Best Way To Keep A Pen Inventory?

[mbffplover]

Hi all,

 

I've got a few pens (predominantly Parker) and keep a google sheet of their details to help "keep track" them - ie which ones are inked, when I acquired them, price etc ... The advantages I see with a google sheet is the flexibility it affords (ie I can add whatever columns I want), as well as the ability to share it with a bunch of fellow pen lovers.

I was just wondering - how does everyone else keep tabs on their pens? Is there a better way? It seems that many members try to keep an inventory and I've seen a few people on here use:

1. Jonro's database (for some reason I couldn't get it to install but it sounds like a fantastic tool); or
2. A table in a word or powerpoint document; or
3. Something called airtable;

Keen to hear how your thoughts and get a discussion going

[BillPorter]

Hi mbffplover (Montblanc Forever Fountain Pen Lover?),

 

While I use Excel to track data on my pool playing and Word to record lots of stuff, I am "old school" with pen data. I use a zippered 6-ring binder with a page for each pen I acquire. I record the date acquired and cost, often using the pen itself to write this. I also record anything I did when first getting the pen like flushing it out or aligning the tines. As time goes on, if I try to adjust the ink flow, I make a note of this on the page for that pen. I would also record it if I change the nib on the pen or if I have problems with the pen such as hard starts or skips. In some cases my notes on a pen have run to a second or even a third page. I used to record the weight of each pen in this notebook, but haven't been keeping up on that lately.

 

The other records I keep involve the ink I am using in a pen. I keep a small box of index cards and record what ink is in the pen. There's a small section at the front of the box for currently inked pen. When I clean and store a pen, the index card for that pen is moved to the second section of the box. Pens that are given away or just trashed go into a third section.

 

Finally, since my memory is pretty poor these days, I keep an index card handy that shows the inks in each inked pen so that I don't have to access the box of index cards.

[ethernautrix]

My not very helpful suggestion is to have few pens.

 

HA! (Haha!)

 

But I do keep a spreadsheet in Excel, where I categorize them as "User," "Memento," and "To Sell." I'm tracking the sale prices, but I started the spreadsheet long after I acquired most of the pens I still have, and I don't track what inks are in what pens (I do that in the notebooks in which I'm using the pens).

[sidthecat]

It strikes me that one should want to scan in a writing sample, if one were going to maintain a database.

 

My husband was an Oracle DBA, so I really should put one together in his honor.

[PAKMAN]

I keep a running word document with current and bought and sold pens to keep my pen 'list'. Also have an Excel spreadsheet with what my currently owned pens cost me to buy and what they are worth.

[inkstainedruth]

I have several different files on my laptop. One is a list by brand, with notes as to model, nib width, date of purchase, year of manufacture (if possible) for the vintage ones, price, whether or not it needs (or has had) repairs, and maybe a notation of info I've gleaned from websites or conversations with pros at pen shows. Another is a spreadsheet where I can plot the relative prices (including repairs or parts). And a third is just a list, where I can note what pens are inked up (and with what) -- I can highlight in a different color easily, and it's easily changed. I also have a file with notes about what pens have been appraised (and a ballpark figure for the appraisal value).

In addition to the computer stuff, I have a couple of composition books where I do writing samples for each pen and whether or not a particular ink does well in that pen. I gave myself a couple of pages for each, and have (somewhat) color-coded post-it flags at the start of each set of pages -- although some of the post-its have to be replaced at this point, for various reasons (Kung Te Cheng is a great ink for this; iron gall inks not so much because they're less UV resistant). And of course I have a (at this point) set of inexpensive sketchbooks to do ink reviews and tests.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: OCD? Me? Nah.... (Is that with or without the hyphen?)

Edited August 23, 2016 by inkstainedruth

[ethernautrix]

Drat. Too late to add a price column (what I paid for the pens). Alas. I remember that my first Nakaya Piccolo cost $250 + $25 for my name in maki-e.

[zaddick]

I use a small bound black and red notebook. The front is for writing samples and the back is for an acquisition record. It is less pracal than a spread sheet, but I already spent too much time writing on a computer. Seems a little ironic to me (no offense meant to anyone) to spend more time tracking thoughts on an outdated yet pleasurable hobby using the technology that replaced the object of my collection.

[NinthSphere]

I use Jonro's Fountain Pen Inventory to track buy/sell price, who from/to & when, original pen configurations & any changes such as nib swapping, pics of individual pens, etc. Which pens are inked & with what ink, I keep track of in my head.

[pajaro]

I keep it in my head. It surprises my wife that I can remember when I bought one, how much I paid and its characteristics. It's worse when I tell her when I bought the household goods items I had before we got married and what I paid for them. I think it vexes her.

[bsenn]

Excel. Many columns showing what pen, model, year if available, how much, where, when, notes such as inscriptions, cap pattern, if I rebuilt it, if it was broken down for parts and no longer exists, etc.

 

As a pen is inked I write a line in the notebook kept by my inks. The line is simply what pen, what ink, and the date.

 

Its easy if you buy one pen at a time. Buying a lot with many pens takes time to enter. I don't keep track of cheapie pens such as Sheaffer school pens. I don't keep track of run of the mill Esties (I do track special Esties).

 

Brian

[praxim]

At the moment I keep a document (Nisus, not to be Wordish about it) which has at the top a table with pen, colour or finish/adornment, nib label, weight (!), price and year or era. Below that is a paragraph or two on each pen.

 

After transitioning my ink record to pen and paper, I may do the same with the pens, pehaps a master table on computer for easy comparison of characteristics and the written stuff in a journal.

 

There is also a spreadsheet with every pen owned, being considered or previously considered or lost at auction, for determining what to buy and especially at what price. Four currencies can be involved in the comparisons.

[sidthecat]

One rather likes the joy of discovery: "Oh! I forgot I had that puppy!"

[tinta]

My not very helpful suggestion is to have few pens.

 

HA! (Haha!)

.

Not a bad thought.

All my eight pens fit into a small Rubbermaid box.

[pajaro]

It's nice to know about hobby items you know you will sell later how much you paid and when it was bought, the color, nib and so on. Also good for your heirs. For you, when you are new and gung ho on the hobby, it seems satisfying to be doing all the stuff you can to exhaust your new enthusiasm: record, take the item to pieces, clean it, polish it and so on. Later you realize most of the pens you have, even though they write, are not perfect and many dry out faster than the best ones, some clog up too fast, whatever. You get tired of a lot of them, write with the best ones and fiddle with all of them, because that's the fun of it.

[Sasha Royale]

Create a folder in your computer, with the title "My Fountain Pens". Take photographs with your digital camera. The four pictures of my black and white Tuckersharpe are numbered 103A, 103B, 103C, and 103D. In the same folder, is a Microsoft Word document "FP#103", where I write about my Tuckersharpe , lever-fill fountain pen.

 

The picures fit, easily, on any flash drive, or tablet. When people begin to bore, with kid pictures, or vacation pictures, or cat pictures, I bring out MY "boring" pictures. I have a set of handgun pictures, as well. REVENGE -- So sweet thou art.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

***************************

Rache ist süß.

[Lam1]

I used to have an Excel spreadsheet with all the information. But a couple of weeks ago Joshua (Sargetalon) posted a review of the software Recollector on his website and I switched to using Recollector both for pens and ink. It is very easy to use and customize, and I'm very happy with it.

[NinthSphere]

One rather likes the joy of discovery: "Oh! I forgot I had that puppy!"

 

For better or worse, that happens even with careful documentation. I was digging around in one of my boxes the other day & found an inlaid nib unit I had no recollection of buying until I went though listings in the FP Inventory & compared it to a couple of others I did remember.

[NinthSphere]

One rather likes the joy of discovery: "Oh! I forgot I had that puppy!"

 

For better or worse, that happens even with careful documentation. I was digging around in one of my boxes the other day & found an inlaid nib unit I had no recollection of buying until I went though listings in the FP Inventory & compared it to a couple of others I did remember.

[jcastro1975]

I started on paper, then on Excel worksheets and then went to use the Jonro's database for a while. I ended up creating my own web app (to learn some new stuff as well), though I am still adding/updating/removing things depending on whatever needs come up. Is a work in progress, but it helps me to keep things on track.