Deals & Drops: New Arrivals and Holiday Restock Reminders

Just a reminder to please consider the T.G.S. Curated Shop and other smaller retailers for your holiday shopping needs! We are currently fully stocked on pens, notebooks, and desk and reading accessories from a wide range of makers, including special products you won’t find anywhere else! In addition to the items featured below, please check out the 2021 T.G.S. Holiday Gift Guide!

All links to the T.G.S. Curated Shop, unless otherwise noted. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!

1. T.G.S. x. Sunderland Machine Works mk1 Rollerball. Our exclusive matte black and burgundy rollerball is down to the last few pens from this initial run. If you’re looking for a unique gift, or just something nice for yourself that you’d like before the holidays, it’s an excellent option.

2. CW+T Pen-Type C. Though known for their popular Pen Type-A and Pen Type-B models, both of which house the full-size Pilot Hi-Tec-C refill, the Pen Type-C is a bookmark/pocket pen that features the Hi-Tec-C Coleto, a needle-tip multipen refill that comes in a wide array of colors. Titanium construction at an accessible price.

3. Penco “Perfection” Bullet Pen. Love the bullet pen format but wish your Space Pen had a bit more heft to it? This brass version by Penco comes in three different finishes, and accepts the universal D1 refill.

4. Caran d’Ache 849 Rollerball Pen. This one will likely make two of my 2021 year-end favorites lists: Favorite products stocked in the shop and favorite new releases in general. The larger barrel is extremely comfortable for longer writing sessions, and the fact that it accepts standard Parker-style refills makes it an extremely versatile choice on par with the Retro 51 Tornado.

5. Caran d’Ache Ecridor Racing .7mm Mechanical Pencil. Combining black chrome with a sharp red racing stripe, the Ecridor Racing series is the best-looking version of Caran d’Ache’s higher-end Ecridor pen/pencil that I’ve seen.

6. Caran d’Ache Claim Your Style Ballpoint, Edition No. 3. The monochrome color scheme from this year’s Claim Your Style pens is likely my favorite of the three releases, especially the dark blue, green, and orange versions.

7. Midori MD Fountain Pen. Midori’s fountain pen features the same off-white color scheme as the rest of their stationery products (like their “B” grade pencils), but that’s not what makes this one so much fun. They’ve tweaked the stainless steel nib from the Traveler’s Company brass fountain pen and angled it slightly downward to compensate for those who write with heavy pressure.

8. WMS & Co. Bronze Octagonal Custom Rubber Stamp. Of all the desk accessories made by WMS & Co., this customizable brass stamp is my favorite. I personally use it as an “ex libris” library stamp, but the purchase includes a voucher good for creating a custom stamp of your choice, whether that be a professional seal, return address, monogram, etc.

9. WMS & Co. Sterling Modern Page Markers and Page Points. These handcrafted sterling silver bookmarks are perennial sellers, and absolutely perfect gifts for any occasion if you have someone on your list who is a serious reader.

10. Traveler’s Company Brass Pen Case. I don’t know which of the Traveler’s Company brass accessories is my favorite, between this and the Brass Ruler. Don’t forget to check out other options like the Template Bookmark and Number Clips that you can use to organize your notebooks.

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More Mini-Collections: The Most Underappreciated Color in Stationery?

It’s funny - over the years I’ve managed to pick up many pens, notebooks, and pencils on clearance, only to have these surplus (and often heavily discounted) items turn into coveted “grails” years later. Over the past couple of weeks, as I’ve been pruning back my collection, I realized two things: (1) I have a ton of pens in an “anise green” shade that people always comment on (if not try to purchase off me), especially when they see them in person; and (2) this same shade of yellow-green tends to sell very slowly at retail, and often makes up the last of a lot whenever I stock it, even though it’s arguably the best-looking color in products like the Quo Vadis Habana Notebook or the Clairefontaine 1951 Classic Series. On the pen side, Nakaya discontinued their “Nanohana-Iro” urushi finish, and Pilot stopped selling the “Harvest Yellow” Decimo that I’ve been clinging to for dear life over the past few years, as people have tried to pry it from my hands. It’s even become difficult to find pens in a solid shade of yellow-green ebonite, unless you order the rods yourself and have a custom pen made.

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From left, my Wakakusa-Iro Nakaya Long Piccolo, Pilot Decimo in Harvest Gold, and the Platinum Plaisir in Bali Citrus.

So I’ll pose kind of a silly question: Is yellow-green/anise green/pea green the most underappreciated color in stationery? Or to frame it for broader discussion: Why do people only seem to appreciate some things after they start to disappear from the market? I suspect that part of the issue with this particular color is that it’s very difficult to accurately photograph, and even if you get a good picture, vast discrepancies in calibration across computer monitors can make it look much too pale, robbing it of its depth, or on the flip side, too dark, making it look flat and boring. I’ve also heard it’s a hard color for manufacturers to consistently reproduce, so you will get a lot of batch variations across a single product line. That said, this isn’t the only “cult color” that disappears only to become insanely popular on the secondary market.

I guess this is yet one more example of me subconsciously building a “mini-collection” that in this case extends across different product categories. In addition to my Nakaya Long Piccolo in “Wakakusa-Iro” (which was a store exclusive from Aesthetic Bay in Singapore), the Harvest Gold Decimo, and other pens such as my Visconti Van Gogh “Vincent’s Chair” and a green-gold Platinum Plaisir in “Bali Citrus”, I ended up purchasing a gross of the Camel 2B pencils from the CW Pencil Enterprise closeout sale because I couldn’t bear to be without a stash of the green ones.

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What colors do you think remain underappreciated in the stationery industry? For a while, it seems as though everyone was moving towards matte-black everything, then the clear demonstrators became popular, and now the trend is towards sparkling acrylic/DiamondCast. When manufacturers focus on outdoing one another on the latest trend, we seem to miss out on these more offbeat colors that don’t get a lot of attention, and might attract more fans if companies were willing to take a bit more risk and give these products a chance to distinguish themselves. That said, as participants in this community we also have a responsibility: If you like a particular product, and find yourself wishing that “more companies made something like that,” then buy it if you can. Manufacturers and retailers can’t pay their bills on admiration alone, and we shouldn’t wait for these “cult hits” to go out of stock before everyone starts scrambling to find them.

If you’d like to read more on the subject of “Mini-Collections,” and how I’ve focused my own pen and ink collecting, check out these posts on the Parker Sonnet (one of my favorite under-appreciated pens), and my obsession with red inks, among other things.

This post does not contain paid third-party affiliate links, and all likes are to the T.G.S. Curated Shop or other third-parties who have not compensated T.G.S. for links. Shopping with T.G.S. directly supports original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!

Introducing CW&T Pen Type-C

If you’ve been following my adventures in building out the T.G.S. Curated Shop over the past two years, you’ll know that in addition to stationery, I have a serious interest in reading accessories. While I’ve previously discussed how the Traveler’s Company Brass Ballpoint pen is an excellent choice for annotation and marginalia, I’ve long kept my eye on CW&T’s Pen Type-C, a flat “bookmark-style” pen that’s machined from titanium and features Pilot’s Hi-Tec-C Coleto multipen refill. While you won’t want to write a novel with a flat pen like Pen Type-C, that’s not it’s intended purpose. I’ve used this pen as both a bookmark (shown below), and it also slips easily into both the zippered Traveler’s Notebook pen case and the inside cover of my Roterfaden for maximum portability.

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As of this morning, Pen Type-C is available in the Curated Shop, priced at $50. I also have a handful of Hi-Tec-C Coleto refills in an assortment of colors. To refill the pen, you remove the plastic “cap” at the end of the refill (designed for compatibility with the multipen, so it’s not needed here), and insert the refill into the notch in the center of Pen Type-C. For those interested in the full-size Pen Type-B and Pen Type-A, both of which feature CW&T’s signature pneumatic sleeves, we recently restocked and have most finishes available for purchase. You can also read my write-up of Pen Type-B here!

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The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!

Five Knockaround Fountain Pens for the Office and Beyond

While Black Friday weekend continues, and everyone is doing their shopping with all the different promotions available, I had the idea to do a short post containing some ideas beyond those in this year’s T.G.S. Gift Guide. I’ve become mildly obsessed with the idea of finding the perfect “knockaround” fountain pen for the office: a functional fountain pen that you can leave in your bag, on your desk at work, or stuck in the loop in your planner and not worry excessively about whether it’s going to “walk away” or get damaged. This category isn’t the same for everyone, since we all operate at different price points, but for reliable fountain pens this category typically starts around $20 (excluding the Platinum Preppy, which is much less expensive).

1. Platinum Preppy. I know several people who keep a fistful of these pens inked up at all times, either to give away to the fountain pen curious or eyedropped with inks they’re “experimenting” with. Preppies are also extremely inexpensive everyday writers, starting at around $4.50 for the standard version, with even the limited edition “Preppy Wa” pens priced at just over $7.

2. Platinum Plaisir. Though they feature the same nib, the Platinum Plaisir is a slight upgrade over the Preppy in terms of both looks and durability, since the pen sports an aluminum barrel that comes in a wide array of colors and will take more of a beating than the Preppy. Honestly, the Plaisir will often be my choice over the Preppy (unless I’m eyedroppering to test inks), since I appreciate the added splash of color. Available starting at $22.

3. TWSBI Swipe. Honestly, TWSBI’s latest low-cost fountain pen has blown me away with its value proposition. Not only do you get a reliable nib from a reputable brand, but unlike any other pen on this list, it ships with a converter (actually, two converters) to allow you to fill with bottled ink, in addition to using a cartridge. Available priced at $26.99.

4. Caran d’Ache 849 Fountain Pen. Looking for a fountain pen to match your classic Caran d’Ache 849 ballpoint pen or rollerball? The Caran d’Ache 849 fountain pen features a springy stainless steel nib that’s pleasant to write with, and is also somewhat slimmer, allowing it to fit in planner pen loops that might otherwise be too small to fit bulkier fountain pens. Available at $52.

5. Midori MD Fountain Pen. Sure, the plastic barrel isn’t much to write home about (even if it is tastefully color-matched to the Midori MD aesthetic), but the nib on this pen is exceptional. Midori has taken the same nib used in the Traveler’s Company brass bullet pens and tweaked it so the nib turns slightly downward, supposedly to better hold up to the harder writing pressure of modern users (and probably those inexperienced with fountain pens). The firm writing experience reminds me of a wider (M) posting nib. Available priced at $38.

Please note that of the fountain pens on this list, the Caran d’Ache 849 and the Midori MD Fountain pen take standard international cartridges, while the Platinum Pens and the TWSBI Swipe accept proprietary cartridges sold by those specific brands. If you’re looking for refills for these particular pens, either for yourself or to include with a gift for someone else, we carry standard international cartridges by Caran d’Ache and Traveler’s Company, as well as both TWSBI Cartridges and bottled ink. Platinum Preppy pens ship with one Platinum ink cartridge included.

As always, you can check out other pen recommendations here, as well as posts discussing my thoughts on fountain pen inks and fountain pen friendly paper. Links here are to the T.G.S. Curated Shop or our friends at Vanness Pens, which are not paid affiliate links but merely friendly recommendations. Many thanks for your support!

T.G.S. Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale: Take 10% off with "BLACKFRIDAY"

I hope everyone stateside enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with their family and friends, and most importantly was able to set aside things like work and shopping for a day! “Black Friday” typically kicks off the holiday shopping season in full, and has morphed from a single day to a nearly week-long extravaganza of discounts and promotions. The T.G.S. Curated Shop Black Friday discount is fairly straightforward: Take 10% off all orders placed through Cyber Monday (November 29, 11:59pm ET) using the coupon code “BLACKFRIDAY” at checkout. Don't forget this is also good on all items in the “Gently Used” shop, which features pieces from my own personal collection that I’m trying to clear out.

For the full details of what we are focused on this holiday season in the shop, please check out the T.G.S. 2021 Holiday Gift Guide! As I noted Tuesday, we recently restocked on:

• Midori MD Notebooks, Notepads, Pens, and Pencils. We currently have all sizes and rulings of Midori MD notebooks in stock, as well as notebook covers, woodcase pencils, and even the Midori MD fountain pen.

• Traveler’s Company Notebooks and Pens. A leather Traveler’s Notebook, personalized for the recipient with refills and accessories that you think they’ll enjoy, would make a wonderful gift (and it’s one of the most versatile pieces of stationery kit out there if you’re shopping for yourself). We carry the entire line, including the newly released “B-Sides and Rarities” Collection that features a series of refills containing specialty papers chosen by Traveler’s Company for unique purposes.

• Hightide Folding Book Stands and Sandglasses. These desk accessories have been favorites since I started the Curated Shop, and Book Stands now come in nearly a dozen different colors, with Sandglasses being difficult to keep in stock. I should have more available soon if they end up selling out over the weekend.

• Penco “Perfection” Bullet Pens. Penco makes a range of high quality pocket pens and pencils, including the brass “Perfection” bullet pens as well as the pocket drafting pens. Nearly all versions are currently available.

This discount is good for all brands with the exception of TWSBI and Sunderland, which I’m unable to discount due to my agreements with those companies. The T.G.S. Curated Shop is an authorized retailer of all brands sold. By shopping with us directly, you are supporting original content, pen reviews, pen show events, etc. from The Gentleman Stationer. If you would like to support us even further, please consider checking out the T.G.S. Patreon Program, which offers access to online meetups, exclusive discounts and pre-orders, and more!