I write to support Dan's positive comments about the first ever Long Island Pen Show, and will toss in my own hack-amateur-newbie view of the event, colored by the context of perhaps 50 pen shows attended so far.

Mike Bloom and Terry Brack deserve great credit and our most sincere thanks for taking on the non-trivial challenge of mounting a new pen show. Only more impressive is that both of them too are relatively new to the hobby, relative to the experience in pendom possesses by most other show hosts. They dived into tricky waters and certainly did not drown, but proved to be adept swimmers, fershure.

No doubt "unfairly" (LOL) aided by setting up shop in a region of high population density, of fair wealth and with probably the nations largest active local pen club, this show was well targetted.

The on-campus setting was a bit hard to find and could've had better lighting, but was spacious and hospitable. Street signs trumpeted the show, and I know that advertising was nicely done beforehand. Even some students wandered in and played at the show. A scavenger hunt kept young kids running. Table space was generous and indeed in a room well too large for the dealer tables alone, a nice space was set up for show goers to sit comfortably with pen and paper (good paper provided) to test their new toys. Bottled water and coffee was provided free of charge. Table costs were quite affordable.

In the heart of Hoftra's student center, the bourse was adjacent to a large school restaurant complex. We literally were a 50 yard hallway from fresh Sushi, deep fry, Glatt Kosher kiosk, Italian and numerous other sorts of cuisine. We ate well. I remain amazed at what college kids today seem to spend casually for food.

I was busy enough with pen buying and selling and with both shmoozing and catching up with pen buds and pendom culture, that in a somewhat tired state after a looong run of night shifts in the hospital i largely opted out of pen photography this time. Had my portable camera lab set up, but shot just 10 or so pens instead of usual 100-500.

Besides tables held by a bunch of us (mostly collector types as well as local Art Brown) who reside within 100 miles (mostly much less) of the show, this show did receive the attention of a number of long distance pros, for which all of us no doubt are appreciative.

Jimmy Dolive came in all the way from Atlanta and along with Jim Rouse representing Bertram's Inkwell from Maryland, represented the out-of-area modern dealers. It is to be admired that they were willing to invest no small effort to pop in on a 30-40 table new show held in a college student center hundreds of miles from home. The major local retailer i noticed was Art Brown of Manhattan, with a very nice display.

Well known collector and seller of vintage pens sorted by point style, Susan Wirth trekked in from Milwaukee and appeared to do brisk business. It was gracious of Terry Mawhorter show- host of the well established Columbus Pen Show and the three year old Raleigh Pen Show- to drive about 600 miles to lend his presence and support to Long Island's rookie show. Frank Tedesco came no small distance from the heart of Pennsylvania, and sold me a sweet and scarce piece of pen ephemera- a box and instructions from the 1920's to house my recently acquired Diamond Medal Diplomat OS fountain pen. As i've noted, seeing old pen friends is a big part of the pen show experience.

Ron Zorn a very skilled member of vintage pen restoration community came down from Syracuse and in fact generously drove a post-night-shift sleepy David along with him. Set up next to fellow restoration pro and nib guru Richard Binder, the corner of the room occupied by Binder, Zorn and Wirth was hopping the entire weekend.

Plenty of us local yokels were set up selling at the Show. Bob Novak had- IMHO- the most impressive array of high cachet vintage pens to be found at the show. Alan Hirsh was there, as was Mike Dvoretz, David Ushkow (Maki-E focus), Elaine and Aunt Rebecca- taking their first ever table at a pen show and others. Even Daniel Kirchheimer took a table- first time for him too- with the sanction of She Who Must Be Obeyed. His light kits used for table top pen photography are most impressive. He had couple custom made restoration tools that had Zorn and Binder salivating. Steve and Maryann Zucker, hosts of the New York City show popped in, which was nice of them, given that the two shows are near neighbors. They are looking well and recovering from health challenges of the past year. Good stuff.

Whilst of course wishing the show well, i had entered the weekend with low expectations for pen activity, planning instead to enjoy a pen show as i had not in quite a number of years- hanging out and enjoying the pendom scene and hoping just to buy a few for the collection. I did not expect to buy spectacular pens both for my collection and for the http://www.vacumania.com website. I brought 200 pens with me to sell not really expecting to sell many (or any) at such a small and new show.

Low expectations certainly proved to be a mistake, though a happy mistake. While the open room and relatively small dealer count did allow me the sense of fun from the old days back when i went to shows mainly to find a couple pens for me and to hang out with penfolk- indeed instead of my usual battle vest I chilled in linen shirts and sportcoats- this show actually fired on all thrusters when it came to the buy/sell dynamic which ultimately is the heart of most pen shows.

I added two superb and scarce early Parker Vacuum-Filler pens to my wee hoard and added one pen to my tiny but growing mini-collection of 19teens-twenties Waterman ringtop "telescope cap" pens. Pics on those another time :-) I grabbed one of the most clean Wahl gold seal Lapis Blue pens i've seen. A neat barber-pole celluloid Wahl Bantam was a nice find, matching a pencil i'd picked up not a week before.

But sales...

Sales just stunned me. In two days at a local new pen show, i came within about $1000 in sales of catching my evil take at 4-5 day runs in Chicago, Atlanta and couple other shows this year- and I had not been at all unhappy with results at those venues. Public presence was strong at this show. Very strong. Long Island has pen collectors it seems.

Collectors who grabbed about 20 pens from me seemed interested in clean, nice writing entry level to slightly above entry level items. I sold many clean single jewel Parker Vacs, striped Duofolds and Sheaffer Balances. I've been struggling to get a 120 pen website upgrade ready (hospital has been busy this fall), and found that Ohio and LI wiped out a big chunk of the pens i'd planned to list. Not complaining, mind you.

Dinner out of course is a key social element to the pen show experience. 20 people at the dinner table telling fish stories makes for great fun. Late saturday night, weirdly enough, we ended up with a core cadre of old pen buds. Ron Zorn with son Tyler, Richard and Barbara Binder, Daniel Kirchheimer, yours truly, and Tom Levien hit an Italian eatery and, well, ate... well. I didn't shoot pics at dinner, but all of us save for Tom can be found in the image below from Philly 05, having a mellow chat.

http://vacumania.com/philly2005/DSC02614fourwaysmalla.jpg

One of the funniest experiences at the show was being the object of a well witnessed emphysemic, screamed x-rated rant accompanied by his cocked fists, wobbling threats of violence and gritted teeth fight-or-flight stuff, all by some pen collector named Al who appears convinced no one else can examine any pens at a show that he might have observed to be in the room, all the while convinced that all other pen dealer types are "conspiring" to get the "good" pens away from him, all the while being waaaay too serious about the pen show experience.

What can i say. After i gently explained to him pen show etiquette- not sure it penetrated the paranoia- i spread my arms wide, hands open, smirked my best smirk and said, "puleeeze, do knock me out. I do need to get some sleep. Just don't adrenaline yourself into a cardiac arrest, cause i sure don't wanna hafta do CPR on *you*" ;-) And, after all that, i found such nice pens to buy. He must've been to mad to notice 'em. I can tell you that this was the object of no small dinner gab. Always somethin' at a pen show.

All in all, this pen show exceeded expectations for most show goers and clearly has plopped Long Island firmly on the pen show map. Great pens. Great people. Trivial controversy. Great Meals. Buying. Selling. Learning. Pen show culture to the max.

I am grateful to Mike and Terry for their sponsorship on this project. I hope they made oodles of money so they are willing to take on the hassle next year. Heck, if they wanted to do this quarterly, i'd go.

See ya!

david