Well, you really can't call them "Doorbusters" because our website doesn't technically have any doors. So, maybe we can refer to these deals as "Clickbusters?" Starting 12AM Eastern Standard Time on Friday, November 25th, we are officially kicking off our Black Friday deals and specials for the entire weekend through Cyber Monday. Get those fingers ready and sign up to our E-Mail Newsletter List to get the special coupon codes sent directly to your inbox.
Check out our special Clickbuster deals that we will be featuring at a great price this weekend. We have ample amounts of inventory of these items, so corporate orders are welcome and encouraged. Buy for the whole family or the whole company in one shot. If you need help with gift ideas, feel free to check out our suggestions on pen gifts. If you are really lost and want to drop us a line, feel free to post on our wall at our Goldspot Facebook page or Tweet us @goldspotpens on Twitter. We will be out of the office during the weekend enjoying some family time, but will be checking FB and Twitter periodically to answer questions.
If the snowflake matters most, then there's no replacing the need to buy a Mont Blanc.
However, if writing quality, style and value matter more, then we can certainly help you find a holiday pen gift that has a Mont Blanc "style" for hundreds of dollars less. Here are some suggestions :
The newest generation of Expert is here. Classic cigar-shape profile, weighted brass inner barrel and classic lacquering style make this line a perfect, affordable competitor to a Mont Blanc.
The Japanese-made Sailor pen is renown for high writing quality and superb gold nibs that make writing an absolute joy. Prices for the fountain pens are a bit up there ($310 Retail), but compare to a Meisterstuck large fountain pen that can cost hundreds of dollars more still, Sailor demonstrates a better value.
The Marquis Metro collection has been one of the best selections for corporate gifts to have engraved and buy in bulk. The pen is built from an inner metal barrel coated in polished lacquer and chrome trims. The accompanying gift box presents this pen extremely professionally, leaving the gift recipient wondering how much this pen must have cost. Both rollerball and ballpoint are under $50 separately at the time of this writing.
Classic, Italian-crafted design that pulls no punches when it comes to quality, Aurora has always been an excellent choice for pen-shoppers looking for Mont Blanc style for a much greater value (under $100 for a fountain pen in the ipsilon resin collection).
When it comes to imitating the luxury style of a Mont Blanc, Taiwanese pen manufacturer Laban does it the best with high quality materials like gold and sterling silver. This gold-plated edition looks gorgeous, writes just as well and is a faction of the cost to own a Mont Blanc.
Tis the season once more, ladies and gentlemen! We're planning on having a huge Black Friday weekend all the way through "Cyber" Monday. As we prepare ourselves to pick and pack orders like elves for the next 5 weeks, we would like to offer our experience in suggesting some stellar gifts for your loved ones, starting with the lovely ladies.
Pink as pink can be, the this Waterford pen is a gal's best friend. Engraves nicely and features polished chrome trim. Twist-action ballpoint mechanism accepts a common Parker-style ballpoint refill (also can use a Parker-style capless gel ink refill).
Glittering with over one hundred sparkling crystals, the Swarovski writing instrument has a brilliant personality with capable writing ability. Uses a mini d-1 size refill commonly found in multi-function pens.
German-made, compact and fabulously decorated with Swarovski crystals, the ONLINE Inspirations will be your muse through long writing sessions.
Cross Century II Masquerade
Classic Cross writing quality and iconic slim design paired with an elaborate, colorful Mardi Gras-inspired pattern. Truly dazzling to admire while offering a solid writing experience.
As pen enthusiasts, I think we can all agree that we've fantasized about creating our own pen design at some point. The design you envision may be as simple as adding a different grip to your favorite pen, or changing the color to a blue swirl, or adding a gold clip, or making the cap post better. But, if you had the opportunity to create a completely brand-new pen from scratch, what would it look like?
Would it look anything like what Sylvester Stallone dreamed of with his "Chaos" Pen? Knock it all you like, it is certainly a topic of discussion any time it is mentioned or seen. And you can't help but to think that this came from the same guy who played Rocky, Rambo, Judge Dredd and, my personal favorite, John Spartan. "Chaos" certainly has that bad ass (excuse my French), Harley-biker-this-pen-can-also-be-a-weapon appeal. If this pen could dress itself, it would don Ed Hardy gear and fistpump all the way to the Jersey Shore.
While I poke fun at it, and the critics certainly have come out in droves over how gaudily garish this limited edition pen is, this is probably a design that Sly is proud of and will cherish in his own collection, being this is the first (and probably last) commercially-released pen that he has ever designed. But, if you were in Sly's position - a part owner in Montegrappa, avid pen enthusiast, and celebrity - you would create a pen that you personally would enjoy as well. Be honest, if you had the chance to build a pen so intricately designed and sculpted by Montegrappa's skilled artisans, you would shoot for the moon. And, of course, not everyone is going to love it. Heck, few may only like it enough to pick it up, stare at it for a few seconds, put it down and say, "well, that's ugly."
Designing a pen to match your own personal taste is fine on its own, but designing a commercially-successful pen is a completely different subject. It's like the difference between heating up a lean cuisine meal-for-one and cooking Thanksgiving dinner for the entire family. Thinking outside of yourself has to happen at some point. For writing, the old adage is, "write with an audience in mind." Same idea holds true to many other creative endeavors that you want someone else to enjoy. You have to think of the person or people that you want to WOW and make it your #1 priority to knock them off their feet with whatever-it-is you are making. With there being such a high price tag on the Chaos pen, you have to imagine that the group Stallone and Montegrappa are aiming for has to be very small. Maybe it was meant for Stallone and his Hollywood buddies. Maybe he's going around his neighborhood door-to-door like a kid selling candy bars, except he's got Montegrappa pens in his wagon.
At any rate, we can mock, criticize and poke fun at Sly all we want, but at the heart of the mockery is jealousy. We're jealous that he got to design a limited edition pen and no one asked us for our opinion. So, lets relieve some of that angst and comment below on how you would design your limited edition pen. Whether it be ballpoint, rollerball, fountain pen, mechanical pencil, eco-roller, 5th mode or even some crazy new mode that we haven't thought of. What color(s) would it be? How would it feel in your hand? What would you name it? How much would it cost and, most importantly, who would buy your pen?
We had a record turnout for this year's reader's choice poll for Pen of the Year. The winner to take the prize : The Edison Pen Co Collier!
Congrats to Brian and Edison Pen Co for receiving a dominating win, capturing over 62% of the vote! The Edison fans came out in droves. It is not hard to see why. Edison Pen Co's Brian Gray has developed a sterling reputation as one of the most reputable, personable and highly skilled pen craftsman. He developed a following by creating custom pen designs that has spread even further thanks to the Production line that is now offered at 4 pen retailers (including us). The lower-priced models like the Hudson and 2011 Pen of the Year Collier allow pen enthusiasts to enjoy the quality of an Edison pen without breaking the bank (or be able to buy more Edison pens).
We asked the lively folks on the Fountain Pen Network forum to weigh in on their recommendations for nominees in this year's 2011 Goldspot Reader's Choice Pen of the Year. After 56 replies and some deep contemplation, here are your nominees that are in the running for the prestigious honor :
Please note that you can click on any of the nominees above to get some more information and look at more pictures to help you decide. Voting will be open until Monday, November 14th at 11:59pm Eastern US Standard time. The winner will be announced next Tuesday, the 15th. Have fun and cheer on your favorite pen from this year! Vote below and share with your friends:
We've all heard (or read) it before... After long periods of hiatus, blogwriters casually excuse themselves for not keeping up with their writing. Somewhere along the line, life gets in the way of this expression. Depending on how high up the priority list blog-writing is, the more dire the circumstances would be to pull the writer away from their blog. We all have our reasons excuses not to write, but life's events should offer all the more impetus to write.
If you're a follower of this blog, you would already know that I, too am guilty of letting a bit of dust get on the Goldspot Pens Blog lately. I won't offer any explanations, but I will say that this is still an important venue for us to connect with our customers and prospects. We simply tried the best we could to keep up with it, given the resources and manpower. In the end, it comes down to, "Should I answer that customer's important e-mail about their next-day engraving order or should I write a new review for the blog." Our customers depend on our customer service above all, so the blog is given a lower priority for when there is free time.
However, there is never any "free time." It is simply an illusion. An oasis in a sea of desert. And if there was any shimmer of hope in that grey lining, the Black Friday cloud comes rolling in and the craziness of the Holidays consumes every last tick & tok. As I've openly moaned to several friends and family in regards to possibly doing NaNoWriMo this year, "Who has the time?" Like I can suddenly afford to shirk my duties as Dad, attending social commitments, Birthdays and the like, all to write some junky first draft of a novel for my own self-indulgence?
No, ultimately I decided that it doesn't need to be that extreme for me to get back into writing. However, I did want to re-commit to regularly writing here on the blog, even if that means the sacrifice of an hour of sleep here or there. I would encourage all of you writers that may be facing the same issue to let go of the excuses and just write for the sake of it. Make the sacrifice to keep up with it. I'm right there with you.
