I have a problem, I’ve spent too much money on the chase and the delusion that I needed ever “flavor” of pen – ya know, so the collection is complete. After researching the impact our personalities have on our collections, it occurred to me I was going about this all wrong, spending too much money on the idea of completeness or inclusion instead of substance – mind over matter, or is it matter over mind.
After I wrote the blog Our Personalities, They Determine Our Collection’s it occurred to me I have a problem. What does my collection say about me? It lacks direction, I’m not feeling “it.” After a “Come to Jesus” discussion with myself, I’ve decided to “thin the heard,” to cull the collection, to single out those pens that don’t really “get the job done” for me. In short, time to have a sell off. This way I can focus on stuff I really, really like opposed to focusing on the completeness of the collection. Besides isn’t the collection saying something about me? Of the five personal traits I’m thinking “conscientiousness” is probably the most accurate but I’m not feeling this anymore,
So, how do I decide what stays and what goes, what has meaning and what was an impulse, and most importantly, what is going to be the guiding force and direction behind my collection going forward? Should I focus on pens to restore and sell? Or nicely restored pens? Or commit to a particular manufacture or material? Welcome to my nightmare..
Time to make the selection! I took all my pens and spread them across the floor, by manufacture of course. Those that were of a lessor quality were an easy choice, others were duplicates or nearly so (had to acquire minor variations) and finally pens I acquired which needed to be restored but I lost interest and didn’t bother.
Finally tally for now, 1 Schaefer, 5 Esterbrook, 2 Parker’s. Not all of them need restoration before their sale so they will go first. Now it’s time to focus on the direction of my pen collection so I am going to focus on the following for now; black pens, European pens (currently I have a thing for English and French pens), and mottled hard rubber.
After I wrote this (over a month ago) an issue surfaced, I started the process of prepping the pens for sale and wouldn’t you know it, one cleaned up so well I was amazed and it got to stay. Which one, well that’s for me to know and for a future blog to tell.
Chronicles of a Fountain Pen 