julesjones | Ooh, shiny... stationery (Reply)

I should post more often to reassure people that I'm still alive. In lieu of actual content, have last night's live microblogging on Mastodon of my unpacking a box of stationery shinies. The rascafarians may well want more detailed stationery porn than this, but it is mostly tastefully hidden behind a cut for the rest of you.

So, the shinies. I treated myself to a £50 mystery box from Cult Pens. It's allegedly guaranteed to have contents worth at least double that, although a lot of their prices are significantly higher than from other firms - it's just that they have a vast array under one roof. It's also a gamble on whether any of the contents are what you want. I'm pleased to say that I did actually get £40 of stuff I would either buy at some point or would have to tell myself I don't need any more of.

What's in the box is mostly stuff that is either clearing the shelves or from the free sample shelf, which I was half expecting after having recently ordered a mystery goodie bag at under £20. That came in, surprise, one of their branded cloth tote bags, which I did not need one of, let alone the second one that turned up in this box. IIRC they were charging £5 for one bought as an actual item, and they're so cheap and flimsy I wouldn't pay £1 for it.

So what would I have bought the next time I need one or I failed saving throw v shiny? The "saving throw" is a Cult Pens pocket fountain pen, made for them by Kaweco. I already have one, but in a broad nib, and this one's a fine, so I am just fine with that. I may even get around to using them some day, hence "saving throw" status. :-) It came with a 6 pack of cartridges, which are "would order next time I need one". The other "would buy next time I needed one" is a 6 pack of Schneider Slider pens. It might be a while before I need replacements, but they will be used.

As well as those, a couple of rollerballs I wouldn't have bought but will use, a nice quality sketchbook I like but I don't do sketching, ditto sketching pencil, set of metallic coloured pencils, roll of washi tape, and a couple of the inevitable Ohto Smile mini paperclips. They're adorable but I've never actually used them. There's also a Pelikan Jazz ballpoint, and I don't use ballpoints much outside work and don't need another one, even one in a lovely pale pink that will deter most of the people likely to take it off my desk because it's nicer than the Banner... things.. we get at work. On the other hand at £5 I don't mind too much if it does wander off, unlike the rather nice ballpoint a friend bought me for my birthday. And last is a Santa's Little Helper gift set from Tombow, this being a set of three Fudenosuke brush pens and 10 blank gift tags.

So I ended up with about £40 of stuff I actively wanted (this not being the same thing as needed), another £5 or so of "since it's there I'll use it", and a load of stuff which is not tat but also not stuff I'm not likely to have any use for other than as stocking fillers. Since I also bought separately some bits and pieces I needed that wouldn't have cost enough to get free postage, I did actually get my money's worth out of this, but them putting in enough different types of stuff to give a good chance of there being *something* in the box you'd like means there's probably a fair bit of stuff you're not going to be interested in. I should see if a friend's small granddaughter would like some of the "stocking filler" stuff for art class.

I'd say that for someone who does journalling what I got would be good value, but my version of journalling involves an Oxford Black n Red A5 hardback, a fountain pen with iron gall ink, and a set of Schneider Sliders plus some two-tone coloured pencils to colour flag entries so I can track migraines and sundry other medical stuff.

And someone who does not have an unhealthy relationship with cheap fountain pens probably would not appreciate the Kaweco kit. 🙂.