The 1st NJ Pen Club Meeting

Hey Everyone in the Tri-State Area,

It's official! We're ON for our first NJ Pen Club Meeting!

The meet will be hosted at the Hazlet Township Public Library on Saturday, May 23rd at 11am.

Proposed Agenda :

• Meet & Greet - fun icebreaker activity to allow everyone to introduce themselves.
• Inks, the good, the bad and the Noodler's - We talk favorite & least favorite inks for our pens. What makes a great ink? Which inks will you stay away from? Be sure to bring a pen or two to sample a bit of ink we'll bring.
• Snap the Perfect Pen Pic - I will lead a quick demonstration on the basics behind taking awesome photos of your pens & inks with a smartphone. 
• Peruse some Pens - We'll be bringing an assortment of contemporary pens to view, handle and sample. We encourage other members to bring in their pens they would like to show as well. We ask for everyone to be respectful of each other's collection and to ask before handling.
• Planning our Next Meeting - We'll discuss the agenda of our future meeting, the main activities we can plan and open the floor to any ideas to make the club a more enjoyable experience. We'll also talk about the proposed NJ Pen Club website and social media presence.

Coffee and Snacks will be provided. Goodie bags filled with pen-related treats will be given to each attendee for this initial meeting. There is also a possibility of a prize we might raffle.

If you haven't already received our e-mail and would like to join in on the fun, please contact tom@goldspot.com to RSVP so we know to expect you.

According to the policies of the Monmouth County Library System, we are restricted from transacting business at the meeting. However, it will be permissible for us (Goldspot) to provide you with our business cards and access to our website with an exclusive, members-only discount to purchase any of the pens and inks that you may be looking for at the meeting. We believe that this restriction will add to a more welcoming experience that isn't sales-driven.

General membership to the club is totally free. We may decide to ask for a fee for specific workshops that include nib tuning, pen repair or calligraphic handwriting when we hire an outside specialist to come and lead the workshop.

What's Better than Flowers for Mom? A bouquet of Fine Writing!

Writing Gifts that Mom Will Love

1. Rhodiarama Webnotebooks - Mom will love how these notebooks handle her fountain pens with smooth, 90g paper in either blank or lined formats. Available in a wide spectrum of colors to suit any taste. The leatherette cover has a great feel and the elastic band makes sure to keep any of her writing private and intact.

2. Nemosine Singularity Fountain Pens - Mom needs a workhorse of a pen - reliable, durable and lightweight for easy writing. The Singularity is offered in number of fun colors, including a demonstrator and the fun Magenta pictured above. The stainless steel nib is available in a variety of sizes from Extra-Fine through Broad and 0.6mm / 0.8mm calligraphic nib sizes.

3. Pelikan Edelstein Ink of the Year Amethyst - Smooth, gentle on her pens and writes in a vibrant purple hue with shading to boot, Pelikan's new 2015 special edition ink won't be around forever, so be sure to snag a bottle for Mom (and for yourself!)

4. Filofax Saffiano Organizer - We don't know how Mom's do it, but we suspect they're able to keep on top of their to-do's, grocery lists and after-school sports schedules by using one of these handy and fashionable organizers. The fashionable Saffiano is fully supplied with a 2015 diary, address sheets and everything needed to get a modern, hectic-paced life in order.

5. Royce Leather Double Pen Cases - Don't let Mom throw her precious Parkers and Pilots into her purse, to be marked and roughed around by other items. These soft, supple leather pen pouches provide perfect protection from precarious purse predicaments. 

#WriteitWednesday - A Pen Haiku

With April being National Poetry Month and Friday the 17th being Haiku Poetry Day, our #WriteitWednesday challenge for today, April 22nd, is to write a pen-inspired haiku. A haiku is a short, 3 line poem that consists of 17 syllables - 5 on the first line, 7 on the second and 5 on the third.

Share the pic of your entry on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #writeitwednesday and mention @goldspotpens to make sure we see it! You may also opt to e-mail us the picture at social@goldspot.com.

Deadline for entries will be Thursday at 10:00am Eastern US Time. We will randomly select a winner on Thursday at 12 Noon.

This Week's Prize

Up for grabs this week is the long-awaited Lamy Safari in Neon Lime! Each year, the Safari collection comes up with a new color that is produced in limited quantities, now with a matching ink color to boot. This year, the 2015 eye-popping color is Neon Lime with a package of Neon Lime ink cartridges included.

About #WriteitWednesday

Each Wednesday, we run a new social giveaway challenge with a different giveaway prize every week. Anyone around the world with an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or E-mail account can enter. Once the entries have been collected and the deadline has passed, we randomly select one of the entries as the winner of the giveaway and send the prize accordingly.

No purchase is necessary to enter the #writeitwednesday giveaway. Those who enter the contest via social media may have their images shared by Goldspot on this blog or on Goldspot's Social media accounts. The winner will have 1 week to contact us by e-mail to claim their prize. If the prize is unclaimed, it will be used in a future giveaway.

J Herbin 1670 Shimmering Bleu Ocean - New Formula

The boat has finally arrived and the long-awaited J Herbin 1670 Anniversary Bleu Ocean has come ashore to the United States. If you haven't heard already, the new formulation of Bleu Ocean is now packed with the same gold dust that made Stormy Grey a fanatically popular ink that continues to fly off the shelves.

Introducing the New Formulation

We're so smitten by this ink and the 1670 Collection in general. The Bleu Ocean delivers on a rich, highly saturated blue with the sparkling sheen that fountain pen users have come to love about the 1670 ink. We did a short video to show you the shimmer of the Bleu Ocean.



The writing on this video is done with an OMAS New Bologna Aqua di Bologna fountain pen (now discontinued) on an InkJournal notebook for pen & ink collecting. As with the Stormy Grey, the Bleu Ocean can vary in the amount of golden sheen it lays down. On certain words written on the page, the sheen is prominent and the concentration of the sparkles is high. On other parts of the page, the sheen thins out significantly, but is still noticeable in every letter to some degree. It is advisable to shake the bottle of ink prior to opening to fill your pen. Shaking the bottle will ensure proper distribution of the gold dust that will settle at the bottom of the bottle.

The Deep Blue Ink Color

Even without the gold dust, the deep blue color of this ink is a standout. As the outer packaging warns, this is a highly saturated ink that ought to be cleaned out of pens that are not being used for some period of time. If you participate in regular fountain pen maintenance of cleaning your pens out before every fill up and before long-term storage, then you need not worry.

We received a limited number of 1670 Bleu Ocean at our office on Friday, April 17th, 2015. We expect this batch will be sold out quickly, so be sure to head on over to our site and snag a bottle or two. As with the other inks in this collection, inventory tends to be rather erratic. In the past, it has taken several months for particular colors to come back into stock. We expect our current batch to last us for a couple of weeks, with more on the way.

How to Spot a Knock-Off Lamy Safari

] Yes, they do exist.

Most pen collectors are aware of Mont Blanc counterfeit pieces that exist, and there would be plenty of motivation to knock-off an expensive Mont Blanc pen. Counterfeiting a $30 Lamy Safari, however, takes many by surprise. Consider that almost every fountain pen user usually has at least one Safari and the value of the limited edition colors skyrocket once they become sell out in stores. Coupled with the fact that these pens are made from injection-molded plastic and you have an opportunity for a counterfeit market.

Lets Compare a Genuine vs Fake Safari

Case in point is this 2011 limited edition Aquamarine that has been selling for anywhere from $80 used to $275 on eBay for a brand new piece. As a business, it is frustrating to see other competitors worldwide are deeply undercutting the price of such a great-selling pen. So, we decided to do research and test order an inexpensive Lamy Aquamarine that we had found from a Chinese source through eBay.

We compared it directly against a brand new Safari Aquamarine that we had obtained through Lamy USA directly back in 2011. We put together a quick video to compare the two pens.

Major Points of Distinction

The impressions of the injection molded plastic on the knock-off are more shallow than the genuine article. This is most noticeable on the cross at the top of the cap, the LAMY logo on the side of the barrel and the "Germany" imprint on the bottom of the barrel.

The retainer ring on the knockoff only has imprinting on the outer side of the paper ring. It also is more degraded than the original. Please note that the printing on the outside of the ring is not the ultimate distinguishing factor of being a knock-off pen. It was simply a point of distinction between this particular model and the counterfeit. I've received feedback from several folks who have seen this video and got nervous, seeing their Safari retainer ring did not have printing on the inside. Real Safari pens do sometimes have the printing on the outside only. Please take into account all the other factors mentioned in this post and in the video to make your determination of real vs. fake.

The counterfeit comes with a Z24 converter that is also a knock-off and is a bit rougher to turn the piston mechanism. As you can see in the video, a metal ring also comes off the converter very easily.

The Lamy Nib on a genuine model has a darker imprint of LAMY & the nib size designation. The counterfeit Lamy Safari nib has a lighter engraving and can have a slit that is off center to the nib's breather hole.

How to Avoid Buying a Counterfeit Safari

Buy your Lamy Safari pens from an authorized, trusted fine writing retailer. If a listing for a Safari is going for 40% off or more of the retail price, it is usually too good to be true.

Better yet, buy from us at Goldspot! (shameless plug)

#WriteitWednesday - Quote from your Favorite Book

] Yesterday was National Librarian's Day. Inspired by these stewards of the printed word, our #writeitwednesday challenge for today is to write a quote from your favorite book.

Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut

Share the pic of your entry on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #writeitwednesday and mention @goldspotpens to make sure we see it! You may also opt to e-mail us the picture at social@goldspot.com.

Deadline for entries will be Thursday at 10:00am Eastern US Time. We will randomly select a winner on Thursday at 12 Noon.

This Week's Prize

Up for grabs this week is a Rhodia 80th Anniversary Limited Edition Notepad and Pencil Set. This No 80 notepad is made in France and contains 70 sheets of 90 gsm ivory paper in grid format. The cover is decorated with a black and copper Rhodia design and so is the accompanying pencil.

About #WriteitWednesday

Each Wednesday, we run a new social giveaway challenge with a different giveaway prize every week. Anyone around the world with an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or E-mail account can enter. Once the entries have been collected and the deadline has passed, we randomly select one of the entries as the winner of the giveaway and send the prize accordingly.

No purchase is necessary to enter the #writeitwednesday giveaway. Those who enter the contest via social media may have their images shared by Goldspot on this blog or on Goldspot's Social media accounts. The winner will have 1 week to contact us by e-mail to claim their prize. If the prize is unclaimed, it will be used in a future giveaway.

#WriteitWednesday - Draw a Bird Day

In honor of National Draw a Picture of a Bird Day, our #writeitwednesday challenge for April 8th, 2015 is to draw a picture of a bird using a pen and taking a photo of it with the pen you used to write with it. It can be a cartoonish bird, a photo-realistic bird, or a poorly drawn bird, etc. It can be any bird species you prefer. Just don't flip the bird, if you know what I mean. The spirit of this day is to make someone's life a little brighter with a fun bird drawing.

Share the pic of your entry on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #writeitwednesday and mention @goldspotpens to make sure we see it! You may also opt to e-mail us the picture at social@goldspot.com.

Deadline for entries will be Thursday at 10:00am Eastern US Time. We will randomly select a winner on Thursday at 12 Noon.

This Week's Prize

Up for grabs this week is a Pelikan Twist Fountain Pen. A fantastic, fun and colorful starter pen, this pen has a twisting, faceted body, cap an grip section. The pen nib is a reliable stainless steel point and fills using ink cartridge or converter.

About #WriteitWednesday

Each Wednesday, we run a new social giveaway challenge with a different giveaway prize every week. Anyone around the world with an Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or E-mail account can enter. Once the entries have been collected and the deadline has passed, we randomly select one of the entries as the winner of the giveaway and send the prize accordingly.

No purchase is necessary to enter the #writeitwednesday giveaway. Those who enter the contest via social media may have their images shared by Goldspot on this blog or on Goldspot's Social media accounts. The winner will have 1 week to contact us by e-mail to claim their prize. If the prize is unclaimed, it will be used in a future giveaway.

#WriteitWednesday - The Quick Brown Fox

Today, we're kicking off the first #writeitwednesday giveaway.

What is #WriteitWednesday?

Every Wednesday, Goldspot Pens is running a social giveaway that aims to inspire minds around the world to write and share their creativity online.

Every Wednesday morning, we will issue a new #writeitwednesday challenge and share it across our social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Follow the writing prompt of the week and take a photo of your entry.

Share the pic of your written entry on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtag #writeitwednesday and mention @goldspotpens to make sure we see it! You may also opt to e-mail us the picture at social@goldspot.com.

Deadline for entries will be Thursday at 10:00am Eastern US Time. We will randomly select a winner on Thursday at 12 Noon.

The giveaway prize each week will be a different pen, ink, notebook or anything related to fine writing that we may have available at the shop to give away.

This Week's Prize

A Waterman Hemisphere Blue Obsession Fountain Pen in Medium Point with a pack of Waterman fountain pen ink cartridges ($100 retail value).

Your First #WriteitWednesday Challenge - Pangrams

Pangrams are sentences that include every letter of the alphabet at least once. The most popular being "The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over the Lazy Dog." However, there are a number of sentences that pen enthusiasts like to use when sampling new inks and pens. This #writeitwednesday is all about sharing your favorite Pangram. Get writing!

Fine Print
No purchase is necessary to enter the #writeitwednesday giveaway. Those who enter the contest via social media may have their images shared by Goldspot on this blog or on Goldspot's Social media accounts. The winner will have 1 week to contact us by e-mail to claim their prize. If the prize is unclaimed, it will be used in a future giveaway.