Losing pens -- what are your tragedies? Let it all out here.

[snedwos]

So it appears I left my Lamy Studio on the train between DC and Philadelphia yesterday. A sad loss, it was my daily user and I'm bummed out about it no end. This has turned out to be a more expensive holiday than it was supposed to. Still hoping its in my suitcase somewhere, but I'm not particularly confident.

Has anyone else been so careless? Still grieving?

[Crazyorange]

Yup. Lost pens. Not grieving though. Get another beauty and life will perk up.

[Bogon07]

Snedwos, sorry to hear about your lost Studio.

Last year I lost a Blue Safari (LH) on the train and was pretty pissed-off with myself.
Although I was happy that I had swapped it for a more expensive & hard to find Al-Star the night before.
Now I use a bigger pen case to carry my work pen in.

[Jon Szanto]

I have lost or misplaced a Waterman Laureat II. I swear I can NOT find it, and I have a worry that when I cleaned out a little box of old pens and pencils (and I mean non-FP, non-anything but disposable items), it may have been in there for some reason and got tossed.

I can't say I grieve it too much, as I got it on eBay for not too much to replace one that had a badly corroded nib, and I never even had a chance to ink it up!

[AndrewW]

Ouch. It's never nice to lose a nice daily writer or a 'nice' piece from a collection.

Just a few weeks ago, I managed to lose my grey, first year Snorkel. Not exactly sure how, but it managed to screw itself from its cap while I was moving between classes. On the upside, I did just sort of 'upgrade' to another first-year Snorkel Crest in black. I just finished restoring it too, and it turned out to be quite a nice piece.

[Frank]

I have lost two over the past eight years. One was a Yafa type pen in a blister-pack, but the other was a midnight blue P51 special. Both of these pens disappeared after being left on my desk in class. I make sure that the pens are never out of site nowadays!


;-)

[Lady Onogaro]

I love those skinny frixion pens made by Pilot, and I accidentally left one on the podium in my classroom. It got snapped up pretty quickly (by a colleague, I'm sure). I seriously thought about finding out who taught in that classroom after me, but I let it go.

I had a colleague confess he had lost a Graf von Faber Castell fountain pen while cleaning the cat box. That must have hurt.

[amk]

A Waterman Expert in green, which I put somewhere when a tine broke off the nib, not knowing in those days that it was a simple matter to replace the nib from a donor pen... and now, of course, can I find it?

[U56rh]

I lost a Pelikan M200 at a meeting. I had literally just got it back from Mr Pendleton too. Argh!

[Lady Onogaro]

I lost a Pelikan M200 at a meeting. I had literally just got it back from Mr Pendleton too. Argh!

Having just received a Pendleton Brown pen, I can certainly see that would be more than an ouch (maybe even more than an ARGH! Maybe more like a "KHHHHHAAAAANNNNN!" (Start Trek fan here).

[Faustine]

Within the space of two weeks, my husband lost his prized Levenger L-Tech he'd had for over 2 years, somewhere on a shopping day full of errands, and then a Limited Edition Coffee Lamy Al-Star, which is now tremendously expensive and hard to find, we think somewhere on the morning bus ride into work. He was pretty distraught, and rightfully so because I was about to ban him from carrying any more fountain pens ever again.

He has since started using a pen case (whereas before he carried them in his pockets), and we were able to find the same L-Tech on ebay for half the prices (thank you Levenger Outlet!). Sadly won't be replacing the coffee any time soon, but I did get him the 2013 All-Black Al-Star.

If he loses that too, he's dead to me!

[Potter]

I lost a Hero 715 about a year ago, could not find it anywhere, forgot all about it, then a week ago we were moving some furniture and lo & behold, there it was covered in dust, how it got there I don't know, but I was pleased to welcome it back to the collective. Now inked up with platinum black and doing excellent service as it always did.

[kaisnowbird]

A few months ago, Australian Post lost three pens I sold to another Sydney-sider. They weren't particularly valuable, but I was very annoyed.

[ethernautrix]

I've mentioned my losses in several such threads (at fpn) over the years.

The biggest single loss was the pair of fairly new Montblanc La Bohemes (fp and bp) in a new leather case. It fell out of my pocket somewhere in the two-block walk from my apartment to the subway station in the Lower East Side. I noticed the case wasn't in my pocket just as I started walking down the stairs, turned around, and retraced my steps all the way back to the apartment. Looked around the apartment in case I only thought that I had put the case in my pocket.

Gone.

That one hurt.

I've lost the nibs and barrels of a couple of pens that unscrewed from the caps which I had clipped to my collar - a Pelikan 400, for instance. No, wait, that was the rollerball. It was the Sheaffer Connaisseur nib and barrel that fell off somewhere in Providence, Rhode Island. That one had a wonderful nib. The replacement Connaisseur did the same at Ocean Beach, San Francisco. The Sheaffer Connaisseur ballpoint ended up lost at Caribbean Zone years earlier - Caribbean Zone was a restaurant in downtown San Francisco (South of Market).

Once, during a visit to Scotland, I left two pairs of Parker Duofolds (fp & bp sets) in a leather case near the telephone in a restaurant in Aberdeen. I left, walked about a mile, had a feeling I should check for my pens. Gone! I remembered the name of the restaurant and, using a public phone box, called the operator for the number, and didn't have a pen to write down the number! But I remembered it, called the restaurant, and someone checked, came back, said the pens were there.

That was the first time I did such a careless walk-away - but not the last. Happened at a deli in Providence (years after the Connaisseur jump). Got off the commuter train in San Francisco, checked my pockets for the only pen I was carrying, a recently purchased Montblanc StarWalker - gone! Got back on the train and found the pen on the seat I'd just vacated. That happens sometimes - I walk away, giving myself the pat-down, then rushing back to find my pen or pen case on the floor, usually.

I try never to ignore the disturbance in the force.

[U56rh]

I lost a Pelikan M200 at a meeting. I had literally just got it back from Mr Pendleton too. Argh!

Having just received a Pendleton Brown pen, I can certainly see that would be more than an ouch (maybe even more than an ARGH! Maybe more like a "KHHHHHAAAAANNNNN!" (Start Trek fan here).

You've encapsulated the feelings wonderfully. Bad times.

[reprieve]

I temporarily lost a TWSBI 530 for about six months, maybe a little longer. I found it wedged behind my desk when I was moving things around and cleaning. It was filled with Herbin 1670 (the red, sheen-y one) and I thought it would be severely clogged. But I uncapped it and it wrote straight away, no hesitation whatsoever!!

Just a few weeks ago, I lost a Kaweco Liliput. It fell out of my jacket pocket. That sucker is so tiny! But I still have hope that it will eventually turn up as I don't think I dropped it outside anywhere.

[Runnin_Ute]

Back in January I lost a red marbled Waterman Phileas with Fine nib that wrote wonderfully and I had had since the late 1990's when I bought it new from Levenger. I really miss it, even though it wasn't getting quite as much use as it had in the past. I used it during my last phone call of the day and by the time I left the office it had disappeared. It is possible it dropped off the desk into the garbage can. Only other nice pen I have ever lost was a Parker 45 Flighter ballpoint.

[ethernautrix]

Oh yeah, and there was the Parker Cisele barrel I lost somewhere in Pennsylvania. Somehow, the barrel unscrewed from the nib section, so I still have the cap and nib. That, at least, was different from the other losses.

[Scrawler]

I clipped a brand new pen to the inner pocket of my tweed jacket to use in a meeting. When I got there I could not find it. It was not a particularly valuable pen, but was gift from someone I respect and admire (yes and FPGeeks member). I was quite panicked and searched every pocket, under the seats of my car and was resigned to the loss. A day later I decided to take all the jackets I had accumulated on the back of my desk chair and take them and hang them properly. While doing this I did one last desperate search and, lo and behold, I found an unknown hole in my pocket and the pen in the lining of the jacket tail. So it turned out well.

The one instance that a pen loss did not turn out well was a Parker I bought as as complete set with a book "The History of Writing" at Heathrow Airport in 1980. First the book was purloined, then a Chinese diplomat stole the pen off my desk in 1993. I still have not recovered from that loss because the ballpoint that was part of the set is a permanent feature of my two pen pouch, which I have with me for all those times I don't want to or can't use a fountain pen. As it has removable cap, it can be lent to one of those people who do not have the foresight to own their own writing instrument.

[ransky]

I lost a TWSBI Micarta at the movies. I was sitting on the aisle and had to stand to let folks in/out during the show. Somewhere between getting up and down many times, it leaped for freedom. I didn't realize it until I was home.

Fortunately, my son's girlfriend worked at the theater taking tickets. She checked with the sweep-up guy who had found the pen. He was kind enough to return it. A miracle really. Of course, I wrote him a thank you note with it, and included some extra thanks a teen would appreciate.