What Should be the Pen & Ink of the Year 2015?

Hey Pen Lovers,

Need your help in putting together a nominations list for Pen of the Year 2015.

Every year, we (Goldspot Pens) run a "reader's choice" vote for Pen of the Year. We set up a poll online of all the nominees during the first week in November, coinciding the the US Election Day.

Last year, Edison Pen Co completed a 4-peat with their 2014 Pen of the Year, the Glenmont limited edition.

Previous winners of the Pen of the Year

• Edison Glenmont 2014 Limited Edition (2014)
• Edison Menlo Fountain Pen (2013)
• Edison Beaumont & Conid's Fountainbel Bulkfiller Demonstrator (2012)
• Edison Collier Fountain Pen (2011)
• TWSBI Diamond 530 Fountain Pen (2010)
• Pelikan m205 Blue Transparent Fountain Pen (2009)
• Online Newood Fountain Pen Calligraphy Set (2008)

What qualifies as a Pen of the Year 2015 candidate, you say? Any pen that was released during this year, including new colors and styles of established pen models (like the Pilot Vanishing Point Twilight, for example).

Here is a list of what I've got so far :

• Edison Collier LE Black Rose Acrylic Ltd Ed
• Pilot VP 2015 Twilight Ltd Ed
• Pelikan M205 Amethyst
• Pelikan M800 Stresemann
• Pelikan M200 Cafe Creme
• OMAS Ogiva Cocktail Ltd Ed.
• Sailor Pro Gear Galaxy Starburst Ltd Ed
• Retro 51 Tornado Popper "Liftoff" Ltd Ed
• Cross Townsend Star Wars Darth Vader
• Lamy Al-Star Copper Orange
• Kaweco Brass Sport

Please COMMENT BELOW any others that you feel should be on this list.

Ink of the Year 2015

For the first time, we're also going to have a simultaneous vote for the Ink of the Year, 2015. This will be run in a similar fashion with an online poll that we will run here on our blog. Inks have become such an integral part of the fountain pen experience that some "blockbuster" inks truly deserve recognition.

Here are the nominees I came up with :

• Diamine Shimmertastic Inks
• J. Herbin 1670 Anniversary Emerald of Chivor
• Pelikan Edelstein Amethyst
• Sailor Storia Pigmented Inks
• Mont Blanc Blue Hour Blue-Black

Again, please COMMENT BELOW any other inks that you feel should be on the list of nominees.

The voting page will be up on Tuesday here on the blog. So, check back here or sign up for our newsletter so you can get the update directly in your e-mail inbox.

Win an Entire Pen Collection Giveaway

Hey All,

We haven't run a good giveaway in some time, and it's a shame, because we love giving away pen goodies to all of our fans, followers and customers. Let's change that.

10 sexy fountain pens are up for grabs.

Starting today (Sept 17th) and running until Sept 30th, we're gathering entries for our biggest giveaway yet - a collection of pens from JinHao, along with Diamine ink and a Rhodia pad. We're raffling off this complete, 10-pen collection to one lucky winner that will be randomly chosen when the official deadline for entries closes.

This set of JinHao pens we're giving away has something for everyone. Ornate, classic, modern and stylish designs. No one pen is the same. Some come with converters, some do not. Chances are, you may not be using all 10 pens at one time, so this may not be an issue. They do take standard international converters or international ink cartridges. The winner will have the ability to choose the color of Diamine ink and whether it will be bottled or cartridges.

We will contact the winner and allow (7) days for them to respond with a shipping address and preference of ink. If we do not receive a response from the winner, we will draw a second time and allow for another (7) days, and so on and so forth.

Entering the giveaway is easy. We're hosting it directly our Goldspot Pens Giveaway Page. Be sure to follow the instructions on how you can earn extra entries.

• Sign up to our e-mail newsletter list.
• "Like" our page on facebook.
• Follow us on Twitter
• Tweet a message promoting the giveaway
• Follow us on Pinterest

Like I mentioned, all of this is on our official Giveaway page, so click on over to our link below and throw your name into the hat.

ENTER OUR FALL PEN COLLECTION GIVEAWAY

Pen of the Year 2014 Results

Today, we are announcing the Pen of the Year 2014 winner, which was determined by you, the reader's and followers of our blog and our company via social media. The voting took place last week from Tuesday, November 11th through Friday and involved several well-qualified candidates, including the Noodler's Neponset, Edison Glenmont 2014 Limited Edition, TWSBI Diamond 580 USA, Pilot Vanishing Point Metallics Collection and more.

The voting this year was very close. Only two votes separated the winner and the runner up.

And the winner of this year's honors goes to :

The Edison Glenmont 2014 Limited Edition

Each year, Edison releases a limited edition version of their pens in an acrylic and ebonite materials. The edition is exclusive to a group of committed buyers, most of which are previous owners of Edison fountain pens.

Congrats to Edison Pens on their 4th straight Pen of the Year victory. The victory is a testament to their quality of product and their prominence in the minds & hearts of writers around the world.

The runner up was the newly released Noodler's Neponset fountain pens, which had a tremendous showing, despite only being available in a very small quantity to the public. 

Thanks to everyone for participating, voting and sharing on social media! We love being able to host a fun contest like this each year and hope that you enjoy it as well.

Voting is Now Open for Pen of the Year 2014

So, now that we got that business of the midterm elections over with, here comes the fun part : voting for your favorite pen released in 2014! We asked for your nominations and received a great response to put together a solid list of nominees that all deserve to be considered for this prestigious honor.

Please take a look at the nominees below. They are sorted in randomized order not to show any priority or preference. Please feel free to cast your vote and share this post with your friends so they may vote as well. Remember, this is all in fun!

Voting is open until Friday, November 14th at 2pm Eastern US time. We will announce the winner Friday afternoon.

Call for Nominations - 2014 Pen of the Year

Today is Election Day here in America. The American public is called upon to exercise our right to vote, upholding the core values of democracy. 

No matter where you are in the world today, we invite you to please join us in voicing your opinion on a different, yet significantly important topic - the 2014 Pen of the Year!



We need nominees from you, the pen-loving public, for your favorite choice of pen that was released in 2014. That could also include new finishes or colors of a pen model that has been around longer than the last year.

We'll sort through your comments to compile a list of nominees to vote on starting Tuesday, November 11th. Voting will last one week and will conclude with the official crowning of this year's winner. The Poll & Results will be posted here and on our social media accounts. So, please give us your suggestions and remember, it's all in good fun!

Here are some examples of pens that have made their debut in 2014 : Pilot Vanishing Point Metallic Colors, Lamy Studio Wild Rubin, Delta Unica, Pilot Copper Vanishing Point, TWSBI Diamond 580 USA, Parker Duofold Historical Colors, Montegrappa Miya Carbon, Visconti Homo Sapiens Crystal Swirl, Visconti Divina Elegance, Cross Peerless 125, Cross Year of the Goat, Waterford Beaumont, Platinum 3776 Century Nice Pur, OMAS William Shakespeare Ltd Ed., Pelikan M101N Tortoiseshell Red, Pelikan M600 Vibrant Green, the list goes on!

Remember, these are examples meant to get the brain juices flowing. Feel free to suggest any other pen, even if you aren't 100% positive it was made this year.

Past winners include:

• Edison Menlo Fountain Pen (2013)
• Edison Beaumont & Conid's Fountainbel Bulkfillder Demonstrator (2012)
• Edison Collier Fountain Pen (2011)
• TWSBI Diamond 530 Fountain Pen (2010)
• Pelikan m205 Blue Transparent Fountain Pen (2009)
• Online Newood Fountain Pen Calligraphy Set (2008)

Chat about the Pen of the Year Voting on social media using the hashtag #POTY2014

Conid Fountainbel and The Edison Beaumont Co-Winners of 2012 Pen of the Year

We are revising our previous election declaration due to some information that has come to light in regards to the vote for Pen of the Year. It was discovered that users of a fountain pen forum had encouraged other members to vote for the Conid Fountainbel Bulkfiller multiple times by clearing a web browser's cookies. It was evident that this information affected the results of the poll, as the advantage had swung from Edison's favor being up 6% to the Conid pen being up 4% within the same hours that the forum posts were written. Members on the board replied to the thread, stating that they had added a significant number of votes artificially, which was not in-line with the intentions of this poll.

Considering the immense popularity of both the Edison Beaumont and the Conid Fountainbel Bulkfiller, we have decided to announce both pens as the Co-Winners of the 2012 Pen of the Year. We believe that this is the fairest solution since both pens were so overwhelmingly voted above the other selections and the margin of victory was so narrow.

Of course, we cannot prevent every occurrence of people voting from multiple computers or vote-hacking, but we are making it known for future polls that this type of behavior is strictly discouraged. Next year, we are going to be using a different method of polling that logs IP addresses and enables cookies on your browser to prevent multiple votes per computer. Also, if sufficient evidence is found that vote hacking had occurred, the pen itself will be disqualified from the ballot entirely. This would hopefully deter those who are ardent fans of a certain pen from trying to fix the vote by artificial means.

Vote for Goldspot Pens 2012 Pen of the Year

It's that time of year again! As we exercise our right to vote for the national election today, here is a poll for pen lovers that is more lighthearted in spirit. We asked the fine folks at Fountain Pen Network to nominate candidate pens that debuted in 2012. After receiving over 40 responses, we have picked the top nominees for 2012 Pen of the Year.

The Nominees Are :

Delta Momo

 Lamy 2000 Stainless Steel

Conid's Fountainbel Bulkfiller Demonstrator

Fountainbel-Conid Bulk Filler by Darren McDonald

Visconti Opera Mosquito Filler Demonstrator and Blue Typhoon

OMAS 360 LE Red

Edison Beaumont

 Pelikan m205 Taupe

 Bexley Hometown Ohio (Cities Collection)

Please note that you can click on any of the nominees to find a larger pic or more information to help you decide. There is also a write-in option if your choice is not present on the list (Please keep it clean, folks.) Voting will be open until Monday, November 12th at 11:59pm Eastern US Standard time. The winner will be announced next Tuesday, the 13th. Have fun and cheer on your favorite pen from this year! Vote below and share with your friends:

Winner of the Poetry Giveaway

This past week, we held a giveaway contest where folks were asked to leave a comment on our blog post that was a 3-line poem that has something to do with pens, inks and fine writing. I was really surprised and delighted at the quality of the entries that we received during the week. However, there could only be one winner of the Rhodia Webnotebook prize. We picked an entry at random by assigning each poem as a number and running a random-number-generator to pick the entry.

And the winner is....

Congrats Darrylman66! The above was just a part of his poem, which ends with my favorite lines:

Everyone wishes to stop
and Write, Before they drop
But my pen has lost it's top
In the land, where dreams and lives go “ker-plop”

Darryl, e-mail us through our Goldspot Helpdesk with your shipping information and your choice of Rhodia Webbie that you would like us to mail you.

Honorable Mentions : Luisa Igloria61 

When I Write To You, I Love

not the instrument itself,
but the way it moves across the grain
of paper: the way the lines scroll
through misty rain, trailing
the hush of bamboo forests,
the solemn march of letters formed,
brown rows of wild chestnut
and field horsetail; the shy blush
of Kosumosu fall cherries, the tender
ocher of rice ears. But to tell you again
of how I feel for you, I would choose
either the vivid purple of morning glories---
or better yet, a little sleeve of Murasaki
laid against the backdrop of Tsuki-yo Night Sky.

Charles L.

Baystate Concord Grape
Killed my Al-Star. My new friend?
Iroshizuku.

 For Luisa and Charles : please send an e-mail through our helpdesk to claim your prize - a $10 Goldspot Pens gift code that you can use for your pen & ink purchases on Goldspot.com.

A big THANKS goes out to everyone who participated. If you would like to read the other poems that were submitted, you may view them in the Discuss comments of our Giveaway blog post. I know one of the comments we had was that the Discuss threads were tough to format for line breaks and spacing. Perhaps we'll do this on Facebook next time instead so that the poems can be correctly formatted without frustration. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

2011 Pen of the Year : The Edison Collier

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).

Here are the final voting results below:

If you would like more information about the Collier - how it writes, looks and feels - check out our own blog post, Office Supply Geek's Collier Review, Okami's Collier Review, No Pen Intended's Collier Review and Economy Pens Collier Review.

Winner of Parker Jotter "Jellybean" Contest

Last week, we ran a contest that asked you to guess how many Parker Jotter pens would tip the scales at 10lbs. Here are the results:

Drumroll...........
Congrats to Salvatore for guessing the exact amount at 300 pens!

We've contacted Salvatore directly to process the claim for his prize. We'll be announcing a new giveaway soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Guess How Many Parker Jotters Contest

Hello Pen Fans,

It's been a while since our last post, but we're finally wrapping up the catalog and moving on to bigger and better things. We had a shipment yesterday of Parker Jotters that weighed in (packing box included) at a whopping 10 pounds. We're running a contest this weekend to guess exactly how many Parker Jotter pens equals 10 pounds.  It's a take on the "guess how many jellybeans are in this jar" game. Simply post your guess as a comment below our blog post here. The winner will receive a Parker Jotter pen of their choosing, completely free.

Contest : Guess how many Parker Jotters would it take to make a 10 lbs shipment.
Deadline for guesses : May 4th at 11:59PM Eastern Time (Wednesday)
Rules : Register a comment below to enter with a numeric guess. Only one guess per person (so make it count!). Closest guess wins. If two contestants guess the same correct answer, the earliest guess wins.

Have fun!

Pen Spotlight - Pen World Nominations, Beatles and Contest Ending

Good morning y'all,

Hope that everyone is alright after that last hit of winter wonderland the other day in the northeast. It seems that the snow just doesn't know when to stop this year. A quick update this Saturday morning:

The 2011 Academy Awards weren't the only nominations going out this week. Delta and Conklin have received a total of five nominations for the Seventeenth Annual Readers’ Choice Awards sponsored by Pen World magazine. The Delta Amerigo Vespucci was nominated for the "most fitting tribute to a historical figure or celebrity." Part of the Indigenous People's series of limited edition pens, the Delta Mapuche was nominated for "best pen inspired by a cultural or literary theme." The Dolcevita Oro and the Conklin Deco Crest were both nominated for the "Best Brand Icon" award. Lastly, the Delta Italiana is up for "Most incredible Value under $200." Best of luck to Delta, Conklin and the rest of the nominees.


Voting for Tom in the E-mail Template Design Contest is almost to a close (ends Jan 31st). He's nervously pacing back and forth, competing with another design for first place. Please do your best to share the link to vote on his template this weekend by posting this link to your facebook page, twitter followers or blog : http://www.verticalresponse.com/email-template-challenge/t1/

He greatly appreciates all the support that the fine writing community, goldspot fans and members on fountain pen network have given him. "This was too long of a contest," Tom says, "and I've been soliciting for votes like a politician stumping from virtual city to city. But, it's almost over now, and I need to go all out with a final push that will ensure a first place victory." When asked if he would consider entering a contest judged in this fashion again, he simply shook his head and walked away.

Many folks have called and e-mailed asking about the new ACME Beatles limited edition pens that are slated for 2011. Very few updates are available in the writing community, even as we near the eventual release date. We have had to update our original post on the Beatles pens to reflect the current pricing structure for the new proposed editions.

The good news for your wallet is that not all the Beatles editions will be coming out at once. Out of the over two dozen different designs, only 4 or 5 will be available for sale within the next few months, with the rest of them being released over the next 2 to 3 years. Goldspot has committed to being part of the first shipment of Beatles pens and will have several pens in-stock for collectors who are interested. We cannot take pre-orders just yet since we do not have the final pricing, but please drop us a line through Facebook, Twitter, call us or leave a comment on this post so we can notify you when we will be taking the first orders.

Tom Needs Your Help!

Our very own Tom O. from the graphic department entered an e-mail design contest and was selected as a top 10 finalist! He needs your help to make it to #1! Voting on the top 10 designs is taking place now until Jan 31st.

Please click the following link : http://www.verticalresponse.com/email-template-challenge/t1/

Then, click the "like" button to vote on Tom's Design, which is called "Hand Drawn Moleskine (notebook)". You will need to be logged into Facebook (which most people are nowadays) to cast the vote. You do not need to give any e-mail address or personal info to vote.

This is a sample of what the e-mail template looks like :

If Tom is selected as the winner, this template will be included for all Vertical Response e-mail clients to use in their correspondence, which would be a huge thrill! I greatly appreciate your time and help to get the word out on this vote and to get as many people as you can go vote on it as well. If you would like to use this e-mail template and know a bit of HTML to be able to customize it to your needs, please drop me a line at toddo [at] Goldspot dot com

You Design the Next Filofax Organizer for 2011

Calling all Entries! Filofax USA is challenging its fans to create an organizer design that will be produced in 2011. That's right, see your very own homegrown design in the hands of thousands. The Filofax Designers Challenge is open from October 28th to January 15th 2011. They are looking for creative minds to produce an organizer that continues Filofax's long line of success by dreaming up an exciting design that is fashionable, functional, aspirational and affordable.

Winners of the contest will be picked by a panel of judges with the prizes as follows (posted from Filofax USA's website)

• First Prize (1) : -  U.S. $2,500,  production and international distribution of your design*, and inclusion in Filofax's ‘Winner’s Circle’ promotions!
• Second Prize (1) : U.S. $1,000 and inclusion in Filofax's ‘Winner’s Circle’ promotions.
• Third Prize (1):  U.S.  $500 and inclusion in Filofax's ‘Winner’s Circle’ promotions.
• 5 Honorable Mention Prizes will each receive a U.S. $100 gift certificate redeemable at www.filofaxusa.com and inclusion in Filofax's ‘Winner’s Circle’ promotions.

This is an exciting opportunity for people who are Filofax fans and very handy or crafty. Personally, I would like to see a Filofax that can accept Rhodia paper and had pages that can be interchangeable without opening & closing the rings. I know, sounds a lot like a Circa. A leather embossed outer cover would be pretty sweet as well.

Between this an the Parker Write Big contest we posted about yesterday, are we starting to see a trend develop?