Inky T O D - Has it become hoarding?

[amberleadavis]

Much to my chagrin, scientists have discovered what was apparent to everyone in my family....ADHD and Hoarding are be linked (at least for me).  Now that the whole world knows that I stockpile ink, I think I can say that I'm not alone.

 

@sirgilbert357 asked us, How much to Stockpile of our favorites.

@ErrantSmudge created a list of Unobtainium.

@KreepyKen encouraged us to confess to being Sad Pathetic Stationery Junkies, and we have to ask ourselves if we are Office Supply Junkies. 

 

We have Inky Topics o'Day on How much ink we consume and buy:

 

• Inky T O D - How Much Ink Do You Really Use?
• Inky T O D - Have You Ever Stopped Using An Ink Because You Are Hoarding It?
• Inky T O D - Do I Have Enough Ink To Last My Lifetime?
   

 

We have topics about how to organize notebooks and samples:

 

• Inky T O D - What Is Your Method For Keeping Track Of Your Inks?
• The Organizing of Ink Samples
• Let's See Your Ink Collection Set-Up!
• Show Me Your Ink Book!
• Red & Green
• Silver
• Gatz BCN

 

And then we have people like @Arkanabarwho has gone on a quest to limit his inks.

 

 

So, tell us, what you do you think?  Are you an ink hoarder?  Are you an inky enabler?    Has your ink collecting actually become hoarding?  (and of course, how do you know it is hoarding?)

 

 

[A Smug Dill]

2 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

Has your ink collecting actually become hoarding?  (and of course, how do you know it is hoarding?)

 

On the count of being an ink hoarder: guilty.

On the count of being an inky enabler: guilty. 

This was a defining moment:

 

 

when I haven't even finished using half my first bottle of Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz that was acquired some time ago (mid-2019). Actually, in all these years, I've only finished using — insofar as depositing the ink primarily on paper to make premeditated marks — one full retail bottle of ink, which was Parker Penman Sapphire; and the statute of limitations has passed for that event.

 

Of course, there is more damning evidence:

 

 

It won't be easy

You'll think it's strange

When I try to explain how I feel

That I still need more ink

After all that I hoard

 

On 2/26/2022 at 11:32 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I now see that I have 145 unopened bottles of ink stockpiled (i.e. excluding the inks of which I only have one bottle each, but have yet to get around to opening and testing/using), amounting to well over eight litres in total volume.

 

I'm afraid I'll have to +1 my own post, on account of two bottles of Diamine Bashful Blueberry that arrived earlier this week, one of which of course remains unopened for now.

 

[LizEF]

32 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

guilty

  After the zombie apocalypse, while others are breaking into homes searching for groceries, the FP community will be breaking down ASD's door in a desperate attempt to get more ink for their pens.

 

Meanwhile, I prefer not to examine this question too closely with regards to myself...

[A Smug Dill]

4 minutes ago, LizEF said:

After the zombie apocalypse,

 

“Brainks! Braaaaaainks!”

[AmandaW]

Surely it's not hoarding if I'm using it? And a pen purchase needs an ink or two as a travelling companion - it wouldn't feel right without. It might be lonely.

[JulieParadise]

15 minutes ago, LizEF said:

  After the zombie apocalypse, while others are breaking into homes searching for groceries, the FP community will be breaking down ASD's door in a desperate attempt to get more ink for their pens.

 

Meanwhile, I prefer not to examine this question too closely with regards to myself...

Oh, he will not have to fear me breaking in, as I have my own 194 bottles, maybe 185 if you delete the 10 ml and 12 ml bottles from the small Herbin bottles and the Diamine Inkvent cuties from that list. (Over there in Australia @A Smug Dill sighs in relief; European ink fanatics will come for me and other maniacs here.) 🤣

[Enkida]

I'm an ink hoarder.  I admit it unabashedly.  I use more ink than the average person, I think, and I still won't be finished with my collection in my lifetime unless I take to painting walls with them.

I wasn't always a hoarder, I think, though I did always like to collect things.  My spouse's parents, though, were bona fide "see them on a TV show" hoarders, though, and I think some of that must have rubbed off onto me over the years.  I feel that as long as I'm using them and they're keeping me happy, those bottles are doing their job and are a sight cheaper and easier to turn to than a therapist in these pandemic times.  I try not to live with regrets these days, and my ink collection is most definitely not one of my regrets.

Not doing more painting instead of writing with them just might be, but that's something within my control to change... ;-)

[I-am-not-really-here]

I confess to hoarding vintage ink bottles, especially those with live ink in them, if only to see what colors looked like back then.  Allowing of course for degradation but that just means buying more bottles from differing sources.  And then there are modern inks which are not sold in sample form (Montblanc!) though the only one I bought two of was this year's Zodiac series (yes I am a Tiger).  
 

To be brutally honest a single 10ml vial of J Herbin something would last me years given the paucity of writing that I do, preferably with a Fine nib.

 

Well, thanks to FountainPenCompanion I know that there are over 200 bottles strewn about.  How many sample vials there are is still TBD. 

[LizEF]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

“Brainks! Braaaaaainks!”

 

1 hour ago, JulieParadise said:

Oh, he will not have to fear me breaking in, as I have my own 194 bottles, maybe 185 if you delete the 10 ml and 12 ml bottles from the small Herbin bottles and the Diamine Inkvent cuties from that list. (Over there in Australia @A Smug Dill sighs in relief; European ink fanatics will come for me and other maniacs here.) 🤣

So nice to know each continent will have at least one ink stash for us to raid.

[ErrantSmudge]

I have more bottles of ink than I can use in my lifetime.  I have multiples of only a few inks that are well-loved in my household, but nevertheless aren't likely to go out of circulation soon (Monteverde Copper Noir and Horizon Blue).  I also have a few unobtanium inks, such as Penman Sapphire and Sheaffer Peacock Blue, that I almost never load into a pen and let sit on a shelf.  

 

I won't say I'm a stockpiler, but I AM a hoarder.

[A Smug Dill]

22 minutes ago, LizEF said:

So nice to know each continent will have at least one ink stash for us to raid.

 

Who/where in Antartica?

[AmandaW]

20 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Who/where in Antartica?

@inkstainedruthhas a few

[LizEF]

51 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

Who/where in Antartica?

Hmm.  Good point.  We need to start a GoFundMe campaign to put an FP-er in Antarctica!   My research suggests this won't be cheap or easy, but still, it just seems wrong to have a fountain-pen-free continent.  We may have to name this person a "scientist" - clearly studying FP use in ridiculously cold temperatures.

 

34 minutes ago, AmandaW said:

@inkstainedruthhas a few

Well, if they move Pennsylvania to Antarctica, that would certainly make things easier...

[PithyProlix]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Who/where in Antartica?

 

Confined to using Noodler's Polar inks? A special (and very cold) version of Hell. 

 

[My tongue is in my cheek: I do kind of like Polar Blue. I haven't tried the other Polars but Purple, Brown, and Green look intriguing to me.] 

[Runnin_Ute]

I wouldn't call 40-ish bottles of ink and about double that in samples hoarding, would you?

[I-am-not-really-here]

7 minutes ago, Runnin_Ute said:

I wouldn't call 40-ish bottles of ink and about double that in samples hoarding, would you?

Forty different inks and brands? No.  That's called diversification. 

[A Smug Dill]

23 minutes ago, Runnin_Ute said:

I wouldn't call 40-ish bottles of ink and about double that in samples hoarding, would you?

 

That depends.

 

If you have 16 bottles of Pelikan Edelstein Smoky Quartz among those 40-ish bottles, yes.

 

If you have 40-ish bottles of different inks, but only have one or two fountain pens and are not intending to acquire more pens, then it probably still counts as hoarding. Forty bottles of 40ml (on average, with 30ml and 50ml both being the most common ink bottle volume) still makes >1.5 litres, and if you manage to use up one converter fill (around, say, 0.75ml on average for European pen/converter brands) of ink every single day without a break, that's still well over five years' worth of ink supply.

 

[Licue]

Yes, yes, I'm hoarding ink. 

Not nearly as much as some people here 😉 (and elsewhere), but still a lot more than a "normal" person would consider reasonable. Much much more ink than I need - unless you count the psychological need to have, then of course it's not nearly enough.

 

[JulieParadise]

7 hours ago, I-am-not-really-here said:

To be brutally honest a single 10ml vial of J Herbin something would last me years given the paucity of writing that I do, preferably with a Fine nib.

 

Hehe, there is a thread asking what broad (and, I might add: wet) nibs are good for: With my most used fountain pens, vintage nibs in original OB(B) size or nibs that I tuned/grind to write with wet italic/stubs, I burn through an average of 5 ml per week, sometimes more if I write and doodle a lot. 

 

Using up ink also has become easier since I decide on which inks to use next and fill those into my Visconti Travelling Inkwells or Pineider Pen fillers and just refill and refill again those wet pens, until one ink is finished. 

 

Of course, an ink stash of ca. 9 litres (according to my excel sheet) will last a good while, but I do use these inks and also give away (but also receive) samples quite frequently, so I do not feel too guilty about hoarding and love to shop my own stuff for fun colours.

 

As mentioned in another post recently -- How many is too many? --, I would only call it hoarding and start worrying if the amount does feel like a burden and make one uncomfortable, regretting the purchase or fretting over the money spent.

 

As for the money/buyer's remorse part: Last year I started "doubling up my purchases", resulting in less shopping overall but feeling better about my luxuries. A sum equal to the amount I spent on "play things" = hobby stuff gets donated to a charity (and there is always a huge variety of causes in dire need of support), so each purchase does cost me twice as much now, thus I think more about my spendings. 

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, JulieParadise said:

Hehe, there is a thread asking what broad (and, I might add: wet) nibs are good for: With my most used fountain pens, vintage nibs in original OB(B) size or nibs that I tuned/grind to write with wet italic/stubs, I burn through an average of 5 ml per week, sometimes more if I write and doodle a lot. 

Perhaps I should start a recovery¹ program for EF-aholics with an overly-large ink stash.  We could work our way up to larger and larger nibs, post samples of our progress writing larger and larger characters, bemoan how our old "cheap but friendly" paper no longer seems so friendly, share tips on where to find paper with absurdly large line-spacing...   (ETA: And, of course, celebrate our ever-diminishing ink supplies.)

 

¹For a moment, I was going to call it an "enlargement program", but this is a family-friendly site...