What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[scully012]

A green Esterbrook LJ on eBay. Bid $11.50 90 minutes before the auction ended and unexpectedly came out on top.

[inkstainedruth]

Cool! What's the nib on it? I don't see LJs as often as the full-size Js or the SJs; I have a grey one (which was in a lot a few years ago with a grey LJ) and a black one, and all the rest of the Estie stash are Js or SJs.

My last impulse buy (not counting the antique dental cabinet because I haven't actually paid for it yet, or paid my half of the moving costs, although it's supposed to be delivered tomorrow). is actually also not a pen.... It's a blue-glazed small Pelikan pen stand (the style where the base is a pen rest). Wanted a blue one for a really long time, and then while clearing out "sold" items I'd been watching on eBay (and all the OTHER dental cabinets) I spotted one for sale and made an offer and it was accepted almost immediately! So that's coming in the mail in about a week....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[AmandaW]

Yesterday!. A Lamy Al-Star in Graphite with a 1.5mm nib from the pen shop in the big smoke. It will go with the 1.1mm I already had and the 1.9mm that I forgot I had.

 

I was going to the shop for a bottle of Pelikan Fount India ink wanted for a drawing experiment.

 

The odds for a new pen were high because I'm practicing an italic hand with the help of the Fred Eager book and my 1.1mm is a bit too small to see my mistakes. It's lots of fun, yet quiet and calming. It's a good distraction that yields something good from times somewhat less than good. Besides, it was in the shop window looking very pretty, with a discount sticker and I haven't been to the city since February. (I had planned to go to an office supply shop to look at Sheaffer sets if there hadn't been anything enticing at the pen shop. Yeah, the odds of a new pen were definitely in my favour.)

 

I did a switcheroo on the nibs so they now run: 1.1mm in the light grey, 1.5mm in the dark grey and 1.9mm in the black. Even I should be able to remember that.

 

[Zookie]

Try looking at iampeth.com

It's mostly Spencerian or Palmer method writing, but has a lot of tools to print out and use.

Good luck, and have fun!

[sansenri]

Leonardo Speranza Etna. It is a really neat red green and other colors ebonite. Couldn't resist.

Nice one, I just saw some pics, isn't it supposed to be out in July?

I think you'll like it!

[Runnin_Ute]

Just missed on a Pelikan 120 from the 50's earlier this week. I have a 120 Merz and Krell from the 70's. Same model, but very different pens. No nib interchangeablity as the threads are different. Couple of other differences too.

[mauckcg]

Nice one, I just saw some pics, isn't it supposed to be out in July?

I think you'll like it!

It's a preorder. I have a Speranza Cherry that is gorgeous. Couldn't say no to this one. Leonardo keeps putting out some excellent pens.

[WLSpec]

The Galen Kaweco Sport and 2 custom Lotus pens in Conway Stewart acrylics.

[ENewton]

Yesterday I ordered the new Sailor 1911S Wicked Witch of the West. I'd been thinking of getting a Sailor medium nib for some time but decided to wait until Sailor came out with a dark purple pen.

 

I'm not sure this counts as an impulse purchase, insofar as I'd planned in advance for the scenario, but as soon as I saw on the Goulet website that the pens were in stock, I placed the order.

 

I am imagining that this will be my always-inked pen.

[cgreenberg19]

About a week ago I bought an Omas 555 F.

[maclink]

Pelikan 400NN

 

[I-am-not-really-here]

I have been regularly checking the Franklin-Christoph Site almost daily since their inventory seems to be in constant flux. And just missed out on their recent Online Pen Show. Today, found hiding in the Stock Room, a pen they must have just placed, the 45L in Southwestern color-scheme. Well I have been toying with what pen to place gold and gold-like ink into, and here it is. Oh, an LE of 20? No time to waste, pick a nib any nib (gold, natch) and run don't walk to checkout!

[Misfit]

I’ve been wanting a Platinum Plaisir in gold. I used the excuse of Vanness having restocked De Atramentis Marie Currie uranium green to also order the Plaisir.

 

When I realized I paid $4-5 more for a Plaisir, I ordered another one, the Nova Orange from amazon. I had rewards dollars, so that one cost $1.70. I felt better after that. Could have got the converter cheaper too, but Vanness is a good place to shop online, and they have a B&M store.

[A Smug Dill]

Two PenBBS 355 (Mark II) that come with the bicolour F nibs — which, at least from the product images, I really don't think match the rhodium trim well at all — because I refuse to pay 16% more for a 'snowflake' F nib that probably won't be fine enough to satisfy me anyway. Two PenBBS (silver-coloured) REF nibs to match the pens, although the nib come in pendant-like containers and only one of the pendants match one of the pens in terms of the acrylic pattern.

Those pens venture into pricing territory past the fringes of what I'd normally be comfortable paying for a Chinese-made pen, but since (some of) the good folk here seem to have such high regard for the filling mechanism exemplified by Conid's designs in recent years, but as a manufacturer Conid seems to have often and repeatedly failed to deliver to consumer^† expectations, while PenBBS goes from strength to strength in churning out new models and keeping buyers happy, so I decided hey, what the heck, let's spend some money with PenBBS even though I'm not keen on the out-of-pocket expense of explicit and significant international shipping charges and PenBBS is quite blunt about it not having any control (and not really caring or fretting) over long postal delivery times due to COVID-19.

 

Right now I'm contemplating getting a couple of Moonman 800 just for the pretty colours (and the shape and styling, of course). I have a genuine Leonardo Momento Zero Blue Hawaii with a nib that disappointed out-of-the-box; the tipping wasn't even symmetrical or balanced. I'm also hearing some disturbing things about the quality of the recent spate of Moonman nibs. So, my expectations are set fairly low either way, and I'm trying to decide whether I have the appetite for doing some amateur, ham-fisted nib work myself or perhaps swapping in something from my limited number of Nemosine nibs.

^† I was going to write "customers", but sadly I feel I have to pre-empt people equating customers with users of the writing instruments and claiming that the "customers" (who have received and are using the pens they ordered) are more than satisfied with the products, and so I changed the word to "consumers" to emphasise those who have money to spend on products and services — for their own benefit, as gifts to family and friends, or otherwise — that producers and vendors in industry are vying to earn.

[NumberSix]

After quarantine spending like mad in April and May (one ebay purchase has yet to even arrive from across the Pond), I took June off of pen purchasing.

I just placed an order for a Safari USA Edition (EF) and a bottle of Lamy Blue. I have been missing this simple combination since I gave mine away six months ago to focus mostly on vintage pens.

The impulsive bit was that I had considered waiting a bit longer before buying another pen, but this model has begun showing as sold out in more and more of my usual pen shops. Fortunately, Goldspot has it still.

And yes, I do like Lamy Blue ink for daily workhorse use.

[bayindirh]

Two Faber Castell Ambitions in black resin, M nib.

 

The price was unbelievable. It was almost 60% off the retail price.

[bayindirh]

 

After quarantine spending like mad in April and May (one ebay purchase has yet to even arrive from across the Pond), I took June off of pen purchasing.

I just placed an order for a Safari USA Edition (EF) and a bottle of Lamy Blue. I have been missing this simple combination since I gave mine away six months ago to focus mostly on vintage pens.

The impulsive bit was that I had considered waiting a bit longer before buying another pen, but this model has begun showing as sold out in more and more of my usual pen shops. Fortunately, Goldspot has it still.

And yes, I do like Lamy Blue ink for daily workhorse use.

 

You're not alone. After using fancier pens and inks I always return to my Lamy Safari Umbra and Lamy Blue.

 

Me and my pen says hi.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Moreover, I mainly used wooden pencils since grade school. But as I started to get deeper and deeper into my studies. I was using 2 wooden pencils every week. An average cost of $10 dollars a week. And cannot be reused.

 

I'm still wondering what kind of wood cased pencils you're buying for $5 each .

 

 

I find a long-term purchase list useful as well, particularly to consult before going to shows, etc.

 

I used to keep a written list (why? well I can use my pens to maintain it, of course!), but the list got to be too cumbersome to edit, re-organize, re-write, etc., every time I change my mind about what I want (which is often).

 

So, I finally broke down and made an electronic list as well. Over the course of a few years I have whittled my long-term shopping list down to just a few pens (7 at present), and 4 of those are Special Editions or Limited Editions that are either difficult to find or above my budget threshold at present, so I only have really three production pens on my list, which are waiting for the simultaneous occurrence of a good deal from a vendor combined with some spare change in my pocket.

 

So I suppose most of my acquisitions going forward could be classified as "impulsive acquisitions". Since my inventory of pens is now also about a large as I can comfortably manage and still keep in a semblance of a rotation, I have invoked a self-imposed "pay-it-forward" rule that for every future "impulsive acquisition" I make, I need to sell, give away, or otherwise dispose of something to make room for the new acquisition. I find such a rule really limits my new acquisitions, because when I see some shiny new bauble, I first have to ask myself, "which pen am I going to get rid of to make room for this one, and do I really like it that much that I am willing to give up something else to acquire it?" I find this process is a wonderful technique to limit new, especially unplanned purchases.*

 

Since my purchase list has shrunk significantly over time, I may re-visit the idea of making it a handwritten list again, but the electronic copy is darn convenient for inventory management, budgeting, insurance documentation, etc..

 

*I discovered this technique initially after moving from a 3000 sq.ft. house in Florida to a 682 sq.ft. apartment in New York City, and it is for me a powerful one. In that situation, I was forced to brutally prioritize what personal property I really wanted to keep and what needed to be disposed of, and every time I saw something interesting (furniture, art work, books, etc.), I needed to think very specifically about where the item would physically fit into my living space, and if it was worth it. A similar technique is now helping me to control the (over)expansion of my pen collection.

 

I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I've lived in a small place for years, but I have to be very careful now because I have pretty much run out of room. I suppose that I could get a few more fountain pens, but I really shouldn't. Ink, however, I must resist. There is simply no place to put any more ink. Domestic bliss could be threatened if I were to put more ink in inconvenient places around here .

[MuddyWaters]

Two Faber Castell Ambitions in black resin, M nib.

 

The price was unbelievable. It was almost 60% off the retail price.

Where was that? I may be interested...

[bayindirh]

Where was that? I may be interested...

Unfortunately, at a local bookstore over Amazon. I'm not sure they can ship internationally. If you're still interested, this is the place.