When would you say someone is a pen collector?

[Waltz For Zizi]

I am curious to find out what other people think a pen collector is. From my opinion it is someone who collects pens that have a special characteristic, eg: pens from a certain brand, or all the colors and variations of a certain pen model even if he doesn't like that pen or that color he does it to complete it, and not just someone who collects random pens that he fancies. For example I have close to 160 pens but I do not consider myself a collector, even though at one point I wanted to get all the colors in the Lamy Al-star line that they would launch (not all of them that they ever launched), but I just got bored this year because most of them did not attract me so I quit. And there isn't a single pen model that I would want to get all the variations (well except for maybe one but that one is discontinued so I only have a few to colect).

I cannot commit myself to a single brand or single pen model, because I want to experience all of them.

Would you consider someone like me a pen collector?

[Driften]

I'm like you. I have around 100 pens plus some vintage ones, but they aren't a traditional collection. I think most would say accumulator of pens. It's just a different way to enjoy the hobby. Some find a thrill in the hunt for the last color of Safari they don't have or a step in the evolution of a model of Parker. They are also in general not into using their pens, but documenting history. That's all good. Just another way to enjoy things. 

 

Don't worry about what to call your group of pens, just do what makes you happy.

[Lamy4life]

I consider my collection a micro/capsule collection of pens. I have maybe 10-20 pens. 

I haven't really thought about what would a pen collector would be. 

 

 

[wangjianwei]

Yeah I would agree with you, a collector is in my opinion someone who buys these fountain pen to add to their collection, or to start a new collection.

These collection tends to have certain qualities that defines them e.g. Pilot Capless collection in different colours, different eras, or vintage Pelikan 140 models in different finishes.

They tend to be better maintained as less likely to be used and its primary purpose is to be admired.

 

So I don't think collector and user is mutually exclusive. I think most fp collectors also uses some of their fps, and fp users also sometimes have the urge to get something that they will not use but only admire.

 

For me, I too am an accumulator, fountain pen are like toys. I see something interesting I buy, don't like them chuck them to the drawer.

So my drawer is not really a collection storage, more like a morgue of unused pens.

[Paul-in-SF]

I'm a collector now, in a small way, but I didn't start out that way. I have moved from buying pens to find out how they worked, and how I might repair them, and how I might improve their writing, to buying pens to complete a set of colors, for example, for a group of pens that in effect write identically. I am buying far fewer pens now than I was earlier because not that many pen models interest me. I'm not searching for the perfect pen any more, I have plenty of pens that are as good as I can appreciate for what I use them for. So if I buy a pen today, I probably already have at least one similar model in a different material, which I like well enough to get another one. I think that puts me over the line into collector country. 

[amberleadavis]

I collect inks - pens are a by product. 

I think you are a collector.

[vicpen123]

To me a collector is someone who systematically searches for and purchases fountain pens to complete a set or type or model or nib or filling system or colour or material or some other characteristic.

 

On the other hand, there are those who, like me, like to accumulate fountain pens in a more random manner searching out one at a time those that are unusual, different, unique or that have a special feature.

 

For example, citing Sheaffer pens, an inlaid nib as well as a TRIUMPH nib; touchdown filler as well as snorkel filler.

 

That's how I have accumulated my fountain pens.

 

[Misfit]

I collected all the opaque Pilot Prera pens (at least I think I got them all).  I use them as well, after I swap nibs with Pilot Plumix pens to get the calligraphy nibs on the Preras. I also bought all the Visconti inks because there are under 10 of them.

 

Otherwise I buy what I like the looks of, especially pens that come with stub and italic nibs. I use them all. There is no direction to them because they don’t all have my preferred nibs. Mine are an accumulation of pens I use. 

[jchch1950]

5 minutes ago, vicpen123 said:

To me a collector is someone who systematically searches for and purchases fountain pens to complete a set or type or model or nib or filling system or colour or material or some other characteristic.

 

 

+1. I will add maybe a brand or from certain years. For example all the models of Chilton pens or the pens produced in the depression time. They are other collectors -users- that buy a lot of types of pens ,some for the collection ,others to use and some to know the latest techniques in the pen industry.

[Penguincollector]

I started calling myself a fountain pen enthusiast as I use every pen in my possession and will buy most pens I see for sale in person, regardless of price (within reason at the time) or make or model. I do have a soft spot for Parkers and arrow clips of any sort, and 14k nibs.

[chromantic]

When they acquire a second pen. It starts small like that.

[IThinkIHaveAProblem]

1 hour ago, chromantic said:

When they acquire a second pen. It starts small like that.

I think this is the simplest answer.   

 

[Ceilidh]

44 minutes ago, IThinkIHaveAProblem said:

I think this is the simplest answer.   

 

Indeed!

[rochester21]

A real collector is a rich guy who buys NOS or mint vintage pens worth a fortune, never uses them, and passes the collection to his grandkids who then proceed to sell the pens because they all want Iphones. 

 

A common real life collector is a person who looked for and bought on purpose at least 10-12 old pens in various states, some not working and some cracked, and is keeping them in an old cigar box, which his or her spouse hates seeing around the house. 

 

"Why do you insist on keeping those leaky old pens? 

"They're not old, they're vintage! Collectors items, some of them will be worth a fortune 20 years from now". 

"You can get new ones at the store for the same amount of money". 

"That's not the point!" 

 

With time and experience the pens gradually get replaced with slightly bettter ones from various periods and designs, depending on what the local flea market or ebay impostor website has to offer. 

 

Hey, i'm happy with my "user grade" "barely working" "shoddy restauration" "all over the place" fountain pen collection. Most of them don't look great, but i have some spectacular writers, it's just a pleasure to use them. 

 

For me, it's the writing that counts, not the looks. I love variety too. 

 

PS. When i get old i want to sell most of what i have and give the money to charity but in reality i don't know if i will have the heart to part with them. I look at pens as old friends. You wouldn't sell a friend would you??

[Runnin_Ute]

On some level, everyone of us that has more than two or three pens has a "collection". That being said, I don't necessarily consider myself a "pen collector". Even though I have seven vintage Esterbrooks, six Parker 45's, three 51's and multiple Pelikan M20x pens. 

 

The Esterbrooks I have at least one of each of the LJ, SJ, J  and J transitional pens. A mini collection if you will. I have all six colors across seven pens. Red SJ, black LJ and J, blue transitional and the other colors are J pens. (black, copper, green, gray, black)  Someday I may get a red J to complete the size/color. I count the transitional as part of the J group generally. 

 

Oh, and they all get used. 

 

A member who many of us know last time I checked has an example of all of the Pelikan Classic line of pens ever made except two or three at most which are difficult to come by.  

[inkstainedruth]

I'm kinda like Running_Ute.  I buy pens that interest me in some way.  I do have multiples of a lot of them (different colors/nib widths) but I don't do the Pokémon "Gotta get 'em all" because I don't tend to buy pens that I DON'T like (for instance, I don't see the need to have every color of Parker 51 ever made, because I don't like some of the colors).  OTOH, if there is a brand/model I DO like, I'm going to be more likely to get others that different from ones I already have, because I know X brand/model will be a good size/weight for my hand.  Also, I tend to be a sucker for a bargain.  Did I need yet another black Parker 45?  Not really -- but the most recent acquisition has a 14K B nib, and I've been wanting one with a B nib for awhile now.  I may end up swapping that nib into a different color 45 at some point.

I tell people "I collect pens" but I don't consider myself a "collector" (I like the term that someone came up with a few years ago "accumul-user"...).

I'm also a sucker for "OOOh -- shiny!" and that can be a different fill system a different nib, a different color, or an incredibly good price.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Misfit]

I got the Kilimanjaro Monteverde Mountains of the World pen as a gift. Either four or five years later, I bought Vesuvio in the $30 range. Then more in at $45.  I kind of felt guilty because I’d had the one for awhile. Would it be as special with more?  Then I finally found K2 and Fuji. K2 is the version I’d really wanted to add. It and Fuji were released the same year as Kilimanjaro. 
 

Yet I buy Lamy Safaris every year. Once they came out with three, I only bought one. Yet the past two years with two, I’ve wanted both due to the colors. I’m not a completist in general.  And I don’t have every Mountains of the World pens. 

[Parker51]

I am a collector, though a different kind than most other posters because my collection varies by manufacturer. 
 

As example, I have a small vintage collection of Danish made Fountain Pens, Parker and Penol. If I find them at a fair price and I don’t have one of that model I will likely acquire it. The same with vintage Sheaffer Balances, lever fill, Vacuum fill, touchdown, snorkel and Imperial, vintage Parker Vacumatic and 51s, vintage Pelikans and vintage Montblancs. 
 

But I also like some modern pens, in particular Bexley, Edison, Pelikan and Pilot.

 

I have accumulated some other pens, some cheap ones principally to carry and use in places and circumstances I might well loose them.

 

So, no trying to complete any grouping and no high priced limited editions, just a wide variety of pens that I enjoy writing with.

 

[A Smug Dill]

I'm a collector of fountain pens and inks, but not a serious or systematic one across the board.

 

For example, I ordered and have every colour of the (humble!) Platinum Prefounte, and every variant so far of the (not-so-humble) Platinum #3776 Century Kanazawa-haku pen models (albeit all fitted with F nibs, even though it was/is possible to order them with M nibs), not all ordered at once for “the whole set”. I have both of the Sailor Koshu-inden variants, as well as the Kabazaiku model that is from the same underlying pen design (but finished with cherry bark instead of deerskin); but I don't bother with hunting down everything that is from the same mould. I had all 24 of the previously standard line-up of Iroshizuku ink colours until Pilot replaced three of those in 2021; and then I gave away my only bottle of one of the not-discontinued colours out of the original 24, to a friend who I think would appreciate it more than I did pink inks.

 

There are certainly variants of Faber-Castell Ambition, Lamy AL-Star, Pelikan M2xx, and Rotring Initial fountain pens that I care to buy or have, even though I have three or more variants of each of those models (and I don't use ink and use them enough in my regular ‘rotation’). I'm happy to only have half of the Aurora 8“88” models in the Planets series — in colourways that appealed to me and/or my wife — and not get the remainder; never mind the other Aurora Ottantotto models with auroloide bodies.

 

I don't know whether that makes me a fountain pen collector “on the whole” or ”on balance”, as if there is a single broader context.

 

[USG]

Fun topic... I'd call myself a Hobbyist.  I'm predominately a pen user, accumulator and experimenter.  Like most of you, I have a lot of pens and inks and paper.  But am I a collector?  I don't know.  I do collect pens, but I'd call what I have an assembly rather than a collection.  Within in the assembly there are sub-collections of fountain pens, rollerballs, ball points, a few pencils and more stationary than I'll ever be able to use... all accumulated with no particular direction in mind, other than they were something I wanted at the time.  I have drawers of inks and empty ink bottles, all kept in the boxes they came in. Is that an Ink collection or an ink bottle collection?  It is, nonetheless, a collection of inks and bottles.  And don't get me started on paper.  I have so much paper I don't know why I keep ordering more.  Variety I tell myself.  Haha, what about a paper cutter so you can cut sheets of parchment paper to a smaller size and sew up little booklets to write in?  Roll it all together and what you have is a hobby. 😄