How many of your pens would you replace?

[Murfie]

I was taught to write with a dip pen and finished my education with a cheap English Platignum lever-fill fountain pen with a very crude steel nib. Throughout the remainder of my life, I continued to use a fountain pen. I would not have owned more than three at a time, all being very inexpensive and some being throw-aways. I live in rural Australia and after the turn of the century, access to the Internet provided a ready means by which I could buy fountain pens from around the world, at a time when my local stationery supplier no longer stocked them.

Since then I have purchased more than 400 pens. I know this because every pen that cost more than $20 was entered into a database on my computer. All of these were bought without the opportunity for trying before buying and many have since been on-sold after being found to be uninspiring. I still have 176 of those pens plus a couple of dozen others that didn't quality for entry due to cost (mostly Chinese in origin). My collection is very broad comprising roughly half vintage, half modern, and includes such items as a Nakaya Piccolo, Pelikan M1000, vintage Parkers, Sheaffers, Esterbrooks and several ubiquitous Lamy Safaris.

I got to thinking recently as to what I could replace if something were to happen to the entire collection. I slowly went through my pens, examining each one in turn, asking "would I replace you if I lost you?". Even I was staggered at the outcome. Would you believe that my 176 would only be replaced by 16 pens? It made me wonder how much smaller my collection would have been had I been able to try a pen before purchasing it, though I realised that many of the reasons that caused a pen to lose favour, were the result of continual use and not a "The quick brown fox" on a shop counter top. I also have several pens that did not impress at the outset, but grew stronger in attraction the more I wrote with them and came to appreciate their more subtle features.

And what are the 16 pens I mention? Well, interestingly enough there is only two vintage pens in the list, with the remainder being currently still available in new stock. So here they are ...

Aurora Optima (black resin)
Delta Fusion 82 (black)
Conway Stewart Belliver
Franklin-Christoph Model 19 '1901'
Pelikan M215 (but with substitute 14kt nib)
Bexley Corona
Sailor Professional Gear (Orange with 22kt nib)
Pilot Custom 742
Pilot Decimo VP
TWSBI Mini
TWSBI Vac 700
Lamy 2000
Lamy Al-Star (stealth black)
Jinhao 159
Parker 51 Demi (Vacumatic fill)
Esterbrook Dollar Model (bandless)

Among the other 160 pens in my lot that I would not replace, are some very nice pens (e.g. Nakaya Piccolo, M1000) that I regularly rotate into the inked roster. I don't mind writing with them, BUT I wouldn't rush out and replace them if they weren't there. Much of the decision making is purely subjective apart from the "value" aspect. That's why a $3.50 Jinhao 159 is on the list and the Nakaya isn't. Of course the Nakaya performs better than the Jinhao 'Dready' but when I take the cost into account, my choice is easy. You may well think otherwise.

How many pens do you own and how many would you replace them with?