My first pen show was great. See below!



It was great to meet so many people I only knew in the virtual world. And to sell them ink.

Must book up for the Northern Pen Show straight away!

Ray

Great job, Ray! You sure got the site up & running quickly...and then the London show right afterwards---Bravo!

Wishing you continued success,
~Maja

P.S. What was the most popular colour of ink that you sold? (if you don't mind me asking...)

Well done, Ray! Things seem to going full steam ahead for your new business venture. Fantastic.

I'm curious to know what tester pens you have arrayed there on the table? Were there various nib widths or were they all the same?

t!

Hi,

Well done. Keep it up Ray!

Dillon

Yay! Well done Ray!
Very brave indeed!

Warm regards, Wim

Best sellers on the day were Black (of course!), Ottoman Rose and Ottoman Azure (sold right out of these last two).

We had some pre-prepared slips of paper with Parker, Waterman, Sheaffer and Noodler's black inks, which we dipped in a bath of water. The first three just washed away, but Noodler's came out of the bath exactly as it went in, of course.

The pens were my wife's idea. I bought a load of them yesterday in a discount stationers. They're school cartridge pens - less than a pound each. I unpacked them, threw the included ink cartridges away, and filled the barrels directly, each with a different colour of Noodler's and a Dymo tape label on the pocket clip identifying the ink colour. A little silicon grease on the thread ensured no leaks from these cheap and cheerful eyedropper demonstrators, which held about 3.5 ml of ink! They have steel nibs, which I would say were fine-medium (no choice) and write beautifully.

One woman picked up a pen and did some quick sketches and declared it the best pen she'd ever used to draw with! I had a lot of enquiries today about the pens. I should have taken a box to sell. Next time I will.

Ray

The tablecloth looks spotless, so I'm assuming no one unscrewed the (converted) eyedroppers' barrel's to see what kind of cartridge was inside?

Nice layout, Ray. Hope that you got a lot of foot traffic by your table. Probably a large number of the attendees have never heard of Noodler's. It'll take some time, but you have you foot wedged firmly in the door.

Here's a view of a happy customer at the table -



Maybe nobody spilled any ink, but I did fumble one of the pens and almost dropped it. They really were nice pens, but the good thing about them was that they disappeared and let you concentrate on the ink colour.

I'm glad I got my bottles of Ott Azure and Ott Rose before they sold out, and a full load of turquoise in my new M200.

It was a pleasure meeting you.

Nice to put a face to the name who bought my M200 and I'm pleased with my ink purchases (Zhivago and Ottoman Rose). I'm looking forward to you stocking a waterproof blue. Do you have a date for the Northern Pen Show? I hope I'll be able to get along to that.

Did you stay on your stall all day or did you get any chance to look round the rest of the show?

Congratulations, Ray! Sounds like a well-deserved success!


G.

Thanks, everyone.

To answer Carrie, the Northern Pen Show will be on Sunday 23 April 2006. I spoke to the organiser yesterday and secured a place. And because my wife, Noushin, was with me, I managed to see the rest of the show as well, albeit in instalments.

Noushin and I had a great day. We were talking in the car on the way home and realised it was pretty much the first time we'd spent 12 hours together alone as a couple since our first child was born in 1998!

Ray