I seriously debated skipping this post this year, but I wanted to review the information for myself, so I decided to go ahead and feed the content monster, too. I also purposely left hard purchase numbers from my pen collection stats so that this post isn’t just a repeat of existing information. If you don’t want to read this whole post, the TLDR is that I only met one of my goals for 2025, so most of them will be recycled for this year. I give myself grace, though, because it was such a difficult year.
2025 goal overview
This year I’m starting with what I think is the most interesting part of this post, reviewing my goals for 2025.
30 pen acquisitions
I added two unexpected pens right at the end of 2025: a Tamenuri Studio pen as my Christmas present from Jim, and the TWSBI Obsidian since I’m collecting that series. With those two, and with the Retro 51 x Pen Addict “Pen” arriving, I ended the year with 38 pen acquisitions. Oops.
50% or less from mainstream manufacturers
I just met this goal for my fountain pen purchases, assuming I consider vintage a separate category — which I do. I can’t really include ballpoint and rollerball pens in this, since I haven’t purchased any from small/indie companies. Of my 30 fountain pen purchases, 14 were from small/indie businesses, 14 were from mainstream manufacturers, and 2 were vintage (although also, technically, from mainstream manufacturers) that were purchased from independent resellers (loophole, anyone?). That puts my mainstream manufacturer purchases at 46.67%.
Sell at least 10 pens
I sold 3 pens this year and traded 1. I couldn’t manage to motivate myself to list them anywhere. Hopefully, I can motivate myself to sell some this year. I will have my pens for sale at BWIPS, so come find me if you’re interested in some pretty pens for a good deal.
Save up for pens before buying them
I didn’t do well with this one, either. I’m not going to share how bad/good I did here, but I didn’t meet this goal, and it wasn’t only because of commissions being ready unexpectedly.
Purchases and sales
With my abysmal showing on my 2025 goals out of the way, let’s look at a breakdown of my purchases. I realized that I have an interesting conundrum with my table. There are times I purchase or commission pens that I don’t receive for months. I want these tables to reflect when I have the intent to add a pen to my collection, so they won’t include unexpected gifts, but they will include cases where I ask for a pen as a present — like the Stanford Pen Studio crowdfunder.
Fountain pens
I purchased 25 fountain pens last year — 2 were commissioned in 2024 — and received 5 more as gifts.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 2023 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3 |
| 2022 | 5 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| 2021 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| 2020 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 2019 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 2018 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Average | 2.5 | 1.7 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 3 | 2 | 2.7 | 4.6 | 2.1 | 2.8 | 1.8 | 2 |
Viewed this way, it’s clear my heaviest purchase/commission months are March (BWIPS), May, and August (DC Pen Show). April (my birthday month), July, and October are also on the higher side. I don’t know why May, July, and October purchases are elevated.
Non-fountain pens
I purchased 8 non-fountain pens last year. At least, of the caliber that I count as this part of the collection. There is a possibility I’ll sell one of them at one point, due to the dearth in compatible refills, but otherwise, I really love these pens, too.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sales
I didn’t really make much effort to sell pens last year. I brought my pens for sale to BWIPS and DC, but that’s it. I need to make an effort to sell pens this year. For some reason, while I don’t mind the work required to prepare a pen porn post, that same effort is onerous and difficult to undertake to sell things. Stupid ADHD brain.
Plans for 2026
I’m mostly recycling my 2025 plans. Get back on the horse; dust myself off; all that jazz.
I’m going to try again to limit myself to 30 pen acquisitions — purchases and gifts — total. Less would be better, but I think 30 may be pushing it, considering that 2026 is set to be as difficult to get through as 2025 was.
I want to make the majority of my purchases from small/indie businesses.
I want to list all of my for-sale pens or consign them somewhere.
I want to save up for pens before buying them, rather than buying pens and paying them off.
I want to evaluate my current collection for pens I can sell. I really don’t like that I’m approaching 6 months of pens, if I use one a day, every day. My collection is too big, and I know there are some that I’m not excited to use anymore.
Thanks for reading to the end, I appreciate it. What are your pen plans for 2026? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog or follow me on Instagram so you don’t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.
