Next up: luxury toilet paper

Written by

June 1, 2026

I just saw a reference in a news article to “luxury fountain pens” so I felt the need to find out what a luxury fountain pen could possibly be. I mean, what is a fountain pen? A thing you write with. It holds some ink, and you write with it, and every now and then you get to refill it with ink. Where does “luxury” come into it? It’s not silk or mink or soft leather or any other bit of an endangered animal, it’s just a small tool for writing. Where does luxury find an entry?

I learned there’s a pen that sells for $1,270.

People are weird.

Comments

12 responses to “Next up: luxury toilet paper”

Peter N

Jun 1, 2026 9:12 AM

As a recording engineer, I’ve always been puzzled by Bose audio equipment. They have some nice products but they’re way more expensive than equivalent devices from other manufacturers. I conclude that their rationale is that a sufficient number of potential customers think that if it’s so expensive, it must be that much better. Likewise: luxury fountain pens. [Being self-employed, I exclusively use pens that I randomly find in the supermarket parking lot.]
Ophelia Benson

Jun 1, 2026 9:30 AM

Hahahaha very wise.
Harald Hanche-Olsen

Jun 1, 2026 10:19 AM

I have owned and used a number of fountain pens, and may be guilty of spending too much on them. Not in the thousand bucks range, though! By far the most important part of a fountain pen is the nib. Gold nibs are way more pleasant to use than steel nibs, simply because gold is softer and bends a bit in use. I have used titanium nibs too, and they are almost but not quite as good as gold. I hate ballpoint pens, which give me a writer’s cramp when I use them extensively. Though the more modern rollerballs are quite OK to use.

These days, I don’t write as much by hand anymore. But before I retired, I would write fairly detailed notes to prepare for a lecture, and good writing tools were important then. A good nib on a cheap(ish) fountain pen was my preference.
Ophelia Benson

Jun 1, 2026 10:39 AM

Yes, that I can understand. I used to write with fountain pens, and I was fussy about the nib. It does make a difference. A scratchy one for instance is terrible.
Athel Cornish-Bowden

Jun 1, 2026 11:34 AM

Everything Harald wrote applies equally to me, so I won’t waste everyone’s time by repeating it all.

When I was at primary and secondary school ballpoints were strongly discouraged, and even forbidden. At that time cheap fountain pens were easily available. Nowadays most schools have abandoned the effort to outlaw ballpoints, and just about everyone uses them. As a result cheap fountain pens barely exist any more (though you can find them on the web) and the fountain pens you can buy in shops are close to being luxury items. The last time I bought one was in about 2018, and I walked half way across Paris to find a shop, where I paid about 400€. I thought that expensive, but that it was what one had to pay for a pen of decent quality with a gold nib. I used it a lot for a couple of years, but my handwriting has deteriorated with age to the point where I might as well use a ballpoint like everyone else.

Something curious that I noticed earlier when we were first in France (39 years ago). In England I had used Parker pens with calligraphic gold nibs.

These were manufactured in France, and I assumed it would be easy to buy a replacement nib in France. But no, those nibs were probably just made for export and no French person would be seen dead with one, so I had to wait until I was next in England. When I bought my pen in 2018 in Paris I did manage to find a calligraphic gold nib, but the shopkeeper obviously thought it was an odd thing to want.
twiliter

Jun 1, 2026 12:05 PM

Give me an old Dixon No. 2 5/10 any old day. I need an eraser for all the mistakes I tend to make, and they are much easier on books. I fooled around with fountain pens as a kid, but mostly made messes with them. :)
Harald Hanche-Olsen

Jun 1, 2026 12:15 PM

Speaking of erasers, a totally off-topic joke:

A bunch of professors were discussing the cost of research. The mathematician claimed to be the cheapest of them all, needing only scratch paper, a pen, and a waste basket. (Mathematics research involves a lot of dead ends, proofs that don’t work etc.) At which the philosopher in the group had to go it one better: We are even cheaper, he said, we don’t even need the waste basket.
twiliter

Jun 1, 2026 12:30 PM

lol. My parents’ horror at their prized 1959 Encyclopedia Brittanica set all marked up was only tempered by my ability to erase stuff.
John Reed

Jun 1, 2026 1:47 PM

I knew a woman who worked in an antique shop for a bit. She told me that when any particular item would sit unsold for too long, they would *raise* its price, and it would inevitably get more attention from shoppers and finally sell. Humans are indeed strange.
Ophelia Benson

Jun 1, 2026 4:08 PM

Heh. That’s why I keep using the word “luxury” as in “luxury beliefs”. The merest hint of specialness and it’s game over. Trans ideology is very very very special.
Sackbut

Jun 1, 2026 6:07 PM

Luxury toilet paper definitely exists.

I encourage looking up videos by Maggie Weber, who sometimes goes by “Refashioned Hippie”. She regularly mocks expensive versions of utility items, and expensive clothing, and expensive things with no apparent use, and lots of other (expensive) things. She promotes thrift shopping and small businesses, especially women. She is funny and clever and sensible.
Steven

Jun 1, 2026 7:40 PM

Heh…a guy who bought a luxury pen, and found that it was just…well…a pen…

Sometimes a Thing Is Just Expensive

https://molochinations.substack.com/p/sometimes-a-thing-is-just-expensive