DC Pen Show

Hello and Welcome to Another Planning with Phan!

Today I wanted to share a special post about the 2024 DC Pen Show!

So I live in Northern VA and am fortunate enough to be local for the DC Pen Show. I started to get into fountain pens around the same time the pandemic started, which allowed me to have a lot of time to really look into the community and find out more about pens. During my deep dive into a new hobby, I discovered there were pen conventions called Pen Shows where collectors and distributors convened to share their love of pens. I knew I had to go to at least one pen show in my life…and I have been hooked ever since.

The first show I attended was back in 2022 where I was overwhelmed and wasn’t sure what to expect, especially with all the COVID rules. But after attending a few of these Pen Shows, I am excited to share my haul and experience.

The pen show has been held at the same hotel every year which makes it easy to plan driving and parking since there is a massive parking garage for the hotel. This is helpful since it seems every year there are more and more people attending these pen shows! So parking really isn’t an issue at the show. Tickets can be bought before arrival or at the admission desk at the show. I always buy before arriving so that I can quickly get to the goodies when I go.

This year, like last year, Galen Leathers gave out bags with one free single pen sleeve to each guest. This is a nice extra if you forget to bring your own bag since not all vendors may have bags for purchases. Most of the larger vendors will, but some of the collector sellers and such will not. So it is always nice to have a bag to carry your haul. Especially since there were over 3 rooms full of vendors this year!! So many vendors so little time. Most of the vendors are collectors selling vintage/used pens. This is a great place to look if you missed out on an older limited release pen or are into collecting vintage fountain pens.

Most of the large name brand pen manufacturers were present: Montegrappa, Esterbrook, Visconti, Sailor, Taccia, Pilot, etc with their own tables. It was a good chance to talk to the experts of these pens and maybe also grab a limited release pen. I nabbed a Van Gogh pen from Visconti last year. My favorite fountain pens are Sailor pens. I personally prefer Japanese nibs over European nibs just because my hand writing is tiny and the large nibs make it look like blobs instead of letters. I try to stop by the Sailor table at least to peruse the table. This year they had the option to build your own Pro Gear pen. This retailed for approximately $300. It was fun idea especially if you wanted a unique to you pen. They also had some of the limited release Pro Gear Slim Pens as well as the Tuzu Pen. The Tuzu was a unique pen where you can adjust the grip of the pen to accommodate your personal writing style. The Tuzu also came at the amazing price point of $45.

Another tidbit I was told about Sailor is they are starting a pen club called Sailor Pen Guild for those that love Sailor pens. (I 100% am on the waitlist to join. You too can join their waitlist at sailorpenguild.com)

I also always stop by Odyssey Notebooks. They are a local notebook maker, I think from MD. Using beautiful 68 gsm tomoe river paper of their most popular notebooks, I find myself purchasing one every year at the shows. I still have 2 that I have yet to use because I hoard notebooks like I hoard books. You can never have enough but it is so difficult to use them as well.

There were a ton of sellers selling handmade notebook covers and pen rolls at the show. I love looking at these handmade items just to admire how much work goes into them. If I had a larger pen collection, I may invest on these pen trays and pen rolls. But due to my collection size, I tend to stick to my rickshaw pouches.

Another local shop I like perusing is Penny Post where I ended up buying non fountain pen pens for travel and work. I love finding local specialty shops like this because I believe one can never have too many pens and office supplies. There were a few vendors selling pen accessories specifically-mostly pen cases and trays. But it was nice to see a large variety of vendors this year compared to previous years. There were even a chocolate vendor and a pop up card vendor just to change things up a bit.

Then of course this year was the first year, the show extended to different floors. While the main show stayed on the main floor with 3 rooms, this year they had a pen lounge and the seminars on a lower floor to help ease congestion during the show. I did not get to venture down the pen lounge (where the ink swatching station was located) since I had my 2 small children with me and the thought of them around open ink bottles gave me unrelenting anxiety…I skipped it this year. But I love the swatch tables from previous years just so I could personally see what different ink colors looked like on paper myself.

MY HAUL

Now onto the truly good stuff.

What did I get from the pen show?

I ended up picking up 2 Sailor pens from the Sailor table today, the Tuzu in turquoise with a Fine Nib and the Princess Ochikubo (the yellow and navy pen) also with a Fine Nib. Also since its release last month, I was eyeing the Winnie the Pooh Benu pen which I ended up purchasing (which also has a fine nib.)

The two other pens I ended up getting was the Zebra Sarasa Vintage Color Purple and Umi pen in Yogurt.

I don’t need these but I ended up purchasing way more inks than necessary. I got the Taccia 3 Ink pack. It comes with 3 20mL bottles in the colors: Daidai (orange), Momo (pink), and Murasaki (Purple). I also picked up 2 Andenillium Inks (an indie ink company) in the colors Luna Moth Green (a beautiful mint green) and Flapjack octopus Orange (An amazing orange.) Then lastly I picked up the pen show exclusive ink from Sailor, which this year is a beautiful olive green.

I found a Rickshaw pouch that was too cute to pass up with the adorable dragon (plus it was yellow…and I can’t say no to yellow.)

I ended up buying 4 odyssey notebooks, their standard 68 gsm tomoe river lined notebook, and 3 of their tomoe river paper travel notebook. I end up with one of these notebooks every year and I love it.

Then lastly cause my husband and son were being such a good sport about supporting my addiction, I found them the Lamy Charmander Pokémon Special Edition set. The boys are currently arguing on how to display this pen set for maximum enjoyment.

Overall, another successful and enjoyable pen show! See you all next time!

-LP