Inky T O D - How Often Do You Use "free" Pens?

[amberleadavis]

Today, I was at a breakfast "meetup" (which really means sales presentation) for a software company. They gave us swag including a pen. I don't even use ballpoints, but I took the pen and added to the jar at the front desk.

 

So, what about you? How often do you use those free pens?

[amberleadavis]

Well, here is my actual sheet from the meetup - including my drafts of the question and a few of my own musings.

 

[clazbill]

Some of my best ballpoint/gell/ect pens came from free giveaways. I'm not sure why that is.

 

I'll take them when they get offered, but I rarely keep any for myself. Most go in the "if anyone needs a pen, take one!" jar.

[amberleadavis]

Some of my best ballpoint/gell/ect pens came from free giveaways. I'm not sure why that is.

 

I'll take them when they get offered, but I rarely keep any for myself. Most go in the "if anyone needs a pen, take one!" jar.

 

Totally Ditto.

[Kiaxa]

Depends on the quality of refill inside. But the only ballpoints I own are freebies. Although I do have one of those drug advertising pens (the ones with the name of a drug on the side you normally snatch from your doctor's office) that is not a ballpoint but a Pilot Varsity.

[Sasha Royale]

Boy, I get a lot of those ! I take eight or ten to work every year. There are two very nice ones that I got from my accountant ($300 to $400 to do my taxes) and my attorney ($800 for a will and advance directive). I keep one in my car and one in my checkbook. Whenever possible, I enjoy my fp's.

[macaddicted]

They're great whenever there isn't a fountain pen, felt tip, pencil, gel, or oblique dip pen isn't available.

[lgsoltek]

I have two or three. They come in handy when I need to write on carbon paper, where I have to write with pressure.

[Charles Rice]

Free ball points ? Never. roller Balls? Sometimes. But I have three free fountain pens inked up right now.

[inkstainedruth]

Before I got into this, er, little hobby, I had one free BP that I used all the time. I still have it (even know where in the house it is). It's a click pen, with the imprint for my friend's business, and I kept it because it because of that. And because the barrel is purple.

The problem with it is that when it came to getting a refill for it, I wanted blue instead of black; and the ones from Staples that supposedly worked leaked into the blister pack before I ever got home with them....

I'm sure my friend got them from someplace that you buy them by the gross. I actually like the canvas tote bag I got from her another time *better* -- my cotton spinning stuff (including the cotton cards I bought from her) lives in that that bag. I do like the pen -- I just wish it wasn't junk that I had troubles buying refills for.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[amberleadavis]

Depends on the quality of refill inside. But the only ballpoints I own are freebies. Although I do have one of those drug advertising pens (the ones with the name of a drug on the side you normally snatch from your doctor's office) that is not a ballpoint but a Pilot Varsity.

 

 

Now, I'd do business with someone who gave me a varsity. OH wait, I still do business with the one person who gave me a Varsity. That was back in 1999 and I still remember it.

[amberleadavis]

Free ball points ? Never. roller Balls? Sometimes. But I have three free fountain pens inked up right now.

 

 

Really???? Who gives out free FPs except for our friends who give us gifts? I want to do business with these people!

[martinbir]

I gratefully accept any freebie pens although I will never use them myself.

 

My wife has a large pot of cheap/free pens in the kitchen. These she scatters around the house until the pot is empty and then starts borrowing my emergency silver Caran d'Ache ballpoint from my office. At that point we scour the house and refill the pot; but there is always some loss. so anything I can add to the stock protects my own pens.

[TSherbs]

I don't know what a "free" fountain pen is.

 

Free rollers, or lost and unclaimed rollers, go in my jar in my classroom for kids to use. I don't use them. I bought a warehouse full of G2s a couple of years ago and am still working my way through them when I need a roller.

[Sandy Fry]

I have a Papermate ballpen that was given to me on my 18th birthday and I have used it ever since...34 years now!

 

David

[Charles Rice]

OK, the free fountain pens did not come from a business meeting or such. Just like a lot of others here, when a friend finds a fountain pen in a junk drawer, it usually comes my way - for free. They range from a cheapie A & W to an early Duofold. (they can keep the Esterbrooks)

[DaveBj]

My carry BP is an Adler freebie from a staffing company that did business with the factory where I was security chief. It writes well (for a BP), and it also has a touchpad stylus and LED flashlight. I also have two freebie FPs, a Preppy that came with my bottle of Baystate Blue, and a Click Majestic that came with my ASA Sniper. They're in the rotation.

[inkstainedruth]

I have a bunch of free FPs. Some were PiFs. Some were ones that came with bottles of Noodler's ink (that's how I ended up with four Charlie pens, three Preppies, and three Kuretake brush pens). One was the unknown model Sheaffer that may have the pen originally belonging to my mother-in-law's father -- I still need to upload photos of it to the Sheaffer forum (it had the cap for her Eversharp Skyline jammed onto it when she gave it to me last month). One was the Wearever that a guy in an antiques fair just outright gave me last spring -- out of the blue -- on the grounds that "I can't sell this"; I was looking the pen over and telling him the little I knew about the brand (which isn't much) and started to hand it back to him when he said that. [This is one of those times when I miss the old "blink" .gif....] Most recently, was what I think is a Dollar 717i demonstrator, courtesy of FPN member bleair, when he sent me a small jar of vintage Carter's Midnight Blue (AND a small jar of Sheaffer Blue-Black, AND the pen) in exchange for me having picked up a bottle of Noodler's King Philip's Requiem at the Commonwealth Pen Show.

Yikes. Just checked my records -- nearly half the pens I've acquired this year *alone* were freebies....

 

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Penlust]

I have a lot of giveaways that I liked at one point or another and use in a pinch. But I carry a pen with a stylus and flashlight in my purse. The flashlight is handy and when someone needs a pen, that's what I hand them instead of whatever cool FP is in my purse.

[amberleadavis]

OK, the free fountain pens did not come from a business meeting or such. Just like a lot of others here, when a friend finds a fountain pen in a junk drawer, it usually comes my way - for free. They range from a cheapie A & W to an early Duofold. (they can keep the Esterbrooks)

LOL, send me the Esties. I give them out to my interns. We must recruit the youth.