I just placed my first order and bought an extra pen for free ink. Went with a Ebony Green thinking its fun enough for everyday use but not to the point of unprofessional if I need it for something other than personal use. I appreciate your honesty there, and I assumed is was to clear inventory. I am very green to the fountain pen world and probably wont wonder beyond $100 pen, but have been binging on you videos all week. I am happy that your company seems to treat their workers well and you care about their health...unlike some online retailers.
@@florencefortyseven I use a soap called "Lava". It's a soap that has ground pumice in it, so though the pumice makes it feel a little gritty, the soap itself is kind to your skin.
For question 2 - I tossed a Kaweco Sport with a Monteverde cartridge in a purse, then didn't use the purse for 2 months. Found the pen, it wrote immediately. Great little pen.
In terms of the pen that would never let me down and be pretty much assured to just Do The Pen Thing when called upon after lots of neglect, the Jinhao 51A is right up there for me. I have also never yet been let down by my Lamy Safaris, despite ridiculous abuse and standing nib-up until they get a coating of dust.
@@bikkies I sometimes find one of my Safaris somewhere and they went completely dry, converter empty, so a whole fill evaporated. Couldn't even imagine how long I would have to leave my Kaweco Sport somewhere for this to happen. It must be somewhere around 10 years or so.
@@marctestarossa Maybe I've just been lucky or maybe it's the famed far-from-equatorial English weather, but I've never yet had this happen to a Safari or Al-Star. I recently found an Al-Star I thought I'd lost months ago, with a standard Lamy blue cartridge installed. I was expecting doom but it fired straight into life. I've had similar experiences with a Sport and some Perkeos, but a recently purchased Perkeo 3-stub-nib set is significantly more prone to drying out than its standard nibbed older siblings.
I really love how Brian is really honest and open to share his business information, knowledge, experience and insight, in these Q&A's. Really helps me to understand how businesses operate and things they consider and work with. Brian can be a really good mentor for small (e-commerce) companies starting out that need advice from someone who's been there, and willing to share and help them along.
Re the question about a knock around pen, the Pilot Varsity!!! It always writes. I keep one in my purse in a rickshaw single pen case. The case keeps it protected, and the ink lasts forever in the pen. And it is reliable. As far as cartridges, no, it doesn't take them. But there is enough ink in there to make this %4 pen quite long lasting. Keep a spare at home.And, it writes beautifully! As far as 3 inks I wish they would bring back, your first two picks are mine, Lamy Dark Lilac and Pelikan Edelstein Tourmaline. I was able to stock up on the Tourmaline as well, several years after it had been discontinued! (Thank goodness for brick and mortar stores!) My third would be Montblanc Racing Green. Man, I wish they would bring that one back!!
I've had 2 Pilot V-pens sitting in a drawer for YEARS (one of them doesn't even have the actual silver with big letters branding, is just sleek all black with tiny letters and window, go figure) and they write the same they did back then from the first stroke. I bought them when I didn't know anything about fountain pens and treated them just as a little bit fancier rollerball. And they delivered.
Greetings from Brazil Brian! About the CPF number: the dealer needs to inform on address tag so our customs can track our importations. Near all Brazilians (ok, that's superlative haha!) buy from China (using AliExpress, I buy all my jinhao's from there) or even worldwide from eBay, we all suffer with delayed goods and stuff, but all of them came with our CPF included along our address in the package. This information is used by customs because taxes here start from 50 dollars purchases, if you paid more than this the tax is 50% of the item value. I know you can't spend money on your website just to attend us down here, but we do buy a lot of stuff overseas and, unfortunately, we are used to it... P.s.: without a signature, you can't do anything with the CPF number, it's only an "id" number, so it's not that important!
Knock around pens... I've been using fountain pens since I was about seven, so over 30 years. Nearly every fountain pen can be a knock around. As long as you have a tissue to clean the nib a little and get the ink to flow you'll be fine. I use a lot of cheap fountain pens (supermarkets sell pretty cheap ones like maped) and honestly, if you're going to have a fountain pen floating around in your bag for weeks you're probably not so fussy about how smooth it writes ;-) With a tissue and a little pressure clean off the nib and get some ink to flow out and you'll be ok. If it's really dried out, a drop of water (or spit) on your tissue will help. Make sure your cartridge isn't empty. If it is and you're near a sink, fill it with water (get a really thin stream to run) it'll write a little lighter but it'll write. If your cartridge is not empty but your pen is really dried up, out a drop of water on the nib and clean it off. You can also give your cartridge (while it's in place) a squeeze to push ink into the feed.
I'm a visual learner and this for me, by far, is THE BEST visual of baby's bottom (and laugh factor) of why you want a smooth baby's bottom! Thank you!!
I have not stocked up on a discontinued ink, but if you ever hinted that De Atramentis Black Roses was going to stop being a thing I would buy a 55 gallon drum of it!
Revising a comment I left 9 months ago where I said premium pens are out of my league and I'd not bought from you. Times have changed, I have a Lamy 2000 and several other pens from you, with more to follow. On the management side of the latter part of this discussion, my first job back in 1986 was in the construction industry, specifically joinery manufacture. The coming trend back then was Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing. While a hinge is a hinge and a screw is a screw (very few "differs") we really struggled because there was no such thing as a standard window frame (for instance). We could not offer off-the-shelf joinery products in a near-immediate turnaround time. The hardware, furniture and to some extent, the paint or stain was a stock item but the design and assembly had to be done from scratch on every order. This made us uncompetitive. I imagine the pen manufacturing world is similar, at least for boutique brands. A nib is a nib and a feed is a feed, but there are only so many standard stock items from which a pen can be made. There's a lot of retooling and extended labour required, which all has to be paid for by someone. I can't even begin to imagine how I'd go about making a small scale pen manufacturing operation cost-effective.
Regarding the free ink: You must have had huge supply of Lamy Al-Star Vibrant Pink last year because I couldn’t resist the sale of pen, ink, and free converter, all for the price of just a Lamy Safari!
It's my first time seeing parker penman sapphire,, wow. Even the bottle looks so pretty. So that was what it was all about. Now i can go keep using my nitrogen and majestic blue.
Discontinued ink.... Sheaffer Skrip Peacock Blue. Love the color and the bottle. Used the cartridges in high school (1980s) in my Sheaffer no nonsense (which I still have but don't tend to use).
Ohhhhh, that Peakcock Blue! I loved that color. And one of the things I looked forward to was having the cartridge empty out and popping a different color cartridge onto my NN pen. The new ink would mix with the peacock blue still in the feed and produce an entirely different and unique color until the new ink flushed out the old. Fun times. ^_^
For the packages to Brazil, is it possible for the customer to get the mail service where they can have purchases delivered to a USA address and then the mail service would send it on to them. Just a suggestion for them to look into. It is a pity when governments make it impossible to do business with international companies.
The KAWECO sport is one of the most reliable pens I ever used. I immediately went for eyedropper, had it for almost two years now and have refilled it recently for the first time. So this is a pen I hardly use ever. The EF nib is kinda scratchy but I don't really care because this pen is my backup backup (maybe another backup) I know I can rely on every single time. The threads are sealing very tight and the small nib is sealed up in the top in a tiny, tiny space so evaporation of ink is practically impossible. It never hard starts even after weeks or even months unused. I wouldn't want it as my main writing tool but I'm glad I have it because I can toss it around however I want, it always immediately writes and never has ink on the grip section. I would guess I can leave it sitting in a drawer for a whole year and it would pick up writing like nothing happened.
Thanks Brian,for the explanation about Parker Penman Sapphire Ink. Believe I still have a bottle of this in storage. It was a great ink-and then suddenly,it disappeared from the market. Didn’t know about the issues with it...Will look into Majestic Blue.
On Q2, the ink is also incredibly important. I don't know exactly what to use, but lower saturation non-sheening inks are going to be your friend. I hear Waterman inks can be good for this. I don't love the look of a lot of those inks, but they tend to perform quite well. I would try with a metal Kaweco sport and Waterman Mysterious Blue cartridges... I should actually try that... Also Lamy Dark Lilac is available! (For $250 on eBay...)
That was by far the best explanation of “baby’s bottom” I’ve ever heard. And, for what it’s worth, your embarrassment at saying the term is really cute.
I noticed that too. So much reserved polite uncomfortable awkwardness on show that I'm wondering if he is secretly actually a Brit, like me. As a nation we have the whole shyness thing down to a fine art.
Qotw: I've gone out of my way to drive into Canada for the last bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac, or do a group order of country specific Diamine exclusive. I don't have multiple bottles of the same ink though.
Regarding the gift with purchase question, when the Pilot Knight was offered with the Iroshizuku inks, I immediately jumped because I had been wanting to try a couple of those colors (yes, I could have ordered samples, but this was a much nicer option). Consequence of this was I am now a VERY loyal Pilot Iroshizuku fan. Even though I already owned a bottle or two, now I have several different colors and will keep adding.
Rubik's Cubes! Awesome. Just recently into fountain pens and placed my first order from you. Your videos are SO helpful. You have yourself a new subscriber.
@@pepperpath yes haha. Good guess :D I guess no one else is getting this storm then lol We got over 100cm and my power was gone for 2 days! It just came back on. Some streets have like 12 feet of snow in them. And i saw a pic of an "old peoples home" that was totally burried lol i hope they had everything they needed :P Was a doozey of a storm thats for sure...
I wish I had some dark lilac ink to go with my dark lilac Safari. I bought my Safari from you back in 2016 and it has been one of my favorite pens since then.
As a student majoring in Economics, its amazing to hear about these commerce/bizlaw concepts in the real world talked about in such a transparent manner. Thank you to the Goulet team and please pass my gratitude along to Brian :)
Hi Brian! How do you store your inks and pens that you personally own? I know there are a lot of pen cases if you go somewhere and take your pens with you, but how do you conveniently store them at home so you can always find the pen and ink that you need at the time? Greetings from Germany and write on! :)
[Q2:] I got a Traveller’s Brass FP last year, and that’s pretty much what it’s become for me: a knock-around pen that takes standard (short) cartridges, which keep in my bag or with my EDC planbook... I don’t always use it EVERY-day, but so far it’s been fine every time I do. (That being said, I haven’t/wouldn’t try pushing it more than 2-3 weeks between uses) Plus the brass is aging verrry beautifully :)
An ink I used to hear a lot about that was discontinued was a Sheaffer color. I can't be SURE, but I think it was called "Peacock Blue," and to my understanding it was sort of a bright blue-turquoise. I knew people quite a few years back who paid well upwards of $25 a bottle when Sheaffer's Skrip ink in all the current colors (not that there were a lot of them) were selling for maybe $5-$7 a bottle. I mean, they just went nuts for the stuff. But it was kind of a niche market that would pay that price for it, and apparently it wasn't a huge seller when it was in their stock line. That wasn't one I stockpiled myself, but I knew people who did. I've never been that attached to a particular ink because, being primarily a Sheaffer collector when I was younger, I just made sure I had a good stock of Sheaffer cartridges of black ink laid in to last me.
Give Noodler's Squeteague (www.gouletpens.com/products/noodlers-squeteague-3oz-bottled-ink?variant=11884736872491 ) a try! Pretty good alternative to Petrol. - Colin
My Kaweco’s last forever without using them! I’ve had one inked up with diamine poppy red for a whole year only using it once every couple of months! Especially with a gentle ink, not a high sheener, but even inked with Organics Studio it lasted for weeks without writing!
When writing with a wet pen what is a blotting paper? And where can I find some? Thank you for doing videos for noobs like myself. I bought a 10.00 fountain pen from Amazon and loved it so much I fell into the pen world. There's not alot of videos (besides your channel) that gives newbies alot of beginning information on fountain pens.As a newbie I see a 200.00 pen and think that's a power bill! But I do have several pens now and am obsessed over ink and how unique it is compared to roller ball pens.
@@Gouletpens Thanks for getting to my question I appreciate it. I have been on the website and have been filling my cart. I have the mixed paper pack in there but missed blotting paper. Thank you Drew!!
As for a "discontinued" ink - I scooped up a bottle of the Pilot Tokyo LE Iroshizuku Shimbashi-Iro. I had the chance to get the grey ink from that set too, but that would've meant eating ramen noodles for a week for all my meals, so hard pass. I wish it was more widely available, because I'd buy another bottle for cheaper, but also because it's a really unique blue and I want everyone to be able to see/experience it. Also, I swapped ink with someone who had the Penman Sapphire, and there's a production ink available that's similar in shade; it's the Bungubox "Hatsukoi" Sapphire. It's not a 1:1 match, but it's close enough for government work, and isn't nearly as fiddly. Last comment, and you don't have to respond to this one - Usually when you do a free ink giveaway it's with a brand that's from the same distributor, so for the current Monteverde promotion, for example, I assumed Yaffa was providing the ink for free or a heavy discount to drive sales of the pens. I wouldn't dream of trying to peek behind the curtain, but I used to work in commissioned sales so I know all about value adds, loss leaders, and ROI forecasts.
They are good. I like the Jinhao 51a over any similar hooded nib at any price point. I like the 51a better than the Parker that it was modeled after. Best part, they are less than two dollars all day long!!!
QOTW: I would say no. I did by a package of Lamy ink cartridges filled with the vibrant pink ink to go with the Lamy Al-Star of the same name. But, it was just one package. Since using the Goulet web site is problematic for me now, I can't check to see if it is still offered. I'm guessing it was a limited edition color. I guess that's not the same thing as an ink that has been discontinued.
QOTW: No, but I feel I should buy extra bottles of Spearmint Diva and Nitrogen because I would be despondent if they were discontinued and I missed it!🤓🌻 I did buy a bottle of Noodler's Boston Mueller because it felt like it would be a piece of history in my ink box. Do you "announce" when an ink color is being dropped or discontinued?
Cheryl Thomae-Barnes they used to have a “last chance” section on the website, but to my dismay they got rid of it! Now, if you go to the Sales&Deals section, click on a given item/ink, then scroll to the bottom of the product description, it will say if that product will be discontinued... I do understand why they decided to make the change, but I can’t help wishing that the whole entire world would bend to accommodate my pathological FOMO D8
I really, really thought about purchasing the Pilot Iroshizuku 100th anniversary ink but decided against it. I don't want to fall in love, and I know I will.
The only thing I've ever stocked up on was the pilot metropolitan. The first one I bought was ten dollars. Went back the next day to get another and it was up to twelve. As soon as the pilot metro retros popped I stocked up. Multiples of Every color. I now sell them at for more than I paid, at lower costs than any store and still make a seven dollar profit of every pen. If they wouldn't have raised the price to introduce that tacky little pen which followed the metro retro it wouldn't have been possible. Yay pilot. Yeeehawww. Especially when you're dealing with young adults who actually use the pens and aren't going to shell out the bucks for costed paper. Many are restricted to standard paper anyway so the pilot nibs are perfect. They don't see the need and feathering with the pilot metro they would with other nibs. Fabulous deal for me. Can't say enough about them. I hope y'all, pilot, raise the price again 😂
2. Question. Pocket pen sub $100. Invest an extra 30$ for a Kaweco Supra is my opinion :D You can either have it to be very small or regular sized, and it is built tough :) Great Pen! :) And if it gets dirty somehow, just unscrew the nib, wash it out. The rest of the pen is just brass and it doesn’t have parts where dust can collect and you can’t get to. Great pen, I already have two of them :) (and I’ll probably get more)
Ah the elusive tourmaline :'( ... Tourmaline and amber are the only ones missing from my set...the Lamy orange is my best behaved orange.. Plus there seems to be some problem with the sound
You must not be a drinker Brian, because the saying is "Crying in your beer." Cheers! 🍺😢 (QOTW) I bought a bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac along with the pen and tried to get more ink but it was gone. But at least I got one bottle, which I couldn't do with Lamy Petrol after buying the pen. I was on the list with three dealers and still couldn't get any. Stupid Lamy.
Enjoyed the topics and information you provided. One suggestion. Check your wardrobe for video effects. I have started watching more TH-cam videos on my big screen TV. The small stripes on your shirt "strobed" the whole time and was very distracting-especial watching for over an hour. Again, great information. Just wanted to give some feedback.
I just placed my first order and bought an extra pen for free ink. Went with a Ebony Green thinking its fun enough for everyday use but not to the point of unprofessional if I need it for something other than personal use. I appreciate your honesty there, and I assumed is was to clear inventory.
I am very green to the fountain pen world and probably wont wonder beyond $100 pen, but have been binging on you videos all week. I am happy that your company seems to treat their workers well and you care about their health...unlike some online retailers.
I love how on all pen-related TH-cam videos the people talking have ink on their fingers.
Unless you're a wizard, it's unavoidable! - Colin
In my family, we call this the Badge of Honor!
@@Gouletpens . You can take a pumice stone under water, rub your fingers with it, and it's 90% gone 😊.
@@florencefortyseven I use a soap called "Lava". It's a soap that has ground pumice in it, so though the pumice makes it feel a little gritty, the soap itself is kind to your skin.
Hamed Khatiz Hey-I’m proud of my blue skin! I’ll try pumice or Lava for a special event, I suppose.
For question 2 - I tossed a Kaweco Sport with a Monteverde cartridge in a purse, then didn't use the purse for 2 months. Found the pen, it wrote immediately. Great little pen.
In terms of the pen that would never let me down and be pretty much assured to just Do The Pen Thing when called upon after lots of neglect, the Jinhao 51A is right up there for me. I have also never yet been let down by my Lamy Safaris, despite ridiculous abuse and standing nib-up until they get a coating of dust.
@@bikkies I sometimes find one of my Safaris somewhere and they went completely dry, converter empty, so a whole fill evaporated. Couldn't even imagine how long I would have to leave my Kaweco Sport somewhere for this to happen. It must be somewhere around 10 years or so.
@@marctestarossa Maybe I've just been lucky or maybe it's the famed far-from-equatorial English weather, but I've never yet had this happen to a Safari or Al-Star. I recently found an Al-Star I thought I'd lost months ago, with a standard Lamy blue cartridge installed. I was expecting doom but it fired straight into life. I've had similar experiences with a Sport and some Perkeos, but a recently purchased Perkeo 3-stub-nib set is significantly more prone to drying out than its standard nibbed older siblings.
I really love how Brian is really honest and open to share his business information, knowledge, experience and insight, in these Q&A's. Really helps me to understand how businesses operate and things they consider and work with. Brian can be a really good mentor for small (e-commerce) companies starting out that need advice from someone who's been there, and willing to share and help them along.
Re the question about a knock around pen, the Pilot Varsity!!! It always writes. I keep one in my purse in a rickshaw single pen case. The case keeps it protected, and the ink lasts forever in the pen. And it is reliable. As far as cartridges, no, it doesn't take them. But there is enough ink in there to make this %4 pen quite long lasting. Keep a spare at home.And, it writes beautifully! As far as 3 inks I wish they would bring back, your first two picks are mine, Lamy Dark Lilac and Pelikan Edelstein Tourmaline. I was able to stock up on the Tourmaline as well, several years after it had been discontinued! (Thank goodness for brick and mortar stores!) My third would be Montblanc Racing Green. Man, I wish they would bring that one back!!
I've had 2 Pilot V-pens sitting in a drawer for YEARS (one of them doesn't even have the actual silver with big letters branding, is just sleek all black with tiny letters and window, go figure) and they write the same they did back then from the first stroke. I bought them when I didn't know anything about fountain pens and treated them just as a little bit fancier rollerball. And they delivered.
Greetings from Brazil Brian! About the CPF number: the dealer needs to inform on address tag so our customs can track our importations.
Near all Brazilians (ok, that's superlative haha!) buy from China (using AliExpress, I buy all my jinhao's from there) or even worldwide from eBay, we all suffer with delayed goods and stuff, but all of them came with our CPF included along our address in the package.
This information is used by customs because taxes here start from 50 dollars purchases, if you paid more than this the tax is 50% of the item value.
I know you can't spend money on your website just to attend us down here, but we do buy a lot of stuff overseas and, unfortunately, we are used to it...
P.s.: without a signature, you can't do anything with the CPF number, it's only an "id" number, so it's not that important!
Knock around pens... I've been using fountain pens since I was about seven, so over 30 years. Nearly every fountain pen can be a knock around. As long as you have a tissue to clean the nib a little and get the ink to flow you'll be fine. I use a lot of cheap fountain pens (supermarkets sell pretty cheap ones like maped) and honestly, if you're going to have a fountain pen floating around in your bag for weeks you're probably not so fussy about how smooth it writes ;-)
With a tissue and a little pressure clean off the nib and get some ink to flow out and you'll be ok. If it's really dried out, a drop of water (or spit) on your tissue will help. Make sure your cartridge isn't empty.
If it is and you're near a sink, fill it with water (get a really thin stream to run) it'll write a little lighter but it'll write.
If your cartridge is not empty but your pen is really dried up, out a drop of water on the nib and clean it off. You can also give your cartridge (while it's in place) a squeeze to push ink into the feed.
I'm a visual learner and this for me, by far, is THE BEST visual of baby's bottom (and laugh factor) of why you want a smooth baby's bottom! Thank you!!
I have not stocked up on a discontinued ink, but if you ever hinted that De Atramentis Black Roses was going to stop being a thing I would buy a 55 gallon drum of it!
Revising a comment I left 9 months ago where I said premium pens are out of my league and I'd not bought from you. Times have changed, I have a Lamy 2000 and several other pens from you, with more to follow. On the management side of the latter part of this discussion, my first job back in 1986 was in the construction industry, specifically joinery manufacture. The coming trend back then was Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing. While a hinge is a hinge and a screw is a screw (very few "differs") we really struggled because there was no such thing as a standard window frame (for instance). We could not offer off-the-shelf joinery products in a near-immediate turnaround time. The hardware, furniture and to some extent, the paint or stain was a stock item but the design and assembly had to be done from scratch on every order. This made us uncompetitive. I imagine the pen manufacturing world is similar, at least for boutique brands. A nib is a nib and a feed is a feed, but there are only so many standard stock items from which a pen can be made. There's a lot of retooling and extended labour required, which all has to be paid for by someone. I can't even begin to imagine how I'd go about making a small scale pen manufacturing operation cost-effective.
Regarding the free ink: You must have had huge supply of Lamy Al-Star Vibrant Pink last year because I couldn’t resist the sale of pen, ink, and free converter, all for the price of just a Lamy Safari!
It's my first time seeing parker penman sapphire,, wow. Even the bottle looks so pretty. So that was what it was all about. Now i can go keep using my nitrogen and majestic blue.
My brass Travelers pen has spent a month or maybe more in my bag and started right up.
Discontinued ink.... Sheaffer Skrip Peacock Blue. Love the color and the bottle. Used the cartridges in high school (1980s) in my Sheaffer no nonsense (which I still have but don't tend to use).
Ohhhhh, that Peakcock Blue! I loved that color. And one of the things I looked forward to was having the cartridge empty out and popping a different color cartridge onto my NN pen. The new ink would mix with the peacock blue still in the feed and produce an entirely different and unique color until the new ink flushed out the old.
Fun times. ^_^
38:25 question about (not) shipping to Brazil.
I'm learning more about economics and business strategies from Goulet Pens than I am in my business and economic classes.
I don't know whether to feel good or bad about that, lol -Brian
For the packages to Brazil, is it possible for the customer to get the mail service where they can have purchases delivered to a USA address and then the mail service would send it on to them. Just a suggestion for them to look into. It is a pity when governments make it impossible to do business with international companies.
Q2: Platinum Preppy. I keep a couple of colors in a two-pen case in my purse. They always write, someone always asks to try it, and If I lose it - eh.
The KAWECO sport is one of the most reliable pens I ever used. I immediately went for eyedropper, had it for almost two years now and have refilled it recently for the first time. So this is a pen I hardly use ever. The EF nib is kinda scratchy but I don't really care because this pen is my backup backup (maybe another backup) I know I can rely on every single time. The threads are sealing very tight and the small nib is sealed up in the top in a tiny, tiny space so evaporation of ink is practically impossible. It never hard starts even after weeks or even months unused. I wouldn't want it as my main writing tool but I'm glad I have it because I can toss it around however I want, it always immediately writes and never has ink on the grip section. I would guess I can leave it sitting in a drawer for a whole year and it would pick up writing like nothing happened.
Thanks Brian,for the explanation about Parker Penman Sapphire Ink. Believe I still have a bottle of this in storage. It was a great ink-and then suddenly,it disappeared from the market. Didn’t know about the issues with it...Will look into Majestic Blue.
OMG, whoever got the handle Hercule Poirot is the coolest!
I knew there had to be a commemorative Poirot pen -- from Stipula
www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/34372-stipula-hercule-poirot-le/
How about Lord Peter Wimsey? 😁
On Q2, the ink is also incredibly important. I don't know exactly what to use, but lower saturation non-sheening inks are going to be your friend. I hear Waterman inks can be good for this. I don't love the look of a lot of those inks, but they tend to perform quite well. I would try with a metal Kaweco sport and Waterman Mysterious Blue cartridges... I should actually try that...
Also Lamy Dark Lilac is available! (For $250 on eBay...)
That was by far the best explanation of “baby’s bottom” I’ve ever heard. And, for what it’s worth, your embarrassment at saying the term is really cute.
I noticed that too. So much reserved polite uncomfortable awkwardness on show that I'm wondering if he is secretly actually a Brit, like me. As a nation we have the whole shyness thing down to a fine art.
I wish you had a buyer's club
Thanks for the info [31:00] I loooove Blue Upon the Plains of Abraham, so complex yet subtle!
Qotw: I've gone out of my way to drive into Canada for the last bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac, or do a group order of country specific Diamine exclusive. I don't have multiple bottles of the same ink though.
Regarding the gift with purchase question, when the Pilot Knight was offered with the Iroshizuku inks, I immediately jumped because I had been wanting to try a couple of those colors (yes, I could have ordered samples, but this was a much nicer option). Consequence of this was I am now a VERY loyal Pilot Iroshizuku fan. Even though I already owned a bottle or two, now I have several different colors and will keep adding.
Rubik's Cubes! Awesome. Just recently into fountain pens and placed my first order from you. Your videos are SO helpful. You have yourself a new subscriber.
Yay! Thanks for watching! - Drew
'you have to smooth out the cheeks'..... I did not come up with this terminology........... Brian, so funny lol
1:06:23 "we are like a duck, or a swan, or..." ...a loon! ;)
I like hearing about some of the behind the scenes business stuff
Your enjoying the nice weather and im in the middle of a blizzard, snowed in, and watching your video lol
We just got 80cm of snow lol
Joshua Norris you must be in Newfoundland?
@@pepperpath yes haha. Good guess :D
I guess no one else is getting this storm then lol
We got over 100cm and my power was gone for 2 days! It just came back on.
Some streets have like 12 feet of snow in them. And i saw a pic of an "old peoples home" that was totally burried lol i hope they had everything they needed :P
Was a doozey of a storm thats for sure...
We are in Ontario- only a little snow (20 cm) lol Be safe, and warm
I wish I had some dark lilac ink to go with my dark lilac Safari. I bought my Safari from you back in 2016 and it has been one of my favorite pens since then.
On the second question about a knock around pen, Retro 51 fountain pens are awesome!!
As a student majoring in Economics, its amazing to hear about these commerce/bizlaw concepts in the real world talked about in such a transparent manner. Thank you to the Goulet team and please pass my gratitude along to Brian :)
2:20AM in the morning. 👌
I can identify with the Brazil question - I live in Vietnam, another country you don't ship to... :(
Hi Brian!
How do you store your inks and pens that you personally own? I know there are a lot of pen cases if you go somewhere and take your pens with you, but how do you conveniently store them at home so you can always find the pen and ink that you need at the time?
Greetings from Germany and write on! :)
QOTW: I stocked up on Mont Blanc Lavender Purple not too long after Amethyst Purple came out
[Q2:] I got a Traveller’s Brass FP last year, and that’s pretty much what it’s become for me: a knock-around pen that takes standard (short) cartridges, which keep in my bag or with my EDC planbook...
I don’t always use it EVERY-day, but so far it’s been fine every time I do. (That being said, I haven’t/wouldn’t try pushing it more than 2-3 weeks between uses)
Plus the brass is aging verrry beautifully :)
An ink I used to hear a lot about that was discontinued was a Sheaffer color. I can't be SURE, but I think it was called "Peacock Blue," and to my understanding it was sort of a bright blue-turquoise. I knew people quite a few years back who paid well upwards of $25 a bottle when Sheaffer's Skrip ink in all the current colors (not that there were a lot of them) were selling for maybe $5-$7 a bottle. I mean, they just went nuts for the stuff. But it was kind of a niche market that would pay that price for it, and apparently it wasn't a huge seller when it was in their stock line.
That wasn't one I stockpiled myself, but I knew people who did.
I've never been that attached to a particular ink because, being primarily a Sheaffer collector when I was younger, I just made sure I had a good stock of Sheaffer cartridges of black ink laid in to last me.
I have only three cartridges of Lamy Petrol ink left. I wish I would've stocked up on that ink because it is definitely one of my favorites.
Give Noodler's Squeteague (www.gouletpens.com/products/noodlers-squeteague-3oz-bottled-ink?variant=11884736872491 ) a try! Pretty good alternative to Petrol. - Colin
The Goulet Pen Company Thanks! I did get a sample from Goulet and I do like it very much.
My Kaweco’s last forever without using them! I’ve had one inked up with diamine poppy red for a whole year only using it once every couple of months! Especially with a gentle ink, not a high sheener, but even inked with Organics Studio it lasted for weeks without writing!
When writing with a wet pen what is a blotting paper? And where can I find some? Thank you for doing videos for noobs like myself. I bought a 10.00 fountain pen from Amazon and loved it so much I fell into the pen world. There's not alot of videos (besides your channel) that gives newbies alot of beginning information on fountain pens.As a newbie I see a 200.00 pen and think that's a power bill! But I do have several pens now and am obsessed over ink and how unique it is compared to roller ball pens.
We sell them in our store - just search for "Herbin Blotting Paper" at Gouletpens.com. - Drew
@@Gouletpens Thanks for getting to my question I appreciate it. I have been on the website and have been filling my cart. I have the mixed paper pack in there but missed blotting paper. Thank you Drew!!
Please! can you make a review on ST DUPONT LINE D fountain pens? there is almost non information about it!
As for a "discontinued" ink - I scooped up a bottle of the Pilot Tokyo LE Iroshizuku Shimbashi-Iro. I had the chance to get the grey ink from that set too, but that would've meant eating ramen noodles for a week for all my meals, so hard pass. I wish it was more widely available, because I'd buy another bottle for cheaper, but also because it's a really unique blue and I want everyone to be able to see/experience it.
Also, I swapped ink with someone who had the Penman Sapphire, and there's a production ink available that's similar in shade; it's the Bungubox "Hatsukoi" Sapphire. It's not a 1:1 match, but it's close enough for government work, and isn't nearly as fiddly.
Last comment, and you don't have to respond to this one - Usually when you do a free ink giveaway it's with a brand that's from the same distributor, so for the current Monteverde promotion, for example, I assumed Yaffa was providing the ink for free or a heavy discount to drive sales of the pens. I wouldn't dream of trying to peek behind the curtain, but I used to work in commissioned sales so I know all about value adds, loss leaders, and ROI forecasts.
I want the 51a jinhao ..looks good.
They are good. I like the Jinhao 51a over any similar hooded nib at any price point. I like the 51a better than the Parker that it was modeled after. Best part, they are less than two dollars all day long!!!
QOTW: I would say no. I did by a package of Lamy ink cartridges filled with the vibrant pink ink to go with the Lamy Al-Star of the same name. But, it was just one package. Since using the Goulet web site is problematic for me now, I can't check to see if it is still offered. I'm guessing it was a limited edition color. I guess that's not the same thing as an ink that has been discontinued.
QOTW: No, but I feel I should buy extra bottles of Spearmint Diva and Nitrogen because I would be despondent if they were discontinued and I missed it!🤓🌻 I did buy a bottle of Noodler's Boston Mueller because it felt like it would be a piece of history in my ink box. Do you "announce" when an ink color is being dropped or discontinued?
Cheryl Thomae-Barnes they used to have a “last chance” section on the website, but to my dismay they got rid of it!
Now, if you go to the Sales&Deals section, click on a given item/ink, then scroll to the bottom of the product description, it will say if that product will be discontinued...
I do understand why they decided to make the change, but I can’t help wishing that the whole entire world would bend to accommodate my pathological FOMO D8
@@severalwolves lol So glad I'm not alone! Thanks for the info.🤓🌻
I really, really thought about purchasing the Pilot Iroshizuku 100th anniversary ink but decided against it. I don't want to fall in love, and I know I will.
The only thing I've ever stocked up on was the pilot metropolitan. The first one I bought was ten dollars. Went back the next day to get another and it was up to twelve. As soon as the pilot metro retros popped I stocked up. Multiples of Every color. I now sell them at for more than I paid, at lower costs than any store and still make a seven dollar profit of every pen. If they wouldn't have raised the price to introduce that tacky little pen which followed the metro retro it wouldn't have been possible. Yay pilot. Yeeehawww.
Especially when you're dealing with young adults who actually use the pens and aren't going to shell out the bucks for costed paper. Many are restricted to standard paper anyway so the pilot nibs are perfect. They don't see the need and feathering with the pilot metro they would with other nibs. Fabulous deal for me. Can't say enough about them. I hope y'all, pilot, raise the price again 😂
2. Question. Pocket pen sub $100. Invest an extra 30$ for a Kaweco Supra is my opinion :D You can either have it to be very small or regular sized, and it is built tough :) Great Pen! :) And if it gets dirty somehow, just unscrew the nib, wash it out. The rest of the pen is just brass and it doesn’t have parts where dust can collect and you can’t get to. Great pen, I already have two of them :) (and I’ll probably get more)
Fascinating. I had no idea business was so interesting.
Ah the elusive tourmaline :'( ... Tourmaline and amber are the only ones missing from my set...the Lamy orange is my best behaved orange.. Plus there seems to be some problem with the sound
You must not be a drinker Brian, because the saying is "Crying in your beer." Cheers! 🍺😢
(QOTW) I bought a bottle of Lamy Dark Lilac along with the pen and tried to get more ink but it was gone. But at least I got one bottle, which I couldn't do with Lamy Petrol after buying the pen. I was on the list with three dealers and still couldn't get any. Stupid Lamy.
Brian, Brian, Brian...... 'crazy week'...... young and innocent, little did you know what was around the corner.
An old Parker ink being problematic in terms of maintenance? Colour me surprised.
Enjoyed the topics and information you provided.
One suggestion. Check your wardrobe for video effects. I have started watching more TH-cam videos on my big screen TV. The small stripes on your shirt "strobed" the whole time and was very distracting-especial watching for over an hour.
Again, great information. Just wanted to give some feedback.
QOTW: Yes, Pilot Iroshizuku Benzaiten. I bought two.
Smart thinking. Someone else here at Goulet stocked up on Hotei-son! - Colin
Oh gosh I find the LAMY branding and boxes and bottles so unappealing and corporate. It’s soulless and lacks creativity.
shhh, dont say anything about lockdown, the Brian from this time doesnt know about it yet...