I’ve been collecting notes and thoughts on this topic for a while now, as I’ve noticed my own acquisitions starting to trend in the direction of purchasing fewer-but-nicer pens, and as more brands seem to be directing significant manufacturing and marketing efforts towards high-end pens and limited editions. Honestly, there are now so many limited/special/store editions on the market that it’s easy to get confused and caught up in FOMO, spend a lot of money, and wind up with an extremely expensive pen that doesn’t meet your needs or isn’t as great as the “hype” made it seem. Believe me, I’ve been there. So I thought it might be helpful to write a piece on my own thought process when acquiring pens - especially expensive high-end pens - and the various considerations and questions that I ask myself as I evaluate whether a prospective purchase is “worth it.”
Before we start, I need to preface this discussion with an acknowledgement that what constitutes an “expensive” or “high-end” pen is subjective, and necessarily changes from person to person. A $50 pen is extremely expensive to some people, and I’m not necessarily talking about financial means. Some people simply prefer a functional daily writer and don’t want to have any more money than absolutely necessary locked up in a writing instrument they might lose. With that understood, I don’t think the analysis changes significantly based on where you draw the line on what’s “expensive” or “high-end.” Hopefully this article has something helpful for everyone.
My own baseline for what I consider a “very expensive” pen is roughly $500. Some might set the baseline even lower, and there’s definitely an argument for that. I chose $500 because this price point captures most brands’ non-limited or standard edition “workhorse” pens such as the Pelikan M800/M600, Aurora 88, Montblanc 146, Sailor Professional Gear, Pilot Custom 823, and even some Conids. (While the MSRP on some of these pens may be greater than $500, you can usually find them below that, either by purchasing on sale or with a discount code, or by acquiring them secondhand in barely used, or even mint, condition.) Once you get past this baseline price point, in my opinion you are definitely paying for more than functional hardware - i.e., a gold nib, build quality, filling system - and get into more subjective forms of “value” like artistry and branding. I think hard before purchasing above this baseline price point, and if I do, there has to be a compelling case. I use my pens, so I’m not a pure collector in the sense that my primary focus is on making sure the pens do not depreciate in value for later appraisal or resale. I may buy something because I view it as a “work of art,” but it’s a functional piece of art that I still intend to put to good use as a writing instrument.
Leonardo Officina Italiana makes some of my favorite limited and special edition pens currently on the market. They’re all handmade, and the runs truly are limited - especially those in rare celluloids.
First Consideration: What Exactly Am I Paying For, and Why Am I Spending this Money?
I firmly believe that you don’t need to spend more than $65, tops, to get a reliable fountain pen to use as a daily writer. For $200 or less, you can purchase what I consider one of the best-designed fountain pens ever made, the Lamy 2000, which is my own “desert island” writing instrument. As I mentioned above, once you pass a certain price point, you stop paying for additional functionality and get into things like design, artistry, and, yes, branding and hype. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But one thing I do try to do when contemplating an expensive acquisition is figure out exactly what I’m paying for and why I’m fine with paying it. For example, a $600 Nakaya is not $600 because it’s a “better” pen than a $150 Platinum 3776 in terms of functionality. For the most part, they write similarly because they feature the same nib, and the Platinum might actually be a “better” choice for most people to take to work everyday because it posts and the pen is lightweight. The Nakaya, however, is a vehicle to showcase artistry, namely the Japanese tradition of Urushi lacquer work and other traditional pen designs. Do I really like the design of this particular Nakaya, or is this a FOMO-driven acquisition influenced by online discussions and/or podcasts? Put another way, do I like this pen and want one because “other people” are telling me I should have one in my collection?
Two limited edition fountain pens that I’m glad I purchased. On the left is my Delta Fusion 82 in “Pompeii” celluloid, and on the right is the Leonardo Momento Zero “Maestro” in discontinued Omas Burkina celluloid. I grabbed both of these immediately, knowing they really were limited and won’t last.
Second Consideration: Is this “Limited” or “Special” Edition Really That Unique?
When considering the purchase of a “limited” pen, I try to remember to ask myself how “limited” or “special” the pen actually is. In my opinion, these two marketing taglines are overused. Case-in-point: I own a couple of Montblanc Writers Edition fountain pens, which retail for nearly $1000. I’m a Montblanc fan, and generally appreciate the brand’s design and build quality, but is a run of 16,000 fountain pens really limited enough to qualify for the “limited edition” designation, and command the sort of price being asked?
In my opinion, probably not. Older Writers Edition fountain pens, like the Hemingway and Agatha Christie, command higher prices on the secondary market because Montblanc made fewer of these pens, and they’re difficult to locate. That’s exactly what some pure collectors want to see - appreciation in the value of the pen due to scarcity. But it’s hard to see a run of 16,000+ pens that cost $1000 apiece appreciating in value anytime soon, which is why you can find later Writers Editions like Virginia Woolf, Charles Dickens, Friedrich Schiller, etc. for much less than the original retail, sometimes still NIB (“New in Box”). If you’re a user, like me, that’s not a bad thing at all, which brings me to the third consideration….
On the other hand, Pelikan limited and special edition fountain pens tend to linger, like the M101N pictured here, and you can get extremely good deals towards the end of the year….
Third Consideration: How Badly Do I Want This Pen Now, and Should I Wait for a Price Drop?
For the past couple of years, I have made 90% of my pen acquisitions in November, December, and January, which is when most retailers run inventory clearance sales and holiday promotions, starting with Fountain Pen Day sales and running through the post-New Year’s clearance events. At the top of the list for retailers to clear out are those “limited” and “special” edition pens that haven’t sold over the past year or two - after all, they need to make room for the next year’s releases that start shipping in February and March - and if you wait patiently enough you can often find the “older” pens discounted as much as 60%, or even more once you factor in holiday coupon codes that are always floating around. With respect to the Montblanc Writers edition pens noted above, I found two of them at around 70% of what they originally cost, and was able to use a 20% off Black Friday coupon to get the price down even further. In short, if you can resist the FOMO, patience can pay off. If a limited edition isn’t really “limited,” just wait for a while, and I suspect you’ll enjoy that pen all the more having paid half the original purchase price.
Aurora limited and special editions typically remain available for at least a year or so. I waited a year for the Aurora 88 Sigaro Blu to go on sale and got a slightly better price than I would have had I purchased it upon release.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a pen is a uniquely personal experience, and as you gain experience, you’ll develop your own set of considerations, or even rules, that you take into account when building your collection or accumulation. I do hope this piece is helpful. I’ve made my share of mistakes in my decade or so in the pen hobby, and the ones that always burn the most are when I gave into the FOMO and purchased something expensive that I either didn’t really like it or could have purchased a year later for half the money. On the flip side, I’ve also missed out on some truly limited releases because I dawdled, but I tend to regret those instances less because there is always going to be something else to take its place. Trust me on this one.
Happy holidays, everyone! After tomorrow’s “Links” post, I’m signing off until after the New Year, when I’ll be back with all sorts of new things in store for 2020 and the next decade!