Printed, Stitched, Trimmed and ready-for-mailing, the new 2013 Goldspot Annual Catalog of fine writing instruments and luxury gifts will be arriving in mailboxes across the country within the next week! This year's catalog holds 40 pages of the best pens, including new releases from AT Cross, Delta, Stipula, Visconti, Parker, ACME Studios, Lamy, Colibri and Laban. We also have a dedicated 2-page spread of just fountain pen inks. You will also find notebooks and other awesome pen-related accessories to compliment your pen collection.
The Goldspot annual 2012 catalog has now reached both coasts of the US. Hundreds of the newest and best pens are being crammed into mailboxes nationwide. If you are a recent customer of Goldspot, you should have received your complimentary copy. If not, we have the entire 48 pages online or you can contact us at orders@goldspot.com to request a copy be mailed to you.
Some of the NEW features you'll see in this issue:
Gigantic pen photos.
Closeup shots of details and nibs.
Refill suggestions on the bottom of almost every brand-specific page.
Size Guide dimension measurements for dozens of popular pens.
New releases from Pelikan, Conklin, Visconti, Waterman, Aurora, Parker, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jac Zagoory and ONLINE...to name a few.
Over 200 colors of bottled ink listed.
Writing accessories like diaries, academic calendars, Filofax organizers, Rhodia notepads and desk pen holders.
Many of the tweaks and the new features that you see in this issue have been inspired by your input. For your comments and suggestions, we greatly thank our fans and hope that they enjoy the new catalog as much as we did making it for you.
A huge thanks to everyone that has responded to our open thread last week, asking "What Do You Want to See in a Fine Writing Catalog." Among the comments on Facebook and Fountain Pen Network, I noticed that the two biggest concerns were large, detailed images of the items and measurements, including dimensions of the pen capped, uncapped and with the cap posted. While I would like to address all comments that were made in regards to improving the catalog, let's concentrate on these points first and continue the conversation later.
Click for a larger view of the catalog page.
Above is a sample page with Parker Pens featured. We sacrificed the ability to fit more pen lines on a page to make the hi-resolution pen images larger. In the case of the Parker Premier, which has a beautiful solid gold nib with a unique design, we included a zoomed-up shot to feature the nib. The Premier Stealth Black pen also shows the pen in the box, which is unique to the series. We take it for granted that we know most fine pens come in a presentable gift box, but we don't believe that readers are often aware of it.
Measurements were included for each pen that differed in size and weight. The explanation of those measurements would be outlined in a diagram that would be inserted in a prominent location on the inside front cover of the catalog so that laypeople would be able to understand what is meant by uncapped, capped, posted and diameter. For the diameter measurement, I went with the largest diameter size of the barrel. I already apologize to our metric-minded customers, as this is a U.S.-based catalog and us Yanks love our inches and ounces. (Side note : it was intentional to leave out the measurement of the rollerball, as the differences in length and weight to the fountain pen are negligible.)
I thought that Ron Zorn (of Main Street Pens) made a good point about including measurements with his reply on Fountain Pen Network. He wrote,
"As a guy who sells vintage pens and a few moderns, the time and effort needed to measure all of the pens, then record the data and make sure it got with the right pen, would be more than most vendors would be able to, or willing to, invest."
He confirmed the dread I felt when it was suggested that meticulous measurements, including weight, be included for all pens in our catalog. Sometimes it's hard enough to bug some of the smaller, boutique brands to get hi-res images of the pens themselves, let alone detailed dimensions of each pen. So the onus will be on us to go through our entire inventory and capture these measurements, which we would do happily if it translates into our customers being able to use our catalog more confidently when making their purchase.
I am certainly curious to see if this will make a big difference with pen buyers. Please feel free to drop us a comment on this post, on our Facebook Fan Page or by tweeting us @goldspotpens. What do you think? Is this a move in the right direction? What other features could help give you the most detailed impression of each pen?
Sorry for the short break in posts. We're hunkering down into catalog mode here in the office and that means not much time for anything else! If you've been with us from the beginning, you'll know that each new issue of the catalog strives to improve over the previous issue. We want it to be more informative, easier to read and more entertaining. We are excited to introduce new ideas and concepts into this current issue that will make it our best Goldspot catalog ever.
Of course, we can't talk about those ideas just yet, but we are interested to see if you could think of anything you would want to see in the ideal fine-writing paper catalog. What are some characteristics of a catalog that make you want to hold on to it, show it to friends and family, or display it proudly on your coffee table? Do you want the pages to read like a novel or have the pens take center stage with large, almost "real size" beauty shots of the pens? Are there any specialty brands that deserve a page or two that usually don't get any in other pen retailer catalogs? These are just some considerations to get your mind primed for throwing in a suggestion.
With the ever-evolving state of the internet, mobile browsing and social media being an overpowering force of communication, we realize that the necessity of a paper catalog is dwindling in its current form. However, it still remains a useful tool to many, especially the pen & paper crowd that prefer the tactile pleasure of turning pages over the clicking of a mouse. With your help, we want to make the Goldspot catalog a relevant, useful communication tool for pen fans everywhere.
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I recently took a poll over at Fountain Pen Network, which is probably the most active discussion board about fountain pens there is, about the validity of paper catalogs versus shopping online when it comes to buying a new pen. The result was a small, but effective sampling with comments that I found to be very thought provoking and back up the evidence shown in the results.
The question I posed :
As an internet savvy person who loves to slow down the pace of life by writing with a good fountain pen, I often find myself living in a juxtaposition. I work for a company that sells writing instruments online, which is a communications platform build out of 1's and 0's, not paper and ink. The proliferation of the internet threatens the validity of the products we sell.
As an internet marketer and a fountain pen enthusiast, I find myself asking whether a paper catalog's validity is sliding due to the rapid rise of user feedback and reviews that can be found on nearly every item on the internet. I know there are a lot of folks out there that can appreciate turning the computer off and sitting down to enjoy page-flipping a real book in front of them. But is that where you really make your decision when it comes to shopping for a new pen? Or do you merely get the idea of what you would want to buy from a physical catalog, and THEN research it on the internet for reviews?
Of course, to some degree, I am preaching to the choir. I have to know, asking an online community of pen lovers, that I was going to get an internet-friendly response. However, given that we are a pen store that exists in the same online ether, I have to take the results with a grain of salt.
My impressions from the results and comments:
We already get a lot of catalogs and other unsolicited marketing material in the mail.
Yet they are more pleasant to browse and absorb than the overwhelming internet.
However, when it comes to the final purchase, no one buys directly from a paper catalog.
Psychologically, I believe it comes down to getting a second opinion. When we know that we can research the company, the product and the service online and get other opinions before we pull the trigger, we believe that the best decision will be made, given the circumstances. I totally agree. The internet has given us the ability to prevent a lot of bad decisions. When we chalk things up to experience, we can let others know of our criticisms and inform future generations of shoppers before they make the same mistake. But how do we make a print catalog, which is a great format to relax, curl up with, bring to the john and doggy-ear, as informative as digging through the 'Net?
Taking a look at our 2010 Annual Catalog really brought me back. It was printed back in late October of 2009, but served as our holiday and mail order catalog for the better part of this year. On page 3, there is information about our Newsletter, Blog, Facebook and Twitter pages. As they are screenshots of the pages at the time, it's almost like taking a photograph of the old house you used to live in.
Back in October '09 we had..
67 Facebook "Fans" (when they used to be called Fans)
107 Twitter Followers
& completely different blog & e-mail newsletter formats.
What difference a year makes!
490 Facebook "peoples who like" (which I still refer to as Fans) 731% increase
334 Twitter Followers 312% increase
I don't think I could voice my appreciation enough for everyone who has followed and supported Goldspot in our various social media efforts. Your readership and participation are extremely valued.
Happy New Year Pen Lovers,
If you've purchased from us during the Holidays, or have in the past, you have probably received our latest 2010 Annual catalog with the handsome Parker Premier on the front cover. For those who haven't, we have an online version of the catalog that is now up on our website.
To get an idea of how crazy our December was, we are already sold-out of half the clearance items that are on pages 46 & 47. Don't worry, we've put more clearance pens up on our site from Parker and Waterman to compensate.
For those who are shopping refills, our catalog provides a helpful refill finder guide for 90% of the pens that are in production today.
Besides featuring the newest releases from the biggest brands like Parker, Waterman, Cross and Pelikan, our catalog also features a gift-giving guide. Pouches, pen sets, organizers, desk accessories and limited editions are conveniently grouped together for easy browsing.
If you live in the US and would still prefer a printed copy of the catalog be mailed to you, please request a catalog on our contact us page and send us a message with your mailing address.
