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Tops Idea Collective Journal?


dkirchge

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I happened to see these journals carried in my local Giant Eagle grocery store recently and I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them. They look to be a decent enough alternative to a Moleskine or my current favorite 5" x 8" government green memorandum books (NSN 7530-00-222-3521 in case anyone wants to look for them on the web) and if I can get them while I'm shopping for groceries, so much the better. The store had several in the small size (link to product page) and just one in the medium (link to product page); I'm especially taken with the medium.

 

EDIT: Added tags for searchability.

Edited by dkirchge

-- Doug K.

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Have you tried it yet? I use a lot of Tops legal pads and they are generally FP friendly. I'd love to see your review.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Actually I was grocery shopping tonight and couldn't resist buying it; turns out they were selling it for $8.99, which is way less than the price listed on the Tops page. I'll give it a go as soon as I finish my current notebook.

-- Doug K.

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I look forward to yoru report.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

Create a Ghostly Avatar and I'll send you a letter. Check out some Ink comparisons: The Great PPS Comparison 

Don't know where to start?  Look at the Inky Topics O'day.  Then, see inks sorted by color: Blue Purple Brown Red Green Dark Green Orange Black Pinks Yellows Blue-Blacks Grey/Gray UVInks Turquoise/Teal MURKY

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I couldn't resist and brought it to work this morning to transcribe a couple of pages of meeting notes from one of my other notebooks. I'll give you my first impressions.

  • Solid cover, binding, pocket, and elastic strap. This thing is heavier than I thought it would be and appears to be quite well made, but the cover material is a bit of a fingerprint magnet.
  • The paper has a very nice texture, smooth but with just a hint of tooth. It really feels good under my fingers.
  • The creamy, off-white pages are a little more yellow than I like, but quite usable.
  • The lines are wide-ruled, about 7.5mm apart, and light gray. These are fairly comfortable for my handwriting.
  • Very faint show-through with my ballpoint pen, a Rotring Skynn loaded with a purple Monteverde soft roll medium point, but I can write on both sides of the page and not have it irritate me; I'm very picky about that and mostly just use one side.
  • I haven't tried a fountain pen in it yet as I mostly use ballpoints at work, but it's on the list of things to try later.

On first blush, this is a darn nice little notebook. I'm not sure I like it better than my green books, but it's nice to know I can get a good notebook at the neighborhood grocery store if I need one in a pinch.

Edited by dkirchge

-- Doug K.

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Hmmm. Have not seen these. But then, the Giant Eagle closest to my house is very small. I may stop at one of the larger ones on the way home from getting the van inspected and see if they have any (since I have to get a loaf of bread -- and lottery tickets :lol: -- anyway).

Thanks for the tip.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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Well, I got home tonight and had to run a quick page with a few different fountain pens just to see how the paper holds up. I used a Pilot Petit 1 (F nib) with Pilot black ink, a Platinum Preppy fine point with Platinum black ink, a Zebra V-301 with Zebra black ink, a Pentel Tradio Stylo in blue, and, just for fun, an Acme rollerball with a fine point refill. My thoughts:

  • All the pens were pleasantly scratchy but moved over the page easily. I never felt like the pens were going to get away from me.
  • I noticed some slight feathering with all the fountain pen inks, but nothing objectionable to my eye. The rollerball showed no feathering at all, and all the inks dried within a second or two on the page.
  • All the fountain pens showed through quite a bit on the other side of the page; the rollerball showed through to a lesser degree but still noticeable. It might not bother you, but I would only write on one side of the page with any of these pens.
  • There was no difference between writing on the front or the back of the page.

I would probably restrict this journal to ballpoints for two-sided writing or just use one side of the pages if I wanted to use a rollerball or fountain pen. However, I think a pen with an extra-fine nib like the Pilot Penmanship would work well on this paper; I'll try it once I replace my old Penmanship.

-- Doug K.

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Well, I looked in one of the larger Giant Eagle stores in the area, which was recently remodeled, to the point that I wondered if they were going to turn it into a Giant Eagle Market District store (those are the ones that are in more upscale neighborhoods and I suspect are designed to go head to head with Whole Paycheck Foods).

I wonder if those notebooks are more likely to be in a Market District store.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I just did a quickie Google search. Apparently they're available at Staples, Office Depot, Walmart and Target (although I didn't investigate enough to see if they were online-only purchases).

Edited by inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I wonder if those notebooks are more likely to be in a Market District store.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: I just did a quickie Google search. Apparently they're available at Staples, Office Depot, Walmart and Target (although I didn't investigate enough to see if they were online-only purchases).

I was in one of the upgraded stores, so you might be right.

-- Doug K.

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I was in one of the upgraded stores, so you might be right.

 

Well, they didn't seem to have them in the Wexford PA Market District store. But I'll keep looking, because now I've gotten interested.

They weren't in the Staples on Rt. 228 east of Cranberry Twp., either, but it gave me an excuse to go for a drive, and I wound up hitting a couple of antiques stores in Butler County. There's an Esterbrook desk pen set with a 9556 nib in a place in Evans City, PA, if anyone's interested; it was for more than I wanted to pay, especially since I don't really like desk pens, but it's always possible that the price could be talked down -- the place was open but the only person I saw was some person up on scaffolding painting the main house (the business was in two outbuildings on the property).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I'll check and see if they have any more the next time I'm in the store; it could be that I got the last one of an unpopular item and they don't plan on ordering any more, who knows? The game is afoot...

-- Doug K.

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