While I’ll have a full recap of the Baltimore Pen Show tomorrow, I thought I’d do a brief “shop recap” post because it’s interesting (at least to me) to see what people are trending towards buying at each show. It’s always different and you get some insight into what the community is focused on! Baltimore attendees showed a lot of interest in notebook systems, whether it was picking up Traveler’s Notebooks and Lochby Covers and Cases or asking questions about the specifics of the Midori MD system. Washi Tape was also extremely popular, so I’ll plan to bring more varieties to the Arkansas Pen Show in Little Rock. Below are the five top selling products that I brought with me. To give you an indication, I brought two giant suitcases that are going home 3/4 empty!

Midori MD items such as the Kurashiki Canvas Pen/Pencil Cases are always a hit. These are an imported item from Japan made from traditional sailcloth.

As a thank you to everyone who supported us at the show, and those of you who continue to support us online, we’re running a 10% off Pen Show Special through tomorrow, so don’t miss to take advantage of this offer with the coupon code PENSHOW10 at checkout. Orders placed during my travels will begin to ship out tomorrow, and anything placed today is back on our usual fulfillment schedule.

Lochby Venture Pouch. Because the Venture Pouch is a bit of an offbeat product, it tends to sell better in person than online. But once people see the versatility - the top half unzips like a traditional carry-all or pen pouch; the bottom unzips and unfolds into a traditional pen case with elastic loops - it sells very quickly. I will be bringing more to additional shows this year, and we have plenty of online stock. Check out the full review here.
Lochby Quattro Pen Case. The classic four-pen zippered case is now available in Charcoal and Navy, in addition to the standard Brown. What’s the best thing about this specific case? The slots are offset so the pens don’t touch. Check out the full review here.
Penco Drafting Pencil and Drafting Ballpoint Pen. People couldn’t get over these, which are miniature versions of your classic “technical” pens and pencils with hexagonal barrels. Even if they didn’t buy one they still picked them up! The pencil takes a .5mm mechanical pencil lead, and the pen features a hybrid gel/ballpoint needle-tip D1 refill, all of which are available in our inks and refills store.
Traveler’s Company Brass Bullet Pens/Pencils. The classic bullet pens and pencils drew a lot of attention, especially since there were many vintage vendors selling the original items from the early 20th Century and to my knowledge Traveler’s Company is the only modern maker selling versions in this style.
Washi Tape! As I mentioned, Washi remains extremely popular, and I’ll try to bring more varieties in the future as I just didn’t know how well it would do this year. The three that sold the best were probably “Trash Panda,” “Bravocado”, and “Snail Mail Bonanza”.

The Gentleman Stationer is an authorized retailer of all items sold in the T.G.S. Curated Shop.