Originally Posted by
AzJon
From a purely modern perspective, we also have to look at what survived to the modern day and what that meant to get it here.
As an example, I see a number of higher tier pens that survive to the modern day in NOS condition (or dang near). However, I almost never find low tier pens (Wearever, American, etc.) surviving in pristine condition. I reckon that's largely for the same reason we don't see Bic Cristals from the 50s (when they sold for $0.29 a pen): they were cheap, heavily used, and were thrown away or destroyed in the process. Wearevers were sold for $1, a steal and well within the means of most Americans that needed a pen and wanted something a bit flashy looking. Most people did not have Multiple pens. Or if they did, it was because it was a gift and never used. This was the case with my most recent Pelikan purchase: the woman was gifted a 400NN when she graduated college, used it a few times and then never used it again. As a consequence, it is in great shape.
In modern terms, a stunning amount of time on Reddit is dedicated to posting how someone's pen broke via dropping it (or other means). Will we see TWSBI Ecos in 50 years? I reckon not. Not beyond the level we see Sheaffer School Pens now. They'll be out there, but probably not in great shape by and large.
Onto usage: My mom told me that she remembered my grandfather coming home from work every day and putting his pocket things: keys, change, watch, etc. onto his coat wrack, then his pen, and finally his coat. He did this in reverse order every day. She has seen many of my pens and thinks it was the Parker 51, but knowing my Grandpa's penchant for...uh...lets call it frugality, it was probably a 21. In her memory it was used and worn and eventually replaced by a gifted ballpoint when he got a promotion. His former pen then ceased to be used and was, in all likelihood, thrown out.
We could also look at relative value (beyond inflation). In 1930, the average cost of a house was $6,000. A $10 pen was a sizeable purchase relative to other costs. If we plug that ratio in (1/600) to the average house cost now of $315,000, we get a pen worth $525. So, a better question is: if you bought a $500 pen, how would you use it? It would be a similar "value" in terms of spending ability (that $1 Wearever would be about $50, which is dead in line with most modern steel nib pens on the market today).
Bookmarks