Pen shops in Orlando?

[bluemax]

Just wondering if anyone can recommend any decent shops in Orlando. I am attending a convention there in a few weeks, and wanted to spend what useful & spare time I will have looking at the local shops.

 

Any guidance appreciated

 

thanks

Bren

[Fountainbass]

Now that you mention it, I'll be in Orlando in about a month! I'll also be interested to hear if there are any pen shops around.

[Bill]

bluemax,

 

I asked the same question here at the end of 2005! Since then, I have visited all of the stores mentioned at least once. Do a search of "Orlando" in this forum and you will find several threads where you can get more details.

 

A quick and dirty summary:

 

The Mall at Millenia has both a Montblanc store and a pen store called St. Hubert's.

 

Mount Dora, north of Orlando, for vintage at their big weekend flea market and possibly in a couple of the antique shops. I was in one shop there that had a big bunch of vintage pens.

 

Several luxury "tourist trap" stores, where I've seen up to Omas Paragons (no discount, of course).

 

Pearl Arts on 436 in Altamonte Springs for J. Herbin, Pelikan and other inks.

 

Of course, there are the standard office supply stores -- the smoothest Philieas I have came from an Orlando Staples.

 

If you want to venture farther, there is the Levenger store at the mall in Boca Raton (which replaced the "headquarters" store in Delray Beach). Levenger no longer carries other than their own pen brand, but I did pick up a dandy pen case when I was there last month. I've seen mention of a store in Melbourne but I've never been there. Also, I understand that Bill's Pen Shop in Tampa has closed.

 

As luck would have it, I just arrived in Orlando today and will be returning to, at least, the Mall at Millenia. I hope to get back up to Mount Dora this week to track down that Esterbrook desk set I stupidly passed up the last time. I've never been in the Sam Flax store, but may stop in this time (I could use some different Lamy cartridge colors).

 

If anything changes from what has been described in the other threads, I can post it here. Unless someone else has more recent info.

 

Bill

 

 

 

[Bill D]

Thanks for the summary, Bill. I remembered that there had been an earlier post, and I had been thinking of trying to find it. I will be in Daytona Beach this spring with the family, and I am sure there will be a least one excursion to Orlando that week.

 

Bill

[Bill]

Well, I visited the pen stores at Mall at Millenia today.

 

St. Hubert's looks like the standard small Montblanc boutique. I actually hesitated at the entrance and looked up at the sign because it has the same MB boutique layout and about all you see from there are the MB displays! A Florida FPNer may shed some light, but I had the sense it used to be the MB shop which moved to the bigger storefront to accomodate the miscellaneous luxury goods lines. I was in this store a couple of years ago but had forgotten how limited the selection seems to me now. They had mostly luxury lines: MB, Omas, Dupont, Dunhill, Porsche. They also had Montegrappa, Visconti, and Lamy, but no Al-Stars or Safaris to be seen. The Viscontis included the Wall Street, Opera Club, and Van Gogh lines, but not the Divina (unless I simply overlooked it). No ink was on display but they do carry Montblanc, Omas, and Visconti inks. Some of the displays were taken up with leather goods. There was luggage blocking the already cramped spaces.

 

The Montblanc store is within view of St. Huberts. It is spacious compared to St. Hubert's but is dominated by all the other lifestyle items they market. I did bring a 146 with me that has a grumpy nib and one of the two salespersons examined it and was pleasant and helpful, offering some advice for cleaning it. She worked with it a while and got it flowing a bit better. She called the nib an extra fine; I had believed it was a fine. Before I left she nodded toward my shirt pocket and said, "Nice pens." I had a 149 (yes, intentionally) and a new-style Omas Paragon Arco. I thanked her, but then she asked if I was a collector. ;-) I found that interesting because during our limited conversation we did not talk "shop." I answered that I was, without getting into the whole "I am a user, not a collector" thing. Apparently we enthusiasts are more transparent than I previously believed. -0) By the way, they did not have the MB Racing Green in stock.

 

The visits were certainly pleasant enough, but I suppose I have become spoiled or jaded by the plethora of quality pen stores near home, as well as others I have visited, with their larger selections and better prices. Also, I am not in the market for most of the pens that were on display and have seen or handled most of them before.

 

If I get to any of the other shops this week, I will post my impressions.

[fuddmain]

You may also want to check out Renniger's near Mt. Dora. If you're traveling down 441 from Orlando to Mt. Dora it will be on the right before you get to Mt. Dora. Renniger's has a Flea Market and an Antique Center. The Antique Center is most likely to yield pens. One vendor had a number of Shaefers and other pens last I was there. There's also a guy who sets up outside under a tree. He has loads of all kinds of stuff, mostly junk, but pens pop-up occasionally.

 

I never realized there were two pen shops in the Mall at Millenia. I've been there a number of times and never noticed

 

UPDATE: Renniger's is only open on the weekend.

Edited February 26, 2008 by fuddmain

[bluemax]

Thanks for the write ups and good advice.

 

Unfortunately, I will be without wheels, as I am staying in the centre of Orlando, so at best, I'll only be using taxis. The Mall at Millenia sounds promising, especially St Huberts.

 

I'm not sure how much attention you gave the pricing there, but did it seem reasonable or at full retail?

 

I better get a map together, and work out where all of these stores are

 

thanks

Bren

[Bill]

I'm not sure how much attention you gave the pricing there, but did it seem reasonable or at full retail?

 

Full retail, unfortunately.

 

Bill

[bluemax]

Given the current exchange rates, that may not be so bad...