At the edge of "Expensive"

[ethernautrix]

I'm not sure what the cross-over point is for expensive for a pen: $25? $50? $100? All I know is that I like expensive pens (such as Nakaya), and that I've bought some - and enjoy them.

I mean, they are expensive regardless of my buying them.

[jde]

For me an expensive pen is any pen I don't have the cash for.

When I stepped back into fountain pens, I thought anyone who spent over $100 on a pen was nuts.

I appreciate pens in a different way now, and I have some expensive pens which in theory I should never have been able to afford. (It is amazing how resisting the impulse buy of pen/paper/ink how much you can save up for a really cool pen you love.)

As Lisa wrote, they are expensive regardless of my buying them. They are not my pens because they are expensive... they are my pens because I love writing with them.

[de_pen_dent]

I am always mildly amused by some of the comments these types of threads always raise. Really folks, it is just people talking about pens - nothing to get too worked up over.

I actually dont really have a single cut-off point. I spent months obsessing about whether or not to buy a Montegrappa Miya before Dennis's 15% sale last week pushed me over the edge. I still havent gotten around to convince myself to get a custom Edison, even though I've been wanting to, for a while. And I recently bought an Onoto Magna on an impulse last week. Go figure.

If you ask me, I'd say my cut-off is somewhere between $200-300. With frequent exceptions, as mentioned above. Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds anyway (or so I keep telling myself - sometimes, I almost believe it too). Or more likely, my propensity to indulge in spontaneous acts of credit card damage is directly proportional to the degree of lust factor I have for a particular pen.

[Mesu]

For me it is how much i want the pen.

Daily users and chuckable pens max $5. Indian manufactured pens are inexpensive and i used some pens about $1.5 which wrote straight out of the box, never skipped and lasted years. People who used Camlin pens would know what i am talking about.

I love limited edition Lamys and spent as much as $70. But it is very rare. The only pen in the $200 range is the Ruby red Pelikan M320 which is a gift from my husband. I can never bring myself to spend so much on a pen!!

[kaisnowbird]

Like others, it's hard to pinpoint a threshold that defines 'expensive' for me. I'd agree with and paraphrase some of the comments above - expensive is when I am not convinced that a pen worths its asking price.

To provide some monetary threshold, I'd say
- FPs that are well made and cost $50 or under are inexpensive;
- an FP that costs more than my monthly pen purchasing budget, currently at AUD $250, is a real luxury item, because buying it means I won't be able to buy another pen for more than a month, which will induce some agony and anxiety.

Edit:
By these standards, I currently own two luxury pens: a Caran d'Ache Leman and a Visconti Homo Sapiens. Only one of them is "expensive", but I won't say which one is.

Being primarily a user, not a collector, I'd say the writing pleasure to cost ratio starts to decline pretty much after the $200 mark. As long as I remain a user, I don't see myself crossing the $250 threshold (plus price increase and inflation) very often in the next couple of years

[Fawkes]

For about the first 7 years of my collecting/using fountain I usually only bought in the 50 dollar range, which was a lot for me. And, on the rare occasions I was gifted a pen they were usually no more than 250 dollars. Now, however, I spend on average 300 for the vintage pens I need and have been known to go for several thousand dollar pens if I have wanted them for a very, very long time.

[VertOlive]

This is an interesting thread. Now that I've been into pens for a little longer, I find my price ceiling rising. For me, a big part is the eye candy appeal-- not the fact it is expensive-- that makes it attractive to me so if I could find a Chinese maker sensible enough to do a decent knockoff of a Dolce Vita [that writes as well as my Hero] I'd go for that instead.

Is that tacky?

[ac12]

$100 is the psychological break going from 2 digit to 3 digit price.
There are enough decent/good pens below $100, that I put $100 as my transition point.
And I can count on one hand the number of pens that I paid more than $100 for.

[raging.dragon]

I didn't realize psychoanalysis was a topic here...is it free?

Free, and worth what you pay for it!

[velo]

$100 is the psychological break going from 2 digit to 3 digit price.
There is enough decent/good pens below $100, that I put $100 as my transition point.

It seems an arbitrary yet natural barrier for me too. Yet two pens I really liked, the matte black VP and the Lamy 2000, got me over that hurdle pretty easily.

Personally it has to do with the pen. As much as I admire Pelikans the price always seems to be a sticking point. Ironically with Nakaya I can see myself owning one without too much angst over the price.

[ethernautrix]

Since this thread has been revived, I'll say that any pen more than, say, $50 is an expensive pen. I mean, it's a pen. However, my tolerance threshold for buying expensive pens is high, about $1,000 high.

[Massaya]

I am new in the 'pen' game, but my choice at the moment is to buy 'job lot's 'and look for that 'diamond in the rough' so to speak. My most recent purchase was £72 for 25 pens and some bits. There was some nice pens in there.

[Mr. JW]

$100 is the psychological break going from 2 digit to 3 digit price.
There is enough decent/good pens below $100, that I put $100 as my transition point.

This is my psychological barrier as well. I just broke it for the first time the other day for a Vacumatic in excellent condition. But there are so many good pens below $100, vintage and new, that it takes a lot to get me over that hurdle.

[KrazyIvan]

I posted this somewhere else but I have yet to break the $180 point. I do have one pen that is worth more but I traded for it. Every once in a while that Visconti or Omas 360 calls my name but I just can't pull the trigger. It seems that every time I find a pen that I want, for some odd reason the prices skyrocket right after I discover it. So, I sit and wait patiently.

[john]

When I started to collect pens, seldom paid more than $80 for a pen. But after I got the Pelikan 400NN, my limit push to $150. Now my max limit is under $300. That is what I can afford for the pens. Just like KrazyIvan said that sit and wait patiently for the pen I want.

[Sailor Kenshin]

I could use help breaking the $100 mental barrier. I'll pay more, but it takes some doing and getting past the feeling of taking a step back and pondering the absurdity...

Then I can worry about those voices!

If you're not comfortable with it, you're not comfortable. And you may find that pushing the barrier backfires.

I have a handful of not-cheap pens: a MB 32, a Sheaffer Legacy, two Waterman Carenes, and five jolly Sailor pens (deliberately not counting the Clear Candy and inexpensive fude). They're all good pens.

But if I listen to my heart, the ones I reach for time and again are the Lamy Safaris, the Nemosine Singularities, the Hero 616s, and now the Hero Summer Colors.

That's my comfort zone. It's where I live. Every single person's own CZ will vary.

[Sailor Kenshin]

This is an interesting thread. Now that I've been into pens for a little longer, I find my price ceiling rising. For me, a big part is the eye candy appeal-- not the fact it is expensive-- that makes it attractive to me so if I could find a Chinese maker sensible enough to do a decent knockoff of a Dolce Vita [that writes as well as my Hero] I'd go for that instead.

Is that tacky?

Not at all. Besides, don't they do one of those? I remember seeing one and thinking, 'Shiiinyyyy.'

[Lbravo]

Expensive pen? It depends - a pen that is old and in perfect working condition AND fits within my collecting parameters? $200. But it has to be a well engineered pen. In perfect working condition. Modern daily driver pens that don't leave the house? About $125. Something I would walk around with? $50 or maybe $75.

I guess it depends on what you want, what you can afford, and what you can afford to lose, right?

[Sandy Fry]

I have said it before and will say it again. A pen is only worth what YOU are willing to pay for it.

David

[Koyote]

I don't know where the "too expensive" threshold lies for anything, but my wife always tells me when I've crossed it.