Excuse me, Kayak.com

Are they saying pen people are "un-dateable?" Granted, I don't think that speed-daters should be whipping out any type of collection on their first date, but did they have to go after pens? What about action figures and comic books, like in the "40 Year old Virgin?" I'm still trying to hunt down the Acura commercial spot I found on TV the other night that had a guy fawning over his warthog tusk ballpoint pen with solid titanium trim. If anyone can help me out with finding that video on the net, I would certainly be appreciative!

Weekend Pen Spotlight

In the spirit of the Oscar nominations being handed out this week, there are a few notes in this week's spotlight that feature nominations within the pen community. Fine Writing News

• The Seventh Carnival of Pen, Pencil and Paper debuted this week on School Supply Dance. Always an interesting mix of writing-related reviews, collections and other fun things that folks post on the internet
• Some Parker Pen die-hards may have heard rumors that the Janesville, WI service center was closing and that all of the warranty services would have to go overseas to Europe. Not so. Only the street address had changed in Janesville. With the relocation, they pledge improved lead times for repairs.
• Yafa, the US distributor of the writing brands Monteverde and Delta, has been honored with three nominations in the upcoming Pen World 2010 Reader's Choice awards. The Delta Evolution was nominated for the finest tribute to a historical figure. The Delta Dreidel was nominated for the best pen inspired by a cultural theme. Lastly, the Monteverde Invincia Multi-Function Executive is going up for the "most incredible value" award. The winners will be presented their awards at the NYC National Stationery Show in May.

Blog Reviews

• Inkyjournal always provides top-notch quality photography in every review. This review of Diamine Registrars Ink is nice to look at and very informative. It also includes a hi-res desktop wallpaper you can download freely of the product.
• Okami (Whatever) champions for the Pilot VPen and Varsity. See, not all good-writing fountain pens have to be expensive pens!

Pen Spotting

• Inspired by the impending Oscar nominations, Tiger Pens posted a video clip list of nominees for a fictional category of "Fight Scene with a Pen."
• The Inkophile gets drawn to ads that feature a nice fountain pen. And I believe many other pen lovers do to.

Humor

• I can remember the first time we received a large shipment from Noodler's that had the excess of "Fragile" warnings plastered all over one side of the box. It was certainly worth a chuckle. Pendemonium shared this photo of their latest shipment on Twitter:

That's it for this week. NJ is getting hit with a big snowstorm this weekend, but our store is always open and accepting visitors at Goldspot.com.

Winner of the Traveling Pen Giveaway

Congratulations to Sara of Miscellaneous Ramblings of a Thirty-Something DIYer for winning the Traveling Pen Giveaway with her fine feline photo: Her caption read : "My feline muses support my fountain pen addiction and encourage my journaling habit. " She will be receiving her prize of a $25 gift card to our store at www.goldspot.com. Although the entry field was small, her photo was definitely deserving of merit. Congrats again!

Laban - The Holy Father's Choice

For the first time in the history of Christianity, the Pope has taken on sponsors. In a bold move to help struggling Catholic parishes across the world, Pope Benedict XVI has embarked on a tour around the world, visiting major cities in an effort to spread faith in Christ and raise desperately needed funds to support the church. The Holy Father is showing some old-fashioned grace and style with his new Laban pen, as he signs a guest book at a recent church visit. As you can see in the picture above, the pen rests in a deluxe Laban gift box. It is not disclosed the vast sums of money that Laban paid for the spot. We do know that the sponsors are ecstatic about the few dozen people that attended the signing, along with the six YouTube hits that the video of the signing generated in the last week. "The Pope's gone viral," one sponsor commented. His Holiness' travels have only begun. In the coming days, we are expecting the Pope to use new products from his newly acquired sponsors BMW, Subway, Credit Suisse, Sony and Full Tilt Poker. ---- Back to reality: the Pope did actually use a Laban pen. The images were forwarded to us by the good folks at Laban. I could only imagine the honor that it must be to have someone of such religious and cultural importance to use your product. PS : Just to clarify, the account of the Pope having sponsors is fictitious. He is not going viral.

Ellen on Jac Zagoory's Scroll Pen

The Pen Addict's recently concluded Jac Zagoory Scroll Pen Giveaway prompted a You Tube search for a clip to show the ingenious design of the Scroll Pen. I found a funny clip on Ellen Degeneres that I decided to share:

Caran d'Ache in NY Times Style Section

Little blurbs sure have a huge impact if they happen in the right places. 

Much like the Oprah-fuled Lightwedge craze that we experienced a few times in the last year, this week our store experienced a big spike in Caran d'Ache orders for the metal collection pens. Much unlike the Lightwedge, which was only a strong seller whenever the Oprah episode was re-run, the CDA Metal collection is always a solid seller. Starting the 8th, we started getting orders for 6 or 7 pens at a time in all different colors. 

I had a very pleasant customer call us on Tuesday and I just had to ask her where she saw these pens after she placed her large order of CDA Metal pens. She said there was an article in the New York Times that featured the Metal Collection. My interest was certainly piqued, but alas, after doing a site search on the Times' website, I could only find Caran d'Ache articles from back in the 19th century. I dug a little deeper. If there was anyone who would know if an ad or article was written about their product, it would be our distributor. Karen over at Creative Art Materials was extremely helpful in pointing me in the correct direction.

In a NY Times Style article titled "Southern Comforts," the fluorescent colored Caran d'Ache pens are featured as the "likes" of Sid Mashburn. I'm no fashionista, but it looks like he runs a gentlemen's specialty clothing store in Atlanta. He says the pens are "so covetable your friends will probably steal them." Indeed. Besides being vibrant and colorful, these pens feature the Caran d'Ache Goliath ballpoint cartridge. These cartridges are said to have an extremely long life and flow more easily than most ballpoints. The convenient size and click-top mechanism makes this pen an easy pick for a daily tag-a-long jotter.

Have you seen any pens in the news or in other media? I love "pen-spotting" and I will certainly make it a point to write posts whenever I find pens crossing over into mainstream media. Please feel free to share any finds through our twitter profile @goldspotpens.

The Inaugural Blog Post

A new year begins for us at Goldspot Pens and for all Americans as we watch the ushering in of a new Presidential Administration. This blog is our first foray into the realm of networking with the online community. The web had a major impact during November's elections and Mr. Obama had certainly utilized the internet to reach out to Americans in unprecedented fashion. Although our scale is certainly much more modest, our ambition is all the same. We want to join the discussion in progress on sites like Fountain Pen Network and blogs from retailers, manufacturers and fans.

Our first contribution was inspired by a question I received from an interested client who was curious as to which Cross pen President Obama was using to write is first executive orders. For a pen fanatic like me, the "celebrity" spotting of a pen always piques my interest. I decided to contact our Cross rep with the question and she was glad to divulge: The pen in question is a Cross Townsend black lacquer rollerball with rhodium-plated trim.

The style choice was a little plain, but elegant with a nice weight-in-hand. I immediately saw the irony in choosing a Cross pen, which are all manufactured in China, when I read about the new stimulus package and the "Buy American" clause that is being heavily debated. I can't be too over-critical on Mr. Obama, for most of the established pen manufacturers are located overseas in Europe and Asia anyway.

I do like the additional flair that was given on the pen's design by including the Presidential seal and what looks like Obama's signature on the barrel. The same client had replied to my first e-mail answer about the pen and asked if there was a replica or some commemorative version of this pen that would be available for sale to the public. I turned the question again to our representative, who said that Cross had nothing in the works. This is surprising lack of marketing prowess, as I would imagine that a limited edition of Cross Townsends with the Presidential seal would be a highly sought-after addition for many collectors. 

So, as our new President signs off on his first actions in office, we sign off as well.

This post was from the desk of Tom O.