{"id":16381,"date":"2026-01-12T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/?p=16381"},"modified":"2026-01-11T15:50:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T20:50:42","slug":"2025-purchasing-habits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2025-purchasing-habits\/","title":{"rendered":"2025\u20132026 Purchasing Habits Review"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

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<\/a>, so most of them will be recycled for this year. I give myself grace, though, because it was such a difficult year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 goal overview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This year I’m starting with what I think is the most interesting part of this post, reviewing my goals for 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 pen acquisitions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

50% or less from mainstream manufacturers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I just<\/strong> met this goal for my fountain pen purchases, assuming I consider vintage a separate category \u2014 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 <\/em>at 46.67%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Sell at least 10 pens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save up for pens before buying them<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Purchases and sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2014 like the Stanford Pen Studio crowdfunder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fountain pens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I purchased 25 fountain pens last year \u2014 2 were commissioned in 2024 \u2014 and received 5 more as gifts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Jan<\/th>Feb<\/th>Mar<\/th>Apr<\/th>May<\/th>Jun<\/th>Jul<\/th>Aug<\/th>Sep<\/th>Oct<\/th>Nov<\/th>Dec<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2025<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>8<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td>5<\/td>4<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/td>3<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>1<\/td>5<\/td>1<\/td>5<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/td>5<\/td>2<\/td>9<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>7<\/td>2<\/td>6<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/td>3<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>5<\/td>1<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>10<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>5<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>3<\/td>5<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>3<\/td>3<\/td>1<\/td>5<\/td><\/tr>
2019<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>4<\/td>6<\/td>6<\/td>3<\/td>3<\/td>7<\/td>3<\/td>3<\/td>2<\/td>5<\/td><\/tr>
2018<\/td>4<\/td>5<\/td>5<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>8<\/td>4<\/td>4<\/td>6<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2017<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>4<\/td>2<\/td>4<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td><\/tr>
2016<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
Average<\/td>2.5<\/td>1.7<\/td>3.3<\/strong><\/td>2.9<\/td>3<\/strong><\/td>2<\/td>2.7<\/td>4.6<\/strong><\/td>2.1<\/td>2.8<\/td>1.8<\/td>2<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-fountain pens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>Jan<\/th>Feb<\/th>Mar<\/th>Apr<\/th>May<\/th>Jun<\/th>Jul<\/th>Aug<\/th>Sep<\/th>Oct<\/th>Nov<\/th>Dec<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2025<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>3<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td>1<\/td>2<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
2021<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
2020<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr>
2019<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>2<\/td>2<\/td>4<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td><\/tr>
2018<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>1<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td>0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a>, that same effort is onerous and difficult to undertake to sell things. Stupid ADHD brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plans for 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I’m mostly recycling my 2025 plans. Get back on the horse; dust myself off; all that jazz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m going to try again to limit myself to 30 pen acquisitions<\/strong> \u2014 purchases and gifts \u2014 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to make the majority of my purchases from small\/indie businesses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to list all of my for-sale pens<\/strong> or consign them somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to save up for pens before buying them<\/strong>, rather than buying pens and paying them off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to evaluate my current collection for pens I can sell<\/strong>. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for reading to the end, I hope you enjoyed my post. Make sure to subscribe to my blog<\/a> or follow me on Instagram<\/a> so you don\u2019t miss any posts. I generally post at least once a week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s time to review my 2025 purchasing habits and goals. Spoiler: I didn’t do well. I need to dust off and try again.<\/p>\n

Keep Reading2025\u20132026 Purchasing Habits Review<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[437,169],"class_list":["post-16381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fountain-pens","tag-end-of-year","tag-retrospective","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/purchasingHabits_featured.jpg?fit=288%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Z77k-4gd","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14707,"url":"https:\/\/racheldelafuente.com\/blog\/2024-purchasing-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":16381,"position":0},"title":"Reviewing My 2024 Purchasing Habits","author":"Rachel","date":"January 3, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s time to review my 2024 purchasing habits and see how well I kept to my goals. 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