You Know You've Exceeded The Fountain Pen Limit When....

[BaronWulfraed]

When you realize that the pen you are writing with has not been added to the database (after reading this topic!) and stop and open the database and it makes 111 fountain pens and 39 associated BP/MP and 82 bottles of ink which fill up two lawyers cabinets with stuff stacked on top and a rough value in pens of $36k. Yikes!

You must have some lovelies (or expensive ink ). Granted, I don't have price records for 1980s or 1990s (Summer of 1999 is when I started using Quicken), so they aren't included in

 

Pen Query

Sum Of PurchasePrice Avg Of PurchasePrice Min Of PurchasePrice Max Of PurchasePrice Count

$20,297.01 $142.94 $5.00 $636.00 167

 

That count treats multi-pen calligraphy/drafting sets as "1" entry. Also not included -- the minor collection of Freebies included with Ranga group buys (1x Oliver Explorer eyedropper, 4x Oliver Exam piston-fill, 1x Fellowship Blackberry stinky eyedropper with hooded nib).

Edited July 25, 2020 by BaronWulfraed

[PAKMAN]

Hmmm, I'll have to get Excel to come up with a similar summary!

[inkstainedruth]

I keep records of the prices of pens, including repairs, but not of ink or paper (or tools, or ephemera, or the now three small Pelikan pen stands, or storage stuff ). For the pens it's part of my inventory file. But I have not done the calculations of the totals.

I also have a separate file that lists the value of the few pens I've actually had appraised, with the overall value of those pens, and noting the appraisal value of one of the rarest pens (and which is also probably my best sumgai -- the Parker 41 I found in a box of mostly ballpoints at an estate sale a few years ago. At some point I should probably think about getting a rider on the home0wners' insurance, since the total value of the pens I did have appraised was for more than I paid, overall, including repair costs. And I've bought several much more expensive pens since then (mostly modern Pelikans).

But half the fun for me is finding bargains. The joy is in the hunt, and then in getting the pens working again (I don't buy high-end LE pens, and I don't buy pens to stick them in display cases).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

I secretly know that I’ve exceeded the limit, but I am not saying it, in the hopes that no one else in the family has noticed

[praxim]

I know how much I have spent on pens or recovered in sales but, like Ruth, keep no track of ink or stationery; they are just consumables. Pen repair tools do not count either, for being put of the fun, and many of those used are not pen-specific anyway.

 

Regarding the question, I have known I had too many pens from the time I exceeded two, so nothing has changed at 2⁷

[A Smug Dill]

I don't keep a tab on how much I've spent on jackets, shoes, (physical and digital) books, liquor, pr0n, and so on. There is no reason for me to know precisely how much I have spent on pens, much less inks and stationery over a number of years, if I wanted to evaluate the Boolean variables of whether I have spent "too much" on this hobby and whether I have hit a hard limit, when I think both of those things are relative to one's (changing) financial situation.

 

300 bottles of ink, at a wet-finger-in-the-air assessment of average price of $10 a bottle, would make $3,000 spent on ink alone, and the average punter — or even anyone among my family and friends, including my dear wife — will tell me that's "too much". Sitting on several thousand dollars' "worth" of fountain pens I never used — some of which are still factory-sealed — is no doubt "too much", when I didn't acquire them with any intention to sell or trade.

 

My having (bought) too many pens and/or spent too much is a foregone conclusion. But then, so is having spent $3,000 last year on alcohol, for which I have less to show for it than a bad liver my dead brain cells fail to acknowledge.

 

Counting the physical number of pens, and comparing it against the number of storage slots I have, is an easier task for determining one's "fountain pen limit". Even so, when I ordered ten DiLoro leather pen cases at a time, that is hardly a meaningful measure.

[vicpen123]

But half the fun for me is finding bargains. The joy is in the hunt,

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

At least in the USA there is a jungle of fountain pens to hunt in.

 

Here in Oz it is barren and arid in terms of fountain pens. I am every shade of green with envy.

 

[N1003U]

I don't keep a tab on how much I've spent on jackets, shoes, (physical and digital) books, liquor, pr0n, and so on. There is no reason for me to know precisely how much I have spent on pens, much less inks and stationery over a number of years, if I wanted to evaluate the Boolean variables of whether I have spent "too much" on this hobby and whether I have hit a hard limit, when I think both of those things are relative to one's (changing) financial situation.

 

300 bottles of ink, at a wet-finger-in-the-air assessment of average price of $10 a bottle, would make $3,000 spent on ink alone, and the average punter or even anyone among my family and friends, including my dear wife will tell me that's "too much". Sitting on several thousand dollars' "worth" of fountain pens I never used some of which are still factory-sealed is no doubt "too much", when I didn't acquire them with any intention to sell or trade.

 

My having (bought) too many pens and/or spent too much is a foregone conclusion. But then, so is having spent $3,000 last year on alcohol, for which I have less to show for it than a bad liver my dead brain cells fail to acknowledge.

 

Counting the physical number of pens, and comparing it against the number of storage slots I have, is an easier task for determining one's "fountain pen limit". Even so, when I ordered ten DiLoro leather pen cases at a time, that is hardly a meaningful measure.

Thank you and well said.

 

I spit out a bit of morning coffee laughing upon reading the last sentence.

[N1003U]

It's been a while since I read this thread. And the storage issue has gotten worse -- I bought an antique dental cabinet on Craigslist with my government stimulus check, while the IKEA cabinet has never been completely assembled, and I have no idea where to put the antique spool cabinet I bought last summer in Virginia. And of course I now have to buy replacement knobs for the drawers (I did find small ones for the doors in the hutch part) -- not to mention the right size and type of screws. And primer and enamel for the metal drawer interiors, and then once the drawers are reinstalled, I'll need to order a bunch of pen trays....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

How many pens and/or bottles of ink do you figure you can store in the new dental cabinet? (very nice-looking cabinet, BTW)

[thx1138]

If the equation for the right number of pens is;

 

N + 1

 

What is the equation for too many pens?

[I-am-not-really-here]

If the equation for the right number of pens is;

 

N + 1

 

What is the equation for too many pens?

 

N x (N + 2)

[ISW_Kaputnik]

If the equation for the right number of pens is;

 

N + 1

 

What is the equation for too many pens?

Where X > 0, and T is too many pens, I only know that T≠ (X+N+1). But then, I never got that far in math. As people who noticed the original version of my post can attest.

Edited July 26, 2020 by ISW_Kaputnik

[inkstainedruth]

How many pens and/or bottles of ink do you figure you can store in the new dental cabinet? (very nice-looking cabinet, BTW)

Well, there are 15 drawers that are about an inch and a half high, and three that are are little taller. I'm guessing about 16-24 pens per drawer, depending on the drawer widths (possibly more if I can double up on the ringtops and smaller pens front to back. I just did a rough measurement with one of the flocked plastic pen trays, and the center column of drawers are just the width of one pen tray, so that's ten to twelve dozen in the center drawers alone (the left and right columns are narrower in width, so I'm not sure I could fit more than about 16 per of the normal length ones (but there's more of them, so that would make 96 per column total). So roughly 330-340. Less, of course, if I put notebooks and journals in the slightly taller three drawers.... At which point I will KNOW I have too many pens. Oh, that doesn't count the pens that are currently inked up, or a couple that are still in cases/boxes (the Osmiroid India ink pen, which comes with a gadget to remove the nib and feed for thorough cleaning) and the Duofold Lucky Curve ringtop (for which the seller through in the MB clamshell hard case it was in). Also (thinking of another thread) I'm not including my set of Rapidographs, which are in a drawer in my grandparents' old dresser, now living in the hallway outside my husband's office as the place to put the printer and scanner).

Then there are three deeper drawers at the bottom of each column. Hoping that the ink sample vial trays will all fit in those bottom drawers.

Not sure about the hutch part yet, because those little cabinet sections aren't very large, and some have a shelf in them, but the center one, IIRC doesn't, and the two end cabinets are really small. And of course the interior front to back dimensions are only about 4"....

As far as storing bottled ink? Not likely to happen -- those will stay in the IKEA sweater boxes on the Pier 1 bookcases flanking my little desk.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[como]

Once upon a time, I was doing what I should. Then I was doing what I could. Now I am just doing (who knows what)

[Says]

You have your pens delivered to your office...because you haven't figured out how to tell the spouse you bought another one... I'll think of something though.

+1!

[almoore]

+1

[LuckyKate]

You don't have a single fully functioning appliance in the entire house, but you have a Nakaya and countless Twsbis, Lamys, Sailors and Platinums.

[bemon]

When you open up your EDC pen case, and say "hmmm." Then you open up your back up pen case, say "hmmmmmmmmm". Then, you scratch your head as you wander over to your master collection, say "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" and then in a moment of complete decision paralyses pick up a ballpoint to make a note.

[PAKMAN]

When you start feeling sorry for which ever relative is going to have to deal with your obsession when you're gone!

[dms525]

When you start feeling sorry for which ever relative is going to have to deal with your obsession when you're gone!

 

Maybe when your fountain pens have been divided evenly among all your siblings, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces and each of them now has too many pens. Just maybe.