What Was Your Last Impulsive Pen Acquisition?

[Detman101]

6 hours ago, alexwi said:

 

ACME's designs are just amazing - I know, I used to sell them in my store, ,some 20 years ago, and had almost the entire current line in stock always - but their pens are extremely  heavy for my taste. Otherwise, I'd have no less than 20 or 30. These pens are probably in the 50 to 60 gr. range.

 

They were really good at picking the designers who did their special editions, and having only two versions (at the time, at least) of their caps and barrels probably helped a lot in producing such an eclectic collection.

 

ACME's direct competitor was Retro 51, who had a desk set that was basically a knock-off of Eversharp's, with it's ball-shaped base. Retro's rollerballs are very comfortable to write with. Just don't keep them in a shirt pocket, because they're operated by turning the knob at the end of the barrel and, man, do those things turn easy!

WOOT - WOOOOOOT!!
GO HOBOKEN!!!
 😃😸😃

I just wanted to send up a shout out to the most fun waterside town where I had my first taste of Zuccotto, Gelato and Tiramisu!!!
 

[sirgilbert357]

23 minutes ago, N1003U said:

Good to hear you like the pen. It is attractive. It makes a lovely set with its matching ballpoint, and also, IMHO, with the Burnt Orange ballpoint.

 

I am curious to see what kinds of new things are coming this year in the M800 line...

 

Hopefully I hate everything else they put out for the next 3 or 4 years, LOL. This was an expensive year for me...I don't need any further temptations.

[sansenri]

On 5/17/2021 at 8:42 PM, Paul-in-SF said:

The pen arrived already today. Here are some photos, including one for size comparison with a Centennial (I don't at present own an International, which would been nice to include for reference). It is quite a small pen, at 116.53 mm capped, and 13.70 mm thick at the widest point of the cap (not over the cap rings though). The thickness makes the pen fairly proportional, but I think a thicker/stubbier shape would have been nicer. However, it does post nicely so I am able to write with it.

 

The color as reproduced here is pretty accurate to real life, I think, at least on my monitor. You can see that the olive green is very subtle, it only shows at a certain angle of reflection. I included one shot of the cap lighted from within, which at least proves that some of the checks are, in fact, olive green. 

 

 

Very nice, I own the Check Olive International (no pics yet). The Parkercollector site says the Olive was discontinued in 2009 because it seems green pens were not good sellers... Marine, Amber and Citrine continued to be produced until probably 2014. The demi was actually discontinued in 2014.
I like this colour very much, it's subtle but has nice light reflections.

[alexwi]

6 hours ago, Detman101 said:

WOOT - WOOOOOOT!!
GO HOBOKEN!!!
 😃😸😃

I just wanted to send up a shout out to the most fun waterside town where I had my first taste of Zuccotto, Gelato and Tiramisu!!!

No idea of when you were here, but over the past 2 decades it's become far more "civilized" than it was. When I moved here, in the early 90's, most people here were at that point between college and life and, for a while, it was one of the towns with more bars per square mile (or per capita), up there with Anchorage. Most of those are now gone and there are lots of families here now.

 

But we will continue to have one of the best views of NYC's skyline for the foreseeable future.

 

alex

[Detman101]

26 minutes ago, alexwi said:

No idea of when you were here, but over the past 2 decades it's become far more "civilized" than it was. When I moved here, in the early 90's, most people here were at that point between college and life and, for a while, it was one of the towns with more bars per square mile (or per capita), up there with Anchorage. Most of those are now gone and there are lots of families here now.

 

But we will continue to have one of the best views of NYC's skyline for the foreseeable future.

 

alex

Hah!! Thats EXACTLY when I was there...college!
B.M.C.C.  Spent soooo many months skating in downtown manhattan and all up and down the west side highway.
Then...the magical day I took the ferry across the water to Hoboken with my ex...I was exposed to magical culinary delights that changed my life and taste for-EVER!

I'm happy to hear that Hoboken has settled down a bit these days. Thanks for the update!!

[Pingu]

18 hours ago, sansenri said:

 

Very nice, I own the Check Olive International (no pics yet). The Parkercollector site says the Olive was discontinued in 2009 because it seems green pens were not good sellers... Marine, Amber and Citrine continued to be produced until probably 2014. The demi was actually discontinued in 2014.
I like this colour very much, it's subtle but has nice light reflections.

The Citrine, at least, was discontinued by 2012. I can say this for sure because I got a Citrine International from a pen store at 10% discount clearance because it was discontinued...  I still have the purchase receipt which is dated 2/9/2012. It may well have been discontinued before that, possibly 2011, and they were clearing remainder stock.

[mizgeorge]

Oh dear, I was being so good. I've only bought a couple of Prefountes this month and perhaps few bottles of ink.

 

But it's been a rubbish day and I'm not feeling my best, so I just treated myself to the LE Aqua Estie, simply because it's just so pretty. I've fancied one of these for a while, and the honey coloured one nearly got me, but I have a special weakness for aqua/blue pens. I should have it on Wednesday - possibly along with the Poor Little Pen, which appears to be on the last leg of its round the world excursion.

[Gloucesterman]

Just bought a white tortoise-shell Pelikan M400 with a fine nib. Not sure what is going on as I am accumulating a very significant flock of Pelikans. My current flock consists of several M600s, and, at least, 5 or 6 M200s of various colors. At the moment I refuse to spring for the latest "petrol" M200. It seems way OVER-PRICED (my opinion of course). And I don't think it is THAT attractive from my perspective to warrant that much money.

 

[Arcticart]

Kaweco Al-Sport light blue. "F" Not my preferred nib, but I couldn't pass it for 45€. I've wanted one ever since I got my classic sport, but haven't been able to justify the price. Until now.

[sirgilbert357]

I've decided the Lamy Al-Star is so good at handling shimmer inks (of which I have three and plan to eventually add one more - possibly), that I'd like to get another one. So I just ordered an Al-Star in graphite. It's not a limited edition, so I won't worry about wear and tear (or loss), and the color should mean any ink will look great coming out of it.

[Paul-in-SF]

6 hours ago, sirgilbert357 said:

the Lamy Al-Star is so good at handling shimmer inks

May I make a brief hijack of the thread, to ask why (in your opinion) these pens have this ability? Is a particular size of nib required? Is it an ability shared by the sister pen lines Safari and/or Vista? I have a Vista, and if it will do shimmer inks well, I might rescue it from the "for sale" drawer. First I would also have to buy some shimmer ink, so a recommendation there would be also appreciated. 

[Gloucesterman]

16 minutes ago, Paul-in-SF said:

May I make a brief hijack of the thread, to ask why (in your opinion) these pens have this ability? Is a particular size of nib required? Is it an ability shared by the sister pen lines Safari and/or Vista? I have a Vista, and if it will do shimmer inks well, I might rescue it from the "for sale" drawer. First I would also have to buy some shimmer ink, so a recommendation there would be also appreciated. 

+1, I would be curious also.

[sirgilbert357]

3 hours ago, Paul-in-SF said:

May I make a brief hijack of the thread, to ask why (in your opinion) these pens have this ability? Is a particular size of nib required? Is it an ability shared by the sister pen lines Safari and/or Vista? I have a Vista, and if it will do shimmer inks well, I might rescue it from the "for sale" drawer. First I would also have to buy some shimmer ink, so a recommendation there would be also appreciated. 

 

My experience is a sample of one, obviously (I only have one Al-Star), but the flow is excellent and has had no issues whatsoever with maintaining it's pace (medium nib is all I've tried so far, but I do have a broad, 1.1 and 1.5 to try later -- as well as a fine on the way from Goulet on the new Al-Star). I do try to roll the pen between my palms a couple of times a page, as the shimmer settles readily, but even when I forget to, it just continues to write and dispense the ink no matter how shimmer-laden the ink becomes. I've had other pens that choked a bit and flow would drop right after a large increase in shimmer particles on the page. I'd have to flood the feed with ink to force the shimmer to move and allow more ink through. The bottleneck seemed to be the nib's feed, where it narrows under the nib, not the collector inside the pen.

 

The Al-Star and Safari allow you to pull the nib off very easily should you need to manage a clog due to shimmer, and if it is bad enough, you can also pull the entire feed assembly out of the pen to rinse out the collector fins. The converters are also fully disassembled rather easily in case deep cleaning is needed. It's a relatively affordable pen (even more so if you opt for the Safari) too, which makes it easier to justify subjecting it to shimmer inks and potential tear downs for cleaning.

 

Full disclosure: I originally bought a Jinhao X750 for my shimmer inks, and I may still use it as well, since it can easily be taken apart for cleaning too. I haven't testing the flow on that one yet though, because Pilot Blue Black has been a match made in heaven for that pen and I have no desire to fill it with anything else at the moment. Point is, there are probably plenty of pens that can handle shimmer inks well -- its just that I happened to have an exceptional experience with my Al-Star and I kind of wasn't expecting to...so I'm just very pleased.

[inkstainedruth]

Today was my day to do stuff for me (not deal with in-laws, for the most part).  So I took a jaunt up to the Pen Boutique and spent a couple of hours schmoozing with Kyle, the guy at the counter, and also with a few other customers who had come in.  And while I had a bunch of things on my "maybe" shopping list, I ended up getting something I'd sort of been eyeballing for a while (mostly because the pen I really had wanted to look at was out of stock): one of the Sheaffer "Star Wars" pens.  No choice of nib, but not expensive, even after getting a converter for it.  Because sometime you just need something fun.

I didn't have a lot of choice, so I got the "Yoda" pen (although if they'd had the R2-D2 or BB-8 pens I would have gotten one of those instead).  Won't get to ink it up till after I get home, though -- there's no way to flush the pen out here in the hotel to get any manufacturing oils or stuff out of the nib and feed.  Also got four bottles of ink, including a backup bottle of Noodler's Baltimore Canyon Blue (which is rapidly becoming one my favorite blue inks).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JonSzanto]

I don't impulse buy and this is a bit outside of the definition. However, there must be a category of "this is a very good item for a deal that will vanish if you don't take it!"... which is just maybe "fancy impulse" at the end of the day!

Anyway, here's a sweet little pastel Estie duo with original case that I saw pop up on eBay this morning. I'm only out $14.99 plus nominal shipping. I would have been a fool to scroll past that.

[sirgilbert357]

15 minutes ago, JonSzanto said:

I don't impulse buy and this is a bit outside of the definition. However, there must be a category of "this is a very good item for a deal that will vanish if you don't take it!"... which is just maybe "fancy impulse" at the end of the day!

Anyway, here's a sweet little pastel Estie duo with original case that I saw pop up on eBay this morning. I'm only out $14.99 plus nominal shipping. I would have been a fool to scroll past that.

 

Wow. That is a sumgai deal if I ever saw one. Good score!

[inkstainedruth]

Yeah, what sirgilbert357 said.  I don't think I've ever seen a Pastel priced that low -- let along a set.  (It's weird -- the "normal" mackerel tabby and black J series pens are pretty inexpensive, even now -- but the Pastels?  Not so much....

So what's the nib on the pen?  Enquiring minds must know! 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[JonSzanto]

4 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

So what's the nib on the pen?  Enquiring minds must know! 

To be honest, as soon as it scrolled into view, I checked 2 things:

1. zoom and see if there were any major cap lip cracks, as the pastels are a bit more brittle.
2. check that the case was as I thought, one of the Esterbrook originals.

After that I just smacked BIN real fast - nibs can be swapped and I have a bunch. Hard to see but it appears to be a 155* (can’t see 4th digit). With this deal it could be missing a tine and I’d be pleased!

[mizgeorge]

7 hours ago, JonSzanto said:

I don't impulse buy and this is a bit outside of the definition. However, there must be a category of "this is a very good item for a deal that will vanish if you don't take it!"... which is just maybe "fancy impulse" at the end of the day!

Anyway, here's a sweet little pastel Estie duo with original case that I saw pop up on eBay this morning. I'm only out $14.99 plus nominal shipping. I would have been a fool to scroll past that.

Gorgeous! And what an amazing price. Now go buy a lottery ticket!!

[A Smug Dill]

OK, I did it. I don't know why or how it happened, but when I returned from dinner, somehow everything in my Cult Pens shopping basket from the past 24 hours or so all apparently dropped, even though I haven't changed the delivery destination country, or discount code applied, etc. This brought the effective price of the Pelikan M205 Moonstone down to as low as I could get from anywhere else; and so I jumped on it.