It’s a good thing Goldspot doesn’t have one of those buy-now/pay-later installment setups or I might have impulsively spent $375.00 on a Visconti Opera Demo Carousel fountain pen tonight.
I’m not tempted by giants like the Visconti Homo Sapiens that seem to be so many other people’s grail pen. And while a lot of (non Homo Sapiens) Visconti pens look beautiful and are desirable to me, they don’t TEMPT me like the pens in the Carousel collection do. All Visconti pens are out of my price range, and I can’t justify getting them as research for the guidebook I’m working on (How to Buy and Enjoy YOUR FIRST FOUNTAIN PEN) because there’s no reason for a luxurious Visconti to be anybody’s FIRST fountain pen unless a rich uncle is buying it for you or you’ve just got a lot of money to throw around and maybe you just want to LOOK at it; if that’s the case, I am truly happy for you. I would do the same thing in your shoes.
So why did I put this particular Visconti pen in my shopping cart even though I can’t afford it and have no way to pay for it today? Because it is currently 50% off on Goldspot for their Weekly Dip. That is a $750 luxury fine writing instrument … for half the price. From a collection that is being retired. So even if you don’t write with it? Actually that’s a good reason to buy one or more. Pretty good chance it will go up in value, and if you’re not going to do anything to damage it and you can sit on it for a few years, collectible pens are not bad little investments.
The other reason I was ready to throw caution to the wind and set up a payment plan to get one of these pens is because I FELL IN LOVE with the pink blush color the first time I saw it, and watching this video completely confirmed it:
I mentally wishlisted this particular pen because the coloring is different from anything I’ve seen. Even though I’m more attracted to the green (“mint”) color in this collection (and more vibrant colors in general most of the time), there is a fleshy hard-crystal-candy uniqueness with the striations and pinkness that is not too cool and not too coral-warm. It is a color that looks alive, yet ethereal when set between silvery palladium. Angelic, but still sensually suggestive as the color name of “blush” suggests. A decadent naughty angel with secret knowledge that you can sometimes see peeking through depending on how the light hits it or the angle you tilt your head while you turn its faceted body. Like … you can see its perfect mechanical guts and whispers of ink sloshing around inside there (hence the “demo” in Opera Demo Carousel).
Another reason I love and covet this pink pen and find it unique: its femininity makes it stand out from most Visconti pens. Or maybe it just stands out from the Visconti pens people talk about the most and hold in such high esteem: big grippy imposing masculine blackjacks (like the Homo Sapiens). This hard sugar almost-apricot pink is aesthetically more like the Laban Mother of Pearl pen I covet, but fancier.
The only think I might not like 100% is how super-smooth the palladium parts are. Not seeing it in person but only judging from images and video online it’s hard to tell, but it somehow doesn’t look as expensive as it costs and as the pink parts and all the rest of it. It looks light-weight, and reminds me of a flimsy orthodontic brace I had that only wrapped around my back molars. It also looks like fingerprints will make it CONSTANTLY look imperfect and blemished when in actual use, which reminds me of another reason I don’t want to get most of the Homo Sapiens; whenever someone shows theirs off in videos they always look like dandruff and little hairs and specks of stuff are sticking to them. They never look clean which is part of why I’m not impressed by them. So if I’m going to wind up with a pen that’s pretty, but if you actually USE it will look all sticky and smeary and imprinted with forensic evidence, I probably don’t want to spend hundredS$S of dollars on it.
I’m not sure whether I dodged a bullet or am missing out on a rare and beautiful opportunity. Are you relieved I couldn’t buy this pen tonight? Or do you wish I would find a way to possess it?
