Hi Pen Fans!
For those of you that have followed the history of the Edison Pen Company, perhaps you’ve noticed that literally, we have never had a price increase in the last 9+ years, nearly the entire history of our company.
When this business began as the Edison Pen Company 10 years ago, we started offering some of the models that we still do today in our Signature Line. For the first 6 months or so, our pricing was a little lower than the present. After this 6 month period, prices on these Signature Line pens became what they are today. Then when we started with our Production Line in 2011, that pricing structure began and remained the same as today.
Over the years, this pricing has worked fine for us. My thoughts have always been “it ain’t broke”. But things also remained relatively simple for us until early 2017.
At this time, we moved the business from an outbuilding next to our house to a commercial building with a heck of a lot more space. This means going from no rent, utilities, real estate taxes, etc., to pretty high rent in addition to all of those other expenses at commercial rates. It seems that this transition triggered some other events, as well.
Many of you remember when we had a machine go down in the late Summer (I’ll never forget!). The primary machinery that we have utilized were bought used years ago and quite frankly they are just outdated and becoming more difficult to repair when required (which is becoming too frequent). This is what led to our issue in the summer. I can’t have another problem with our machines like we did in the summer (it took us about 3+ months to become fully caught up), so we are investing in brand new machines that are much bigger, faster, more accurate, but also pricey!
In addition to the machinery upgrades, we are also more than doubling the number of machines from what we have had up until now. We hired another employee in the Spring of 2017, and as these new machines are up and running, it’s likely that we’ll be hiring even more employees in 2018.
While there are actually more factors occurring than what I’ve mentioned above, the big items here are lots of additional machinery, more employees, and commercial real estate along with the associated costs.
For these reasons, it’s time for us to increase our prices effective January 1st, 2018. This will occur as outlined below….
Production Line, All Models
(Collier, Beaumont, Pearlette)
Steel nib – $149 will be raised to $169
18k Nib – $274 will be raised to $299
Signature Line, All Models Raised by $25
Mina from $200 to $225, Steel Nib
Pearlette from $225 to $250, Steel Nib
All other models from $250 to $275, Steel Nib
Herald and Huron Grande $275 to $300 Steel Nib
18k Nib Adds $100
14k Edison Stock Flex Nib Adds $125
Draw, Pneumatic, Bulb, or Pump Filler Adds $100
Along with these changes and growth, I think that we can expect the new machinery and employees to increase our productivity significantly. This means that my time will most likely be freed up a bit so I can focus on designing new models, introducing new materials within our Production Line, designing new filling systems, publishing video blogs that I’ve had in my head for sometimes years, as well as more Group Buy Limited Editions, and higher volume of Seasonal Premieres (which always sell out very fast). It might take us a bit to settle into our groove with the new machinery and employees, but I’d expect all of the above to gradually take place in 2018.
I’ve always felt that our prices were quite reasonable for handcrafted pens that require a good amount of labor and especially skill. I hope that our customers agree with me that our new prices that accompany our growth are indeed still within that reasonable range.
If anyone has any questions, please reach out.
