Have you seen price trends relating directly to the popularity of fountain pens (supply/demand) or more to factors such as the manufacturer location with given import taxation, pen nib and component material? What do you see as the most influential and governing cohort for pen pricing? There may be some factor of popularity, and that can affect it in different ways
It really depends on the individual product and manufacturer
Some products are hard to produce and there are limited ones, so increased demand with a shortage of supply could drive up price
with many manufacturers, the more they sell, the more these fixed costs get spread out over time, and the costs can actually drive down
this was the case with Pilot Iroshizuku ink, the bottles themselves were expensive to produce (by hand), but as the volume increased, they were able to invest in equipment to more automate it and drive down costs, so it actually lowered in price because it was more popular
Being in a niche, generally there are R&D, marketing, and overhead costs with adding new SKU’s or designs, so pens are often more expensive when they’re new
there are factors of currency fluctuations, taxes, duties, tariffs, shipping, etc that can all make prices fluctuate that have nothing to do with popularity
a lot of times what I see is more incidental factors at play, like a shortage of a certain material, part, labor issue or whatever that drives up costs or affects supply of a certain product
For the most part I’m not seeing companies raising prices just because they “can”, but it really is just a case-by-case basis"
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