======================================================================== Nib Noise * Volume 13 Number 8 * November 2014 ======================================================================== Welcome to Nib Noise. We hope you'll enjoy reading this month's issue. PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS NEWSLETTER! For comments or questions, send email to: richard@richardspens.com To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** BOO! No, Wait a Minute, That's Over Now. It's November! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'm sending this issue of Nib Noise to you from central Indiana. We traveled here to attend the funeral of Barbara's mother, Helen F. Hauck, who passed away on October 24 just 14 days short of her 95th birthday and was laid to rest on October 30 with full military honors in recognition of her service to her country as a member of the U.S. Coast Guard SPARs from 1941 to 1945. We thank you all for your expressions of sympathy and understanding. From here, we will be moving on to Columbus, Ohio, for the Ohio Pen Show. [The following three paragraphs were added on Movember 11] November Tray Night will be tomorrow, Wednesday, November 12, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time. Since I put it up for drooling at the usual hour on October 31, you should have had lots of time to dither over choices and make your best picks. For even more fun, Barbara has picked out some pens that were on the tray in recent months but didn't sell, and she's put them on her Attic tray with reduced prices. Sometimes you do get a second chance. And by the way, Tray Night for December will fall on Sunday, November 30, which will be the wind-down of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S. Try not to get get pumpkin pie filling on your keyboards, everyone! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** The Bexley 2015 Owners Club Pen Is Now Available *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Bexley has announced availability of its 2015 Owners Club Pen. All registered Bexley owners can purchase their Owners Club pens now. We're on the road, as noted above, but you can pre-order your pens for shipping when we return to Nashua. If you are a registered Bexley owner and have not received the announcement email, you should contact Bexley immediately. LIMITED QUANTITIES! Please note that Bexley has made only 58 pens in each of three colors for 2015. There is a high probability that one or all colors will sell out before the end of the year, so don't delay placing your order! As always, for an additional charge I can customize your pens' nibs to your order. Ohio Pen Show Attendees: If you order your pen or pens before Thursday, November 6, we will be able to deliver then to you at the show. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** The Ohio Show Is Next Week! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The 17th Annual Ohio Pen Show is coming next weekend (November 6-9). Barbara and I will be on hand for all the festivities -- where will YOU be? With Weekenders' events cranking up on Thursday (30 tables) and running all day Friday (160 tables), and two full public days on the weekend, this year's show will be the ideal way to make up your Holiday wish list. As always, there will be exciting new products and more vintage pens than you can take in, as well as some fabulous auction action on Thursday and Saturday evenings for those who stay all weekend. The Ohio show is one of the grandest of the grand old vintage festivals, and it's really not to be missed. In case you haven't already made your reservation, Terry and his minions will be happy to sell you a Weekend Pass when you walk in the door on Thursday, so you needn't miss out on the variety of evening events. For much more information, visit the show's Web site: http://www.ohiopenshow.com/ If this will be your first-ever pen show, be sure to read my pen show virgin's guide: http://www.richardspens.com/?shows=firstshow We'll have a selection of pens from the companies we represent. See below for a note about price reductions. BEXLEY BUYERS GET A SPECIAL TREAT AT THE SHOW! As always, I'll be regrinding and tweaking nibs while you wait. We use a list, like your favorite restaurant, so you can enjoy the rest of the show while you await your turn. (But we don't have those buzzy hockey puck things...) Bring a pen, and share a little time with friends at our table while I jazz up your writing experience. PLEASE READ OUR "TABLE TALK" FAQ TO LEARN HOW WE OPERATE AT A SHOW: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=shows If you have pens that need repairs other than nib work, you can hand them to any of the several repairers who will be working at the show. We look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones. We hope to see you there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Hands-On Nib Workshop in Ohio *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'll be conducting my hands-on nib smoothing workshop at the Ohio show. For more information about the workshop, please visit the registration page: http://www.richardspens.com/?page=workshop Registration for hands-on attendees is full, but we welcome others who'd like to audit the class, and there will be copies of the handouts for all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** PRICE REDUCTIONS *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ We will have our entire remaining stock of pens pens and accessories with us at the Ohio show, for prices that will be significantly reduced even from our usual marked-down show prices. These reduced prices will carry through to our site when we reopen it on November 12. If you see something you want, do not wait, buy it now. This is it, this is all we have. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Retail Closing Down *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As noted above, we are closing down our retail sales of pens and accessories. As our current stocks sell out, we will not be restocking these items. Most of the accessories we no longer carry can be found at IndyPenDance: http://www.indypendance.com/ * Even after our pen and accessory sales are gone, there will still be the Pen Show Tray and Barbara's Attic Tray. * Also after our pen and accessory sales are gone, we will still have nibs for an indefinite time, and we'll keep the NIBARAMA page running for as long as it makes sense to do so. * We will still attend -- and work at -- several pen shows every year. Our next show after Ohio will be the Philadelphia Pen Show, in January. * The Gate City Pen Company already has a new home. Find out all about it here: http://www.gatecitypen.com/ * We will be able to accept some orders for special pens or nibs. For example, Bexley's 2015 Owners Club pens are available now to registered Bexley owners, and we will be happy to order yours for you. Special orders will need to be prepaid, and we can guide you in placing your orders with us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Our Schedule for November *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ With the Ohio show and Thanksgiving cutting into November, our shipping schedule looks like this: Saturday, November 15 Wednesday, November 19 Saturday, November 22 TUESDAY, November 25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Speaking of the Monthly Pen Show Tray... *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The tray page is up on our site for you to ogle, so grab your drool buckets (Monty Python reference). http://www.richardspens.com/?pens=tray ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Broad Strokes *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This month, my new reference article is a special "51" issue of the Pen Doctor. It deals with four problems "51" repairers commonly face in dealing with these wonderful pens. http://www.richardspens.com/?pendoc=26 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Pens That Write Right! *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unless otherwise requested at the time of sale, I personally tune each new pen or nib at no extra charge before shipment. I fill the pen with Waterman Blue-Black ink and write with it on paper of better than average quality, adjusting as necessary to bring it up to the RichardsPens.com "factory" standard for smoothness and flow. If you order a new pen with a customized nib, I will modify the nib (for an extra charge) and ship the pen immediately instead of putting it into my regular queue. Remember, we are authorized retailers for Bexley, Edison, Gate City Pen, Namiki and Pilot, Onoto, and Pelikan. We don't always have a complete line up on the site, but we can get anything our manufacturers offer -- if you don't see it, just ask! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** Follow Us on the Internet with RSS, Facebook, and Twitter *** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Follow us on the Internet by subscribing to our RSS feed. Click the orange RSS button at the top of our site -- or plug the following URI into your browser or RSS reader: http://www.richardspens.com/richardspens.rss We'd like to be liked on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NashuaPenSpa And you're invited to follow us on Twitter: @RichardsPens ======================================================================== If you received this newsletter from Richard Binder, you are a Nib Noise subscriber. If it came from someone else, I invite you to subscribe. To subscribe or unsubscribe, please DO NOT use the links in the footer of this email. Instead, visit the Free Email Newsletter page on our site: http://www.richardspens.com/?info=nibnoise Note: We will never sell your name or email address. Your privacy is as important to us as it is to you.