| I've always liked to write things. I got into FPs a couple years ago because it's less pressure and the color selection. Re: obsession/cost, it is what you make it. I know folks who won't buy a pen over $5, others who think nothing of dropping $200-$1000.
I know pen folks that have a single bottle of ink and a single pen or two. Others that have dozens of pens and shelves of inks. Ink is relatively cheap. I have a bottle that cost me $20, came with a free pen, is waterproof ink and will last me about 130-200 refills. Another one was $5 for like 60-100. How long a refill will last depends on a lot of variables(ink qualities, paper absorbency, flow, nib size) but it is possible to do this hobby for the same amount or cheaper than buying single use pens. For example, The cheapest good pen you can buy without waiting for a month for it to come from China is a Platinum Preppy for $4. You can buy a pack of 10 cartridge refills for 6.75. That brings the price per use down to $0.97, comparable to what it would cost for a low to mid-grade ballpoint. If you instead decide to go for the real amortized savings and buy a bottle and either refill the cartridge via syringe/get a converter, you could reasonably get down to $0.50 per refill. Even cheaper are the pen brands from abroad that have some models that cost a dollar for the pen and the converter(converter alone can be up to $8 if bought separately with some pens). You could even beat Bic prices. Priced out to as low as 7 cents per refill if you get cartridges in bulk and don't care what the ink is(1USD for pen + ~7USD for 100 cartridges). It doesn't have to be this bespoke money pit hobby. One thing I have noticed is that zero people borrow pens from me now so I don't have to replace the pens that used to grow legs and walk off. |