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%.
