Candidate: Gary Weimer

I am a late comer to the pen aficionado world.  I started writing with a fountain pen to improve my handwriting; it was so difficult to get my pen repaired that I learned to repair pens myself. I discovered that I enjoyed working on pens more than collecting them. So, my Etsy shop Midnight Pens was born. In the decade that I have been collecting and repairing/reviving pens, I’ve also delved into manufacturing replacement parts. I have seen a change in the collectible pen market in the past couple of years; younger people are getting into the hobby, but they are interested in newer, hand-crafted pens; they don’t want some dead guy’s pen, but rather something that is theirs alone. My article on Retro 51 (Pennant, Summer 2023) was my foray into their world. I see pen collecting as not just documenting and preserving the past, but also leading into the future, both in bringing in new, younger participants and recognizing new trends in collecting.