Collecting Pens Sight Unseen

[Murfie]

A couple of months back I started another thread with content that was poorly expressed at the outset, resulting in the discussion going off at a tangent from what I intended. I was trying to indicate how very few of the pens in my collection would be replaced in the event of total loss, to demonstrate the number of pens that I have bought that haven't measured up to my personal preferences.

While some in the "Out of Favour List" (OFL) have been due to fluctuations in taste (a big/small pen writing binge), most have just been down to the hit and miss process of buying from remote sources. Many FPG members will live in a similar situation to myself, located in a rural town where access to a bricks & mortar (B&M) pen shop is non-existent. Added to this, Australia (where I am) doesn't have any half decent pen shows, very few B&Ms and for those there are, the retail pricing is just ridiculous, often being more than double that of an offshore authorized reseller. The pricing creates another personal problem in that I will never go into any B&M shop (pen or otherwise) and try something that there is no chance of me purchasing from the same shop. That is not ethical in my mind but I may be in a minority on that one. Tough, I'll live with it.

While I have used a fountain pen for all of my life - apart from the dip pens with which we were taught to write - I have never been able to take a serious interest in them until the Internet came along. Suddenly, there was an explosion of information about doing anything you wanted to do to a pen, access to pen sellers from around the globe with choices of new, used and vintage, eBay, and the special interest forums like FPG and FPN. Wow! It was hard to get the gear stick out of overdrive.

I started my collection by concentrating on new Japanese pens, predominantly Pilot, which in retrospect was a great choice. I've bought many Pilots over the years and have never had a single pen that didn't work spot on out of the box. Some high end makers can't lay claim to that. From the first batch I worked out what I liked and what I didn't in regard to the usual stuff - nib size, pen size, ink flow, fill system, yadda, yadda.

From then on all my purchases have been based on Internet research of facts (weight, size, ink flow, etc) and specifications, opinions from other users (trying to glean objective tit-bits from the plethora of subjective comment), design appeal to the eye, body material and color, and finally value for money. I buy pens purely to write with them - OK, that's nearly true, as I have to own up to having a near complete collection of unused Lamy Safari and Al-Star pens - not for investment (ha), or to sit in a tray. I keep about a dozen or so pens inked all of the time each with a different ink in them and rotate the roster on a weekly basis. I think there is truth in the old adage 'variety is the spice of life'.

But after putting a lot into the selection process, many pens turn up, get inked, flushed and are relegated to the OFL in a matter of minutes. Though I suspect I am far more fussy than others, or just more sensitive to touch and feel. I took a dozen very different inked pens to a writers' group meeting one night and got all of the attendees to try each pen. A number of them asked why I had so many because they all felt the same to them. That blew me away and suggests all is not black and white and that it pays never to assume anything. I can have two supposedly identical pens yet I can feel the slightest of difference between them. Perhaps THAT'S my main problem and this thread is going to be a waste of time. I'll push on regardless ...

So my first question to you from this thread is that if you don't have B&M facilities for a bench or dip pen test, how difficult do you find it to buy pens that click with you?

Recently, I was fortunate to spend a couple of weeks in the Eternal City - Rome. I took the opportunity to visit Marco Parascenzo at Novelli (via di San Marcello 21-22), a short walk from the Trevi Fountain. Marco speaks excellent English and has a reputation second to none in the FP community. Marco encouraged me to dip test as many pens as I wished. I have never been to a pen show, nor been in a pen shop that offered such gracious service. Several expensive pens that I picked up didn't even make it to the dip test, being excluded on feel, weight, balance or some other reason. One beautiful Stipula was discarded due to the imbalance towards the back end caused by the weight of the internal piston filling mechanism. I was in 7th heaven, literally. I could have stayed and chatted all day, and I have no doubt Marco would have accommodated me. At no time did I feel pressured to stop and/or buy. I ended up buying an Omas 360 Turquoise demonstrator LE because of the shape and nib performance, and when I returned home, I have since bought the Delta Windows LE pen that I tried along with the 360.

Now the 360 gets to the hub of the matter. You could not possibly guess how comfortable you would find the 360 if you bought one untried. It's a shape that either works, or it doesn't. Nothing in between. For me to buy a 360 without a test would be pure gambling at even money odds, and it's not my religion to do that given the cost of a 360.

I'm quite convinced that if I lived near Novelli or another similar B&M then the size of my OFL would be very small and I would have saved a small fortune in outlay. So my second question is how much do you rely on your B&M where you have access to one?

Frankly, I could argue that it's actually cheaper for me to fly to a major U.S. pen show every 2 years just to decide what I might buy in the next period. The money saved against my current buying process would more than pay for a ticket there and back.

Apologies for the length of this diatribe. I hope you have found the content thought provoking.