and it didn't seem to be in very consistent places, some even under the clips of two of the pens. What the heck did the previous owner do to get adhesive on four of the pens? A mystery. And not impossible to remove but a bit difficult - certainly worse than typical label adhesive. When I finally came down off my 'Christmas morning kid' euphoria, I realized those four pens must have been kept in the same box: the thin vinyl (or whatever it is) covering the 'bed' on which the pens sleep in that box, as well as the strap that slips under the clips had deteriorated where they contacted the pens. Over time the vinyl must have reacted with the surface of the pens, sticking on. Another pen arrived on its own in an identical box but in perfect shape: that pen's surface was fine. It's not a problem I've previously encountered.

[lukeap69]

JunLai 631 Ebonite 14k, Yong Sheng 698 14k and Platinum 3776 Century Green in the same day. 😁

[AmandaW]

I'm getting a blue Greenfield school pen cos I like my red one a lot. The impulsive part was splurging on the shipping. Express travels by air, so it won't get delayed by the flooding which is affecting road freight.

 

[PithyProlix]

On 3/16/2024 at 8:37 PM, lukeap69 said:

JunLai 631 Ebonite 14k

 

This is a very interesting pen! What color did you get? And nib?