Selling out 90-95% of my pens

[mke]

On 4/3/2022 at 10:11 AM, mke said:

I can sell the rest

 

I have now sold all the pens which I wanted to sell - about 90% of pens which I had.

I want to say thank you to those who bought pens from me but also to those who showed an interest.

 

It took me one year to buy but four years to sell.

[Theroc]

👏 Congratulations.

[mke]

5 hours ago, Theroc said:

 Congratulations.

Thank you @Theroc

I still have more pens than I ever need. I think, I will hold on these for 10 more years. Then I will start selling most of them too.

 

 

 

[K Singh]

Congratulations. I am at 47 pens now (not counting some cheap ones) and I, too, keep selling my pens from time to time.

[mke]

5 hours ago, K Singh said:

at 47 pens now

If I count only German/Swiss/US/Indian/Japanese fountainpens, I am at 40 but...

I also have about 30 Chinese pens, mainly Hongdian because of their EF nib.

Recently, Chinese companies seem to have shifted focus onto EF nibs and, in addition, the quality of the pens has drastically improved.

That makes it sometimes difficult to resist. I am working on that.

 

My ranking: Hongdian EF ~ Sailor F/EF > Jowo EF slightly> Jinhao EF ~ Mahjohn EF

[K Singh]

1 hour ago, mke said:

If I count only German/Swiss/US/Indian/Japanese fountainpens, I am at 40 but...

I also have about 30 Chinese pens, mainly Hongdian because of their EF nib.

Recently, Chinese companies seem to have shifted focus onto EF nibs and, in addition, the quality of the pens has drastically improved.

That makes it sometimes difficult to resist. I am working on that.

 

My ranking: Hongdian EF ~ Sailor F/EF > Jowo EF slightly> Jinhao EF ~ Mahjohn EF

That's still not that many pens, given how ridiculous this hobby can get at times 👍

 

I only bought Chinese pens at the start of this hobby(about 6-7 years ago). I am happy with my Indian ebonite pens now and those are the only ones that I mostly buy. But I must admit that Chinese pens have come a far way now. Especially for someone new to the hobby, they have good pens at every price range.

[Theroc]

The bang for buck ratio of Chinese pens is so good that I just buy every new release that ticks the right boxes. They are basically exempt from budget considerations.

[Lloyd]

21 hours ago, mke said:

If I count only German/Swiss/US/Indian/Japanese fountainpens, I am at 40 but...

I also have about 30 Chinese pens, mainly Hongdian because of their EF nib.

Recently, Chinese companies seem to have shifted focus onto EF nibs and, in addition, the quality of the pens has drastically improved.

That makes it sometimes difficult to resist. I am working on that.

 

My ranking: Hongdian EF ~ Sailor F/EF > Jowo EF slightly> Jinhao EF ~ Mahjohn EF

Which do you find to be the finest without sacrificing smoothness?  Are your ">" rankings based on width or functionality? 

[mke]

8 hours ago, Lloyd said:

Are your ">" rankings based on width or functionality?

On liking, which is based on width.

Smoothness depends very much on the paper. I have papers where you experience drag with EF nibs (perhaps the pencil feeling people describe) and I have paper where such a feeling is totally absent.

 

My favorite width is located between a Jowo EF and a Jowo XXF. Steel Hongdian EF and gold Pilot/Sailor/Platinum F serve this. But I can live with Jowo EF, Majohn EF and Jinhao EF.

[Lloyd]

I love my Platinum UEF (gold).  Any recommendation for a Chinese pen? 

[mke]

22 hours ago, Lloyd said:

Any recommendation for a Chinese pen? 

 

Try a Hongdian with EF nib - they have many designs which are not expensive - good for testing. Some people say Asvine pens with EF nibs are very good too. I don't have an Asvine pen, so I can't comment on that.

@Dan Carmell @A Smug Dill @Shanghai Knife Dude

[Dan Carmell]

1 hour ago, mke said:

 

Try a Hongdian with EF nib - they have many designs which are not expensive - good for testing. Some people say Asvine pens with EF nibs are very good too. I don't have an Asvine pen, so I can't comment on that.

@Dan Carmell @A Smug Dill @Shanghai Knife Dude

I find Asvine EF nibs to be roughly equal to Hongdian.
 

MKE, what has held you back from buying an Asvine, no model called out to you? I think of Asvine and Hongdian to be peers as far as quality. 
 

Congrats on completing your sell-off. I’ve been talking about doing the same for several years and haven’t sold a pen. 

[Dan Carmell]

On 7/22/2024 at 4:44 AM, Theroc said:

The bang for buck ratio of Chinese pens is so good that I just buy every new release that ticks the right boxes. They are basically exempt from budget considerations.

Very much the same!

[mke]

20 minutes ago, Dan Carmell said:

MKE, what has held you back from buying an Asvine

They certainly look good. But a recount of my Chinese pens still available made me stop in the tracks.

 

22 HongDian, 5 Majohn A1, 1 Hero, 1 Wingsung, 6 Jinhao;

down from about 600. Don't want to reach that number again, actually, don't want to reach even 50.

[Lloyd]

Thanks for the advice! 

[Shanghai Knife Dude]

On 7/23/2024 at 8:07 PM, Lloyd said:

I love my Platinum UEF (gold).  Any recommendation for a Chinese pen? 

 

I have mostly Majohn/Jinhao in M, Hongdian in M/F, all in steel, bang of bucks. 

I also own quite a few high street gold nibs. But never find them superior to their steel counterparties from the same makers. 

Pen shopping will be a very personal journey. Listen to your inner self. Majority of your collection will outlive you anyway. 

[stephanos]

I see that you essentially created a dedicated website to sell your excess pens.

Am I correct that you used Blogspot? Would you recommend this as a way of going about things? What sort of challenges did you face?

I ask, because I am now looking to sell a number of my pens in order to finance new acquisitions; I've recently posted a request for advice on going about it, and I'm wondering whether your approach might be a good model to follow.

I'd be grateful if you would share some of your experience.

(Vielen Dank im Voraus!)

[mke]

On 9/4/2024 at 6:26 AM, stephanos said:

I see that you essentially created a dedicated website to sell your excess pens.

Am I correct that you used Blogspot? Would you recommend this as a way of going about things? What sort of challenges did you face?

I ask, because I am now looking to sell a number of my pens in order to finance new acquisitions; I've recently posted a request for advice on going about it, and I'm wondering whether your approach might be a good model to follow.

I'd be grateful if you would share some of your experience.

(Vielen Dank im Voraus!)

 

Actually, I used my own domain (easier to structure it my way) - and blogspot.

 

My advice 

1. Get a domain, make your pages with photos of your pens and publish them. Publish as many photos as possible. I had too many pens, so I made an overview only and delivered more photos upon request.
2. Make sure that Google/Bing/whatever Search engine finds your page.
3. Advertise it.
4. I also used my blog to point people to the sales pages.
5. Also consider Ebay because of the reach.
6. My old Japanese and the Chinese pens, I sold as a big batch to someone in the US where most of my customers were from. So they can get cheaper shipping.
7. The rest, I promised to sell to a Ebay reseller soon.
8. Don't forget to make a page with your terms of sale. Think well what you need to put into this page.

Challenges were few, apart from a number of entitled people wanting the pens nearly for free and free shipping. But I also came into contact with some very nice customers, some even repeat-repeat-repeat-repeat customers.

[stephanos]

Thank you very much for this advice, which is both practical and to-the-point, as well as being friendly. Much obliged.