Back in first grade when Ms. Van Tessel had the class stand and tell what they wanted to be when they grew up, not a single young scholar said they wanted to be an antique pen dealer.  Naturally, it isn’t the kind of job that you plan on… it just kind of happens.  At least that is how it happened to me.

For several years I owned and operated an orthopaedic clinic in Kamakura, Japan. We had over 100 patients come in every day, and we also had a small army of physical trainers to tend to professional athletes. We supplied trainers to Japan’s national soccer teams and triathlon teams.  Everything was going very well, and we were just starting to make a return on our heavy investment.  Then our son was diagnosed with a severe form of epilepsy. He started having hundreds of seizures a day and his specialists all said that the air pollution in the Tokyo and Yokohama area was making his situation worse.

My wife and I talked and argued for a while, but then we both agreed that we should sell my clinic and move down to Okinawa, Japan’s clean tropical islands. Instantly upon arrival, my son’s health improved. The seizures were far less frequent and much less severe. He still has seizures on a daily basis, but now he can enjoy a normal life and attend school. His seizures are so mild now, that most people do not even notice them.

We sold the clinic rather well, making enough profit to live comfortably and I turned my pen hobby into a way to support my family without constantly dipping into my savings.  Buying, restoring, researching and selling pens is something that I deeply love, and I fell lucky to spend my time doing something I enjoy.  I’ve been collecting pens for about 15 years now, and been selling them for just over 10. Most of my customers are what I call normal.  In the pen world at least they are normal, but most of the world still thinks us odd; after all, few people can imagine paying more than $25 on a pen.

Then there are the addicts. These people make me feel more like a pen pusher than a seller. Most of us think we are addicted to pens. Every now and then we fell ourselves itching to buy a new Montblanc or a Waterman 56. We joke about spending the rent on a special pen, but for the most part we are healthy. However, some of my customers are truly sick.  I am certainly not trying to embarrass anyone, and I will never divulge any names, but if you are reading this and think I am talking about you, take heart, there are a lot of people with this problem. I am not thinking of a single person.

Every now and then,  I meet over the internet, either through my website or my ebay auctions someone new to pens. They are thrilled and have the energy of a new evangelistic convert who just found a saviour.   Typically they buy a single pen, nothing expensive and often they buy something I recommend. They receive the pen and then something happens. That simple pen flips a switch somewhere inside and the person has changed. They need more pens. They now have a hunger and do not stop buying pens until they are deeply in debt and / or they are on the brink of losing their loved ones because of their pen addiction.

I’ve never suffered from addictions myself. I missed a lot of meals and spent a lot of sleepless nights trying to finish “Tomb Raider” many years ago, but that has been the extent of my own problems. Some people are far more susceptible than others. So when I first started selling pens, I could never discern the usual customers from the ones with real addiction problems, but over the years I have started to learn the signs. I have compiled a little test below.  See if you find yourself say “Yes” to any of these:

1.       You  lie to your spouse or partner about the number of pens you have or the amount of money you spend on pens.

2.       At first you were proud to show off your pens, but now you start to hide your pen collection from your loved ones.

3.       Your friends and family start to annoy you because they interfere with your pen time.

4.       You have pens shipped to your work or other location to avoid your spouse or partner from finding the packages.

5.       You stay up late until your spouse or loved one is asleep before you go online to shop for pens.

6.       As soon as you get paid, the first thing you think of is what pens you are going to buy.

7.       You buy pens that you do not really want or like, but you couldn’t help but buy them anyway.

8.       You feel a slight sense of guilt when buying pens.

9.       You lose track of the amount of time you spend online when shopping for pens.

10.   Whenever you have a bad day, the first thing you want to do to cheer yourself up is buy a new pen.

If you are seeing yourself painted in the question above, you may have a problem. Pen addiction, is like any other kind of addiction, and it can ruin your life.  I have seen it happen many times.  If you or someone you love is addicted to pens, and you believe it is a problem, then it probably is a problem. Pull out the yellow pages and make some calls right now.  The only solace I can offer is that there are a lot worse things to be addicted to than pens, but then again if it is hurting your life, it doesn’t really matter if it is drugs, alcohol, the internet or fountain pens.

If you are a seller and you think one of your regular customers have a problem, then you have an ethical question on your hands.  Competition among pen sellers has grown quite intense over the last few years, and many pen sellers need to move their pens in order to pay their own rent.  I am not going to tell anyone what they should do, but I encourage you if you are a seller and you think one of your regulars has a problem, that you think about it before you sell them their next pen.