We are pretty well settled in after the DC Pen Show! Very exhausting, but it’s always great to see our regulars, and also meet new customers!
We have the Currently Inventory Galleries updated to reflect what sold in DC. So any pen that you see at the link here, or within the slideshow below is waiting to find a new home! Email us to inquire.
As a side note, I am working on a nice video blog post to announce the 2014 LE Group Buy Pen right now! This announcement should be up today or tomorrow! Stay tuned!
Just a quick note to make everyone aware that we will need to delay the 2014 LE Group Buy. My apologies!
We underestimated what we could accomplish post-vacation and pre-DC Pen Show.
We are currently sandwiched in between all of the catch up work that has to happen after our vacation, and all of the prep-work that goes into the DC Pen Show.
So the 2014 LE Group Buy will be announced after the DC Pen Show, which is the week of the 11th.
Well, our vacation was wonderful, and well needed! We have our batteries recharged, and we’re hitting the ground running today!
If you are expecting an email from me, I will say that I’m currently under a small mountain of emails! I’m hoping to have all emails done today, but just in case, please allow until tomorrow if you are expecting an email from me.
Please remember that the 2014 Limited Edition Group Buy is just about ready to be announced. Most likely, that project will be announced this week!
And the DC Pen Show is right around the corner! We hope to see you there!
I’ll attach a few vacation photos from our stay at the Grand Canyon below.
We will be taking a much needed vacation for two weeks starting the 14th until the 25th.
We don’t take a lot of vacations (and hardly ever two weeks), so it’s definitely time to recharge!
I will finish up emails today and then I’ll be doing my best to stay away from the computer until the week of the 28th. So if I’m slow with emails, you’ll know why.
Don’t forget that the 2014 Limited Edition Group Buy will be announced upon our return, so stay tuned!
I wanted to make everyone aware of some materials that we’ll be discontinuing.
We have found that over the years, our solid colored ebonites (except black) have been fading in a very unacceptable manner. See pics below.
Looks like a couple of really nice ebonite pens, right?
Well, let’s remove the caps……
I think it’s obvious that the pens have faded everywhere except where the caps covered the barrels. When these pens were fresh off the lathe, the original color would have been closer to the darker shade. What makes this difficult to diagnose is that the pens above have been either on my desk out of sunlight or in my desk drawer for 3-4 years, so it’s a very slow process, but still an unacceptable one.
So from here on out, until we can find a supplier that will give us an acceptable product, we will no longer be using any solid colored ebonite except black. The black is not fading at all with normal care. However, these pens above (and many other solid colored ebonite pens) have been fading even if they stay in a drawer, and never see sunlight or UV rays. Even though this is a very slow process, it’s still not up to our standards, and not a material that we’ll stand behind anymore.
Does this this effect the swirl, mottled, or woodgrain ebonites? Nope, those are perfectly fine, and will not fade with normal care.
Just so you know, I have already removed the unacceptable ebonites from the Material Samples Gallery. If you want to look through this gallery, you will see only viable materials. And you’ll see plenty of solid colored acrylics there. Of course, acrlyic will not fade with normal care, so there’s still plenty of solid colored materials to choose from.
So what if you currently own a pen made from a solid colored ebonite that has faded unacceptably? Refer to our guarantee here. We can take the pen back. With sanding and polishing, we can restore the original color, but of course, we realize that no one wants to do this every 4 years. So if you are unhappy with a solid colored ebonite pen that has faded even with proper care, reach out to us, and we’ll make it right.
Every year (usually in the spring), we do a Signature Line Limited Edition Pen, and we do it at a "Group-Buy" price.
Since these pens are built assembly-line style, we pass this efficiency to the customer by giving a better price. This annual group buy is the only time that you’ll ever see a Signature Line Pen discounted in any way. In the past, a pen that retails for $250 is offered in this setting for between $175 and $190. This year, the project will most likely be identical in price, or certainly within that range.
If you are interested in seeing how these deals worked in the past, you can see the 2013 Edition here, and the 2012 Edition here.
The reason for this update is that this Group Buy is obviously happening later this year, as Spring has already passed. We had a lot of ancillary projects this spring, and we just couldn’t get the Group Buy happening then. We also have received a lot of questions as to when this will happen, so I wanted to address this in a more formal manner.
Well, we do have a plan at this point! We will be taking a vacation in July, and then we’ll get the 2014 Limited Edition Group Buy announced right after that vacation. Then the buying period will be extended until a little after the DC Pen Show, and we’ll start manufacturing after the DC Pen show.
So this means that we’ll anounce this pen around the 28th of July and the buying period will begin then. The buying period will end after the DC Pen Show, so sometime the week of August 11th, maybe the week of the 18th, not sure yet. Then we’ll manufacture after that.
We already have some wonderful materials picked out, and we also have a good idea as to which model will be featured (can’t tell yet!), so stay tuned!
We are proud to announce that the next Seasonal Special Edition Premiere is available from Goulet Pens!
This season, we’re using a great material called Caribbean Sea. This material has a lot of depth and pearlization, with a very nice turquoise shade. There’s a ton of nice inks that will compliment this material very well!
I won’t get too detailed here, as the Goulets do a great job of announcing this pen with more photos and video over on their blog.
I’m very proud to announce that the Beaumont Pneumatic has won a 2014 Pen World Magazine Annual Readers’ Choice Award! The category won was Best Vintage Inspired Pen.
Actually, we tied with the Omas Arte Italiana, but both pens were given the award. If you also look at the recipients of the other awards, you’ll see that we are in awfully good company!
So at the risk of bragging, can I give a rundown of Edison Pens that have been recognized with awards in the last 4 years?
2011
Huron
Pen World Readers’ Choice Award
Nominated
2011
Collier
Goldspot Pen of the Year
Won
2012
Beaumont
Goldspot Pen of the Year
Won
2013
Menlo
Goldspot Pen of the Year
Won
2014
Beaumont
Pen World Readers’ Choice Award
Won
We’re very proud to have been honored with the awards above, and we promise to continue innovating!
If you’d like to read a PDF from Pen World regarding the Reader’s Choice Awards, click here.
The Chicago Show was another good one! It was great to see some of our regular Chicago-area clients, and to meet some new ones.
I will be doing some much-needed catch up work around the house today, and then I’ll be back to work tomorrow. If you are expecting an email response from me, you’ll hear from me perhaps today, but most likely tomorrow.
Below is a slideshow of some of the great pens and people from the show….
(if you can’t see this slideshow, click here)
There was also a wonderful lady at the show who really knocked my socks off with her Spencerian penmanship. Below is a video of her masterfully using one of our Richard Binder Flex Nibs.
(if you can’t see the video below, click here).
