New to pen collecting

[historicink]

I am very new to pen collecting and growing up with cheap Bic pens for school I never realized how much I would love this hobby. I had engraved on my mind from a young boy a image of a quill pen writer, working on a letter by warmth of candle light. I always found tranquility in the fact. Maybe in a past life I was a writer since I have found I am good at writing fiction. There is something incredible fascinating about the look and feel of a great pen that literally soothes me.

It's this the bug that bites the flesh of fountain pen collectors piercing the skin and injecting it's ink into the blood stream to it spreads to the brain.
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The collecting is fun add I find I like to read the history on all the pens I collect.

It started a month ago when I bought a parker jotter from a blister pack. Black with a stainless steel cap. I am hooked. I began searching ebay for others.
Caran d'ache model 849 metal X in blue swiss made beautiful but simple.

I accidentally bid on a cross starlight century 2 with twilight gray it is a lot bigger in ball point but I really don't know why I don't like it as good as the jotter.

Coming soon is my parker 88 as my first step into fountain pens.

Now I do have a few problems with this new obsession I don't know how to fix and they are :
Where to find good new and vintage pens cheap

How do I know the market values of the pen so I don't get ripped off.

I would like to know more on how fountain pens work and how to repair I think pen restoration might be fun but I have no idea how to do it

How do you keep this hobby financed lol

Sorry this is quite long but when I get into something I jump in and try to swim

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[AndyT]

I've nothing to say on the financial side of things, but can recommend working your way through the reference pages at Richard Binder's site to get up to speed on how various types of fountain pen work and keeping them in good order..

http://www.richardspens.com/

[Paul-H]

Hi

I am like you new to all this but I would say in answer to some of your questions

eBay is a good place to buy pens but not a good place to buy pens at a good price, (read cheap) there are just too many pen hunters buying on there and even the most basic pens often sell for well above the price there condition should indicate.

Flea Markets and brick a Brack shops can be a good place but again most dealers are getting savy as to how much they can make out of old pen.

Regarding the value you should pay for an old pen. That depends on what you want to do with it, if its just for your collection then its price is whatever its worth to you, but set your price and stick to it. If you want these old pens to restore and sell for a profit then you will need to spend time looking on the likes of eBay and searching for finished auctions, that way you can gauge their value, don't base it on running auctions though as some seller have no idea how little some pens will actually sell for. Just do a search for Conway Steward Dinky for a good example of that, In what world are CS Dinkies worth over £200 but there are quite a few on eBay and they will never sell at that price when most sell for around £20.

Don't get carried away in the early days until you have settled into knowing what you are wanting to collect.

How do you finance it, that's the million dollar question. How much disposable income do you have? I started buying low value pens that needed work to get them going and then selling them once restored, I will never make a living at it but already funded a couple of nice hi value Montblanc and Parker Pens and that's in only a few months, so it can be done, and if you happen to be selling one on eBay the day three or four people want to buy one you can be rewarded quite handsomely for all your work.

Paul

[historicink]

Paul how do you go about restoring


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[AndyT]

... how do you go about restoring

Invest in one or other (or both) of the books below. Read and re-read them. Read everything else you can find online but more importantly in print. Become knowledgeable. Don't economise by purchasing poor quality tools. As with any worthwhile undertaking, it's not a trivial matter.

Frank Dubiel: Fountain Pen Repair and Restoration ("da Book")
Marshall & Oldfield: Pen Repair

[stevekolt]

First...Welcome to the site and the madness!

Second...In my best Monty Python voice, if you value your checking balance and credit score...RUN AWAY!!!!

[cwent2]

+1 on stevekolt's comment
and

[john]

If you start this collecting hobby, don't think about the money first. Otherwise you will not happy at all because sometimes you will buy a pen with your wrong decision. I have this kind of experience. Cos you can keep the pen or let it goes to someone else.

[cedargirl]

Welcome historicink. My advice would be -
*Don't spend more than you can afford - there are many very good reasonably priced pens around - you don't have to spend gazillions on each purchase. Take the time to find them.
*For an idea on fair pen prices you have to look at pen advertisements and sold prices. Lots of them.
*For a good deal on used pens from a reliable seller, I would recommend Rick Krantz who advertises regularly on this forum. You can subscribe to the 'for sale' sub forum. But it is buyer beware. There are scoundrels out there.
*There is so much information available on repairing pens that it can be confusing - most pen forums have sub forums on repair advice. There are many good blogs and some good books. You will also need tools. As well as the suggestions made by others above, do a google search - read lots and learn to be discriminating/gather some knowledge so you can differentiate between the good advice and the other.
* But most importantly, ENJOY.

[Tracy Lee]

Yes, enjoy and welcome!!!

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