Bert's trip to L.A. the Pen Show and Yafa

A late winter greeting! Make that Hello Spring – which is upon us soon! Making this newsletter a little late. 2009 started out with the Philadelphia Pen Show which broke records in table sales and general attendance. I’ve asked Adam (our resident Pen Guru aka Pen Nut) to write about it.
In February, I flew to L.A. over Valentine’s Day weekend with the approval of my wife Jennifer. I got a 9am flight from Reagan National, making it to LAX by 1pm. This is when the fun started! With the pen show not really starting until Friday, I had most of Thursday to have some fun. I called my friend Jerry Greenberg at Yafa, and he invited me to visit his operation. For those of you who don’t know what Yafa is, they are the distributors of Delta Pens, and the world headquarters of Monteverde USA. These are just two brands of the countless others that Yafa represents. After a hundred dollar cab ride for all of about 30 miles, I arrived at their offices. Jerry and I got right to work with an extended tour of his warehouse and manufacturing facilities, starting with Monteverde brand’s refills. Monteverde produces more refills, in more colors, in more sizes, in more styles, etc. than any other company. To do this, they have teamed up with the best refill makers in Germany, Switzerland, and Asia. Jerry showed me how the refills come in tens of thousands at a time, and his staff of 30+ people, blister card, package, and ship these refills. The line-up consists of, but is not limited too multipoint refills in 10 colors, international European ink cartridges in 10 colors, Parker style ballpoint refills, rollerball refills, and most notably: MontBlanc style gel refills for their ballpoint pens. My favorite is the Blue/Black Medium for the MontBlanc. And it doesn’t stop there! Speaking of blue/black, how about a Parker Style ballpoint refill in a double broad (or 1.4mm to get technical) in blue/black?! I can’t even list the hundreds of pens that this Parker Style refill will fit, but I’m sure you’ve got plenty.

After leaving the refill facility, we went to the building next door where Yafa’s ad specialty division is housed. Here I saw literally hundreds upon hundreds of promotional items – mostly pens of course – to environmentally friendly tote bags that this division of Yafa will print with a company’s name for promotional purposes. While there, the staff was working on printing 2000 bicycle bells – yeah, the one you put on the handle of a bike and pushed with your thumb when you were a kid.

Saving the best for last, we went to the Delta warehouse. This of course is where all the Delta pens are stored. It was a pen aficionado’s dream come true to see stacks upon stacks of Indigenous People’s Pens, the all new Capri series, and the ever-fun Dolcevita collection. I tried to get Jerry to give me one of the new Dolcevita piston fillers, but in a word, he said “No”. Later we went to Jerry’s office to discuss strategies, and to discuss what’s going on in the pen industry. After only a few minutes of talking, I could see Jerry’s passion for pens had not been hampered by the economic plague gripping our country. Sales not included, watch out for many new and exciting products to be launched by Monteverde and Delta in 2009. To Jerry: Many thanks, my friend, for giving up your afternoon and spending so much time with me. It was a blast! And for
my private black sedan to make my ride on the 405 a pleasure!

Adam's Philadelphia Pen Show 2009 Review

Well folks, it’s been a while since our last update in the world of pens. We’ve had quite a bit of changes in the meantime. We’ve worked a few pen shows, and many new pens have come out too!


We hosted this year’s Philadelphia Pen Show, which was great! It was the first time I’ve gotten to go to the Philly Show, and I got to meet many fun people that shared my enthusiasm in all writing instruments – both vintage and new! Bert and I got to go to a couple of restaurants that were packed full of people (which made the atmosphere all the more fun). The first night Bert, Renn (the security guy), and I went to The Happy Rooster which is a small restaurant, with great food, that happened to have a karaoke night while we were there. And no, I couldn’t get Bert to go up there and sing (maybe if we had a few more drinks…)! The next night we went to a very nice restaurant called Table 31, with Dave MacDougal (who represents Curtis of Australia), Jimmy Dolive, Jimmy Dolive Jr., Chuck Swisher, and his wife. The food was incredibly delicious, and the server was very friendly. On Saturday night we enjoyed the company of the crew from Fountain Pen Hospital (Steve Wederlight, Ed Fingerman, and Ricky), and the crew from Kenro Industries (Dick Krane, and Bryan H.) who represents Aurora, Omas, Libelle, and Aquila, as well as Nancy Olsen (with Stylus Magazine). We all went to Maggianno’s Restaurant and had a great Italian meal. During the show I managed to pick up a few great finds! Ken Jones of Visconti Pens helped me acquire a totally awesome Gold Nugget Ltd. Fountain Pen with a stub nib that writes beautifully! Joel Allison was also generous in my acquisition of 4 of his limited Cross ballpoint pens, as well as two of his limited Zippo lighters. Overall, the show was a lot of fun, and a great experience, and was also filled with non-stop excitement!

The 2009 Philadelphia Pen Show was sponsored by Visconti Pens. Their generous support of the show makes all of the marketing efforts possible. Of course Ken Jones and his skill as a salesman is about all the marketing effort any pen company needs! It sure was nice for them to donate one of their pens for the raffle (won by Jean Kellerman of Philly, PA)! For those of you, who didn’t get a postcard in the mail, thank you Joel Blumberg of Kenro Industries for producing the Bentley Pen themed postcards.

Alan Shaw of Shaw Pens produced/designed the theme pen for the show. It is called The Cradle of Liberty. It is an ongoing series of pens to highlight the history of Philadelphia and the nation. It was available in a steel nib or gold nib. This was given away on Sat. Jan. 24th, 2009 to Jeffrey Lerner of Merion, PA. We just spoke with Alan a few days ago and learned that he has just re-vamped his website to allow you to create and design your own pen for him to make! Check it out at www.shawpens.com.
This was the fifth year that Bertram’s Inkwell has actually run the Philadelphia Show. Each year the show has grown from an original count of 60 tables to the 95+ tables that we had this year! The amount of people coming through the doors has grown at an equally fast pace with this year’s attendance approaching 700 people! The show was promoted in The Philadelphia Enquirer, and on the radio, in addition to sending out over 5000 postcards. This show is more heavily promoted than most of the other shows out there. So if you’re planning on participating in (or just attending) a show, the Philadelphia Pen Show should be at the top of your list. Next on the list of “must attend” shows (if you’re looking for a more relaxed atmosphere) is the Miami Pen Show. Mark your calendar for July 17th, 18th, 19th, 2009 and stay at the five-star Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.