What kind of FP Collector, User or Both are you?

[Vpen]

I'll start with myself.

I don't think of myself as a collector as I don't have a particular theme in my FPs so you can call me a User. Here are the things I enjoy and don't enjoy in this hobby:

1. I look for pens which fit my large hands. So far, I have found that TWSBI 580 fits my hand perfectly and the broad nib on it writes awesome. 

2. I like Fine nibs in general because they make my handwriting look neater.

3. I tend to be attracted towards pens which are in high demand e.g. Arco or LE Leonardo Celluloids. I don't know why. And because of their high prices I am never able to pull the trigger though. Sometimes I wonder if they were more attainable will I be that interested in them?

4. I sometimes regret the pens I have sold cause now I appreciate them better.

5. I love reading about FPs in general and enjoy different perspectives.

6. I understand that it is a niche hobby and I use ball points or gel pens in the office or outside. I enjoy a good ballpoint (ProDir)/gel (Pilot G2 1.0mm) pen as well.

[Checklist]

I'm a User, too, and particularly agree with point 2.  In my opinion, if you buy pens and don't care if you ever write with them, then you are a collector.  I have eight pens and try to use each one regularly so none are neglected.

[Carguy]

I am apparently a collector - even though that pains me to admit. I have multiple pens of the same model and even color (51’s/61’s/45’s) that I bought intending to repair and then trade or sell. No pen clubs here or shows to attend along with classifieds broken here has really put the hiatus on that. So collector I am for now, until I pare down this “collection”

[inkstainedruth]

I'm what someone on FPN used to call an "accumul-user".  I do have multiples of pens I like (different colors/nib widths/sizes).  But the only pens I DON'T use are the ones that I haven't gotten fixed yet.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[senzen]

I started as a user of specific inks, with the typical starter pens, little by little getting pens that would better match some inks; it took quite a while to find Tsuyu Kusa its pen, and even longer for Kon Peki, for instance. The one quicker match was Vert Empire and its Man 100.

 

Later I got a few interesting, or classic pens, until most inks found a home. At about 45 pens and perhaps 30 inks it's time to consider it a collection, although I don't just gawk at them.

[Barfyman362]

I'm relatively new to fountain pens but I've already seemed to develop some pretty strong preferences as to what I like in a pen and how I like to use them.  I really only use three pens at any given time and two of them are chosen purely based on their utility (one for small print writing and one for larger cursive writing).  The third pen is just whichever one is my favorite to use for short periods of time or special occasions.  If I get a new pen which I prefer to any of the ones I have for their particular role I will probably never use the older pen again.  I do not buy a new pen unless I suspect it will be better than one of the three pens I am currently using.  I'm still trying to figure out what my ideal pen size and section shape is so that's the main reason I would be tempted to try something else.

Edited October 22, 2021 by Barfyman362

[Zookie]

I guess that I'm a user / collector and will continue until I find that one pen that feels like an extension of my hand.

I've come close a few times, but I'm still searching 😎

[Vpen]

5 hours ago, Carguy said:

I am apparently a collector - even though that pains me to admit. I have multiple pens of the same model and even color (51’s/61’s/45’s) that I bought intending to repair and then trade or sell. No pen clubs here or shows to attend along with classifieds broken here has really put the hiatus on that. So collector I am for now, until I pare down this “collection”

That's a nice theme to collect 👍. The classifieds at fpgeeks are working and have quite a traffic.

[Bo Bo Olson]

13 years ago I started out chasing cheap vintage pens....way before China took over the cheap pen market. Back when every sixth post was how to polish, or re-sac.....micro-mesh was expensive and hard to get and to remove drag the brown paper bag trick was used. It's only good for removing drag...only.

Nobody polishes old pens anymore...or knows it can and was done.

 

Back Then.....With out really knowing it, I'd avoided nails and chased regular flex in German Flea markets. That was before I 'knew' what regular flex was...it was the way fountain pens of my youth felt.

 

I ended up chasing the nibs, mostly.

 

I'd somehow missed semi-flex...perhaps they were too expensive at the flea markets..

Then I ran into one of those fabled semi-flexes...a 140 OB that I did a horse trade for it and 4 other pens for a fancy pocket knife.

I started chasing cheap semi-flex....The Geha 790 was going for  E-12-19............4 of them...The 760 20% higher so that took a few years to get...in  being cheap takes time.

 The Geha 725 is one of my most sleek can classic great balanced semi-flex pens.

 

By and by after a few years, I started chasing vintage and semi-vintage Pelikans......only two pens modern pens, one, now stubbed. Don't care for the modern nib.

How I ended up with 22 or more Pelikans  I don't know....in had I really been collecting them, couldn't I have bought rarer?

 

Took some 11-12 years to get  a good handful of MB's....

I'd gotten a 'ugly' (ignorant nooblie knowing only the 146/9) great balanced MB 234 1/2 Deluxe in semi-flex KOB. It was in a live auction lot. I was chasing the 400nn.

 

Then I ran into another great nibbed MB on a rolled gold 742 at my max..........and a now out for repair and re-corking maxi-semi-flex '50-60 great balance  medium large 146 which competed my search for a maxi-semi-flex MB.

The Virginia Woolf was on sale and pretty as hell....no excuses of how great the nib was....is ok....but nothing great.

An almost mint 146 ...and I was almost alone in an auction house...pre-telephone/computer...and I was going to be buying other pens, so I bought the lonely thing for the start price. The other 146 came on a nice but not great inkwell for the same price much later. I didn't need two 146's though the nib someone tried to make a CI out of it. The inkwell was the kicker. 

The wife came home with a pre'24 MB Safety Pen  fro free, needing repairs. It had a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle on it. 6-7 MB's with no rhyme or reason.

Definitely didn't need that second 146..nice E10-15 inkwell but oh well. Going to take a harder look at that nib tip....and see if it should go out to be done professionally or butchered by me.

 

Osmia was the top of my range, often a little bit above it...and would need re-corking**...some 20% more expensive than Pelikan....great nibs, in semi&maxi-semi-flex....got 7 or so from medium-small to medium-large and a few BCHR.

**Had I known of Francis before I might have gotten more of them.

 

I have a few nails (often not avoidable, if a live lot, two semi-nails, and have never counted how many regular flex nibbed pens I have. 15?-20?.

I've 35 semi-flex, 15 maxi-semi-flex.....

In Superflex.

5-6...7? Easy Full Flex; the first stage of superflex..

3 Wet Noodles

1 Weak Kneed Wet Noodle...that MB Safety pen.

Do have two Safety Pens that pre'24 MB and a '30's rolled gold Fend made in Milan.

 

 

If one uses one's brain a bit, and only alternates stub & CI, there are some 45 nib widths and flexes............as far as I can tell I have @ 35.

Didn't do that organized either.

 

LOM prevents an organized collection.....Time and luck will get you a lot of neat pens.

 

The first 10-15 pens I sell won't hurt much, but after that....money is not really the object.

Those rascally Germans won't let me build a full sized Pyramid; do the object is to find good hands..

 

 

[DvdRiet]

I'm a bit of both, I think, except that I'm definitely not a collector by the definition of someone who just collects and never uses. I have all sorts of pens of different brands that I bought because they looked interesting to try (and ok, yes, because I thought they were pretty...). But besides that, I am on a quest to collect Diplomats past and present because I really like the way they write. So far, I am trying to avoid multiples of the various models from the past, but when a rare opportunity popped up to buy turquoise and ochre/yellow versions of a 1960s pen I already had but usually only see in black, I obviously had to add them to my collection! I also write with all of them (in rotation), so while I am quite literally collecting certain pens with a specific goal in mind, I'm not just collecting them and never using them.

 

I could also never be the kind of person who buys a LE of something as an 'investment' and puts the box away unopened, or even only taking it out to display. I would never ever be able to resist inking that baby up!!! 😁

[Vpen]

14 hours ago, Zookie said:

I guess that I'm a user / collector and will continue until I find that one pen that feels like an extension of my hand.

I've come close a few times, but I'm still searching 😎

That's my story as well ... Keep looking

 

3 hours ago, Bo Bo Olson said:

13 years ago I started out chasing cheap vintage pens....way before China took over the cheap pen market. Back when every sixth post was how to polish, or re-sac.....micro-mesh was expensive and hard to get and to remove drag the brown paper bag trick was used. It's only good for removing drag...only.

Nobody polishes old pens anymore...or knows it can and was done.

 

Back Then.....With out really knowing it, I'd avoided nails and chased regular flex in German Flea markets. That was before I 'knew' what regular flex was...it was the way fountain pens of my youth felt.

 

I ended up chasing the nibs, mostly.

 

I'd somehow missed semi-flex...perhaps they were too expensive at the flea markets..

Then I ran into one of those fabled semi-flexes...a 140 OB that I did a horse trade for it and 4 other pens for a fancy pocket knife.

I started chasing cheap semi-flex....The Geha 790 was going for  E-12-19............4 of them...The 760 20% higher so that took a few years to get...in  being cheap takes time.

 The Geha 725 is one of my most sleek can classic great balanced semi-flex pens.

 

By and by after a few years, I started chasing vintage and semi-vintage Pelikans......only two pens modern pens, one, now stubbed. Don't care for the modern nib.

How I ended up with 22 or more Pelikans  I don't know....in had I really been collecting them, couldn't I have bought rarer?

 

Took some 11-12 years to get  a good handful of MB's....

I'd gotten a 'ugly' (ignorant nooblie knowing only the 146/9) great balanced MB 234 1/2 Deluxe in semi-flex KOB. It was in a live auction lot. I was chasing the 400nn.

 

Then I ran into another great nibbed MB on a rolled gold 742 at my max..........and a now out for repair and re-corking maxi-semi-flex '50-60 great balance  medium large 146 which competed my search for a maxi-semi-flex MB.

The Virginia Woolf was on sale and pretty as hell....no excuses of how great the nib was....is ok....but nothing great.

An almost mint 146 ...and I was almost alone in an auction house...pre-telephone/computer...and I was going to be buying other pens, so I bought the lonely thing for the start price. The other 146 came on a nice but not great inkwell for the same price much later. I didn't need two 146's though the nib someone tried to make a CI out of it. The inkwell was the kicker. 

The wife came home with a pre'24 MB Safety Pen  fro free, needing repairs. It had a Weak Kneed Wet Noodle on it. 6-7 MB's with no rhyme or reason.

Definitely didn't need that second 146..nice E10-15 inkwell but oh well. Going to take a harder look at that nib tip....and see if it should go out to be done professionally or butchered by me.

 

Osmia was the top of my range, often a little bit above it...and would need re-corking**...some 20% more expensive than Pelikan....great nibs, in semi&maxi-semi-flex....got 7 or so from medium-small to medium-large and a few BCHR.

**Had I known of Francis before I might have gotten more of them.

 

I have a few nails (often not avoidable, if a live lot, two semi-nails, and have never counted how many regular flex nibbed pens I have. 15?-20?.

I've 35 semi-flex, 15 maxi-semi-flex.....

In Superflex.

5-6...7? Easy Full Flex; the first stage of superflex..

3 Wet Noodles

1 Weak Kneed Wet Noodle...that MB Safety pen.

Do have two Safety Pens that pre'24 MB and a '30's rolled gold Fend made in Milan.

 

 

If one uses one's brain a bit, and only alternates stub & CI, there are some 45 nib widths and flexes............as far as I can tell I have @ 35.

Didn't do that organized either.

 

LOM prevents an organized collection.....Time and luck will get you a lot of neat pens.

 

The first 10-15 pens I sell won't hurt much, but after that....money is not really the object.

Those rascally Germans won't let me build a full sized Pyramid; do the object is to find good hands..

 

 

Thanks for sharing this, that's quite a journey. Remarkably interesting. And now we know where all the Flex pens went :). 

[maclink]

I’m a user for sure and have tried a lot of pens. This has resulted in a considerable accumulation (just under 100). I don’t see myself using over half of them again, although I’ve used them all and they each played a part in my fountain pen journey.  I’m now sensitive to ‘repetitive’ purchases, being no longer interested in pens with ‘stock’ Jowo, Bock, or Schmidt nibs.  I think I have enough holder types/designs for these nibs.  For me, different holder designs aren’t much different than colour/pattern variations, unless there’s a big ergonomic experience to be had.  As a result, my purchasing has dramatically declined and is very specific. 

[Lachryma]

I'm definitely an accumulator and, really, somewhat against my will!

 

I started with my dream pen. I recd it as a gift from my then young daughter so it couldn't have cost much.  It was a vintage pen and evidently unique in the universe.  I wrote with it for years . . . Probably 6 years . . . And then it died in a tragic accident.  I have spent the last several years trying to replace it.  

 

Thus began the accumulation.

 

I have 20 or so pens from glass dip pens to a variety of vintage to both cheap and expensive new models.  I have had more but got rid of them.

 

I use one of my vintage pens on the daily bc it's the prettiest (though not even that pretty) not bc I love it as a writer.  I use my glass and metal dip pens for sampling and drawing and I use several pilot parallels daily for highlighting in my planner. I bought the parallels specifically as highlighters, though, and not trying to replace my broken pen.

 

I'm a pretty prolific writer (in my journal, book notes, et c) and really would love to find another pen to fall in love with but I guess for now I just settle for accumulating.

 

I went to the DC Pen Show this past time firmly resolved to fall in love . . . But I didn't. 

 

Second favorite is going to be a Parker 51 but they are all so . . . Same and plain. I have a Parker 51 Jr that is THE BEST writer but it leaks.

 

Idk.  

 

Accumulator of pens. Ink addict.

 

If only i could find my perfect pen again . . . Sighs wistfully . . . 

[jchch1950]

Collector that uses his pens, I use around ten pens at the same time but the rotation is quite limited.

[scrivelry]

On 10/21/2021 at 8:37 PM, inkstainedruth said:

I'm what someone on FPN used to call an "accumul-user".  I do have multiples of pens I like (different colors/nib widths/sizes).  But the only pens I DON'T use are the ones that I haven't gotten fixed yet.  

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I was not using my pens while I was busy with other things for a few years, and now that I am back to them, I have to say, I've noticed I have an awful lot of fountain pens.  So I don't use all of them.  Some need repairs or new sacs, so those are not usable at the moment, but were I a professional scribe I don't think I'd be able to use them all in a moderate rotation.

 

I wouldn't say I'm a collector, though, and I like the term "accumul-user"  I may have a lot of pens I haven't written with recently, but I have never bought a pen knowing I wouldn't use it.  I like to fix things, sometimes when, frankly, they don't actually need fixing and would be better off without it (reminder to self - get the Jinhao nib out of that particular Wing-sung - it does not fit...)  So I have purchased and in some cases been given batches of pens which, er, need  some help.  Or something.  Otherwise I would not have quite so many black Esterbrooks, nor pieces of same.  And I do have multiples of certain pens.  Any Sheaffer school pen with a fine nib that crosses my path for what I consider a reasonable price is in distinct danger of becoming mine, for example.  I just like them, on pretty much every level. 

 

(I also like gold filled repoussee fountain pens from the turn of the last century, but, er, they do not accumulate as quickly...*cough*)

 

I can say with certainty that I have no goal or direction to my mountain of pens, other than I liked them, or they were cheap, or I wanted to try them, or I have one like them I like - that sort of thing.  I will never have, say, a Parker 51 in every original color/nib/cap combination.  I could see why someone would want that, but I can't be bothered to be so focussed - it wouldn't be fun for me...

[maclink]

8 hours ago, scrivelry said:

"  I may have a lot of pens I haven't written with recently, but I have never bought a pen knowing I wouldn't use it.

 

You had me thinking that I have many pens that after their initial use, I thought I would never have them un-inked. But then, I look through my accumulation now and smile that I haven’t used them for ages. Such is the level of distraction from the new incomings. 

 

I’ve never sold any of my pens but feel that I need to do so now.  I’ll see if I can peer my numbers down to 30 or so and then decide what to do with the rest.  Among those will likely be more than a few that I will keep anyway for sentimental reasons or as memorabilia on my FP journey. 

[Nethermark]

I started as a user of fountain pens, for a long time being content with only one pen. Then I discovered vintage pens and started accumulating a larger selection of pens, but still using most of them. But over the last many years I have bought so many pens that I have given up on the thought of using them all. Actually, in many cases, when restoring the pens I do no longer make them ready to write, but leave them without sac or piston seal. So, although I still use fountain pens every day, I guess I have moved on to the collector type.

[KB3K]

I would say that I’m a user of fountain pens, but not much of a collector. I’ve got a list of requirements for pens, but nothing that requires spending much money. Actually, one of my requirements is that if a pen were somehow destroyed or lost I wouldn’t loose any sleep over it. I only have two pens that I would hate to loose. One was a gift, the other is my first fountain pen.

 

I do quite a bit of writing, and while a lot eventually gets typed, I almost always begin with a handwritten draft. I find writing by hand to be relaxing and I hardly note the passage of time or how much I have actually written. I have been working on a project and suddenly my pen’s ink flow begins to dry up, I think that there is no way my pen should be out of ink only to discover I’ve written fifteen pages (give or take, depending on the pen), when I thought I may have written five. 
 

My pens range in price from ~$40 dollar to ~$1. Some of my “expensive” pens were my first purchases. I bought some very cheap pens out of curiosity and found most of them to be much better than expected. The main thing I have noticed about pens under $10 is that you are never quite sure what the nib is going to be like. You can purchase multiple pens of the same model and end up with very different nibs. I actually like the variety. A few of my cheap pens must have had everything go right in the factory, because they write extremely well and keep going despite heavy use.
 

have had one ultra-cheap pen come with a nib that was bad enough that after a cursory attempt to improve it, I decided it wasn’t worth the time even if it was salvageable. Another super-cheap pen had a great nib but the pen body didn’t seem to last very long. I probably filled it half a dozen times, and it was cheaper than a disposable fountain pen, so I don’t feel cheated.

While I do most of my writing with fountain pens, I don’t use one as an EDC pen. A ballpoint pen seems to fill my needs better for pen that might have to write on any type of paper, be lent to a friend, or be removed from a pocked and used with just one free hand.

 

[Addertooth]

I am a rehab facility and homeless shelter for pens   

Often the pens start out as un-redeemable husks, begging for one last gasp of life and glory.

There isn't much which cannot be fabricated with a press, mill and a lathe.  Who am I to say no?

 

The unusual 0552 1/2v Thimble Cap picture below only needed a sac, a new nib, and a bit of gold plating to deal with the heavy brassing. 

 

 

 

[Arkanabar]

I have an aversion to owning things for which I have no use.  That (usually) includes pens.  I have a desire to pass on the ones for which I have no use (a bunch of Jinhao x750s that my wife bought for me, and various FPR Mufts, for instance), along with those inks that I don't like.  But some I am going to keep, especially those that I enjoy writing with, even if I rarely (or almost never) do, and a few about which I'm sentimental.  And if it turns out that both of the Indus I recently got during a Pensanity sale (about the only thing that induces me to buy a pen these days) are prone to drying out, I'll try to get rid of them too.  I should look for some o-rings to improve the inner cap seals.

 

So it is that I'm likely to keep many of my FPR pens (especially my "Big Red" Darjeeling and Jaipur), my Pilot Parallels, My FPR Himalayas and Pelikan M20xs one and all, my Dad's Parker "51", the Sheaffer PFM-II and Imperial TipDip which are gifts from my in-laws, and the MB 72 that my wife got me-- she actually also got me all my M20x save one.

 

But right now, nearly all my writing is done with just two pens -- a Jinhao 51A for jotting, and the stub Jaipur "Big Red."  I always need a jotting pen at work, and the 51A (and the Hero 616) are both very good for that.  As for the Jaipur, it has tamed my bête noire ink, Noodler's Bad Black Moccasin, something I'm not willing to give away, and loathe to simply discard.