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View Full Version : Back To School! What and Where Do You Find Cool School Supplies?



thagbert
August 8th, 2013, 11:41 AM
It's that time of year when retailers put out school supplies.

Where are your favorite places to find cool supplies and paper that are fountain pen friendly?

What cool stuff have you found?

My favorite are composition books and index cards. Haven't checked on FP compatibility yet. What are your results?

(Tell your kids; Resistance is futile!)

Fawkes
August 8th, 2013, 06:11 PM
I get all my paper and ink from Gouletpens.com. For most other things I tend to just stick to Staple's. I'm not too exciting when it comes to school supplies, I just stick to what works for me. And what works are A5 Rhodia staplebounds or Moleskine Cahiers, Aurora Black and OMAS. Its the best combo for university I have used.

blopplop
August 9th, 2013, 06:32 PM
Goulet Pens 90% of the time. Jet Pens the other 10%.

Dave

KrazyIvan
August 27th, 2013, 09:06 AM
The schools my daughters attend ask for massive amounts of composition books. I get them from the dollar store. I went a little overboard this year as they had them 2 for $1.00. We donated our spares. They are not too bad for fountain pens. They are made in India. In December I take a look at restocking my stash unless I see a sale before that. We hit Office Depot for certain items like loose leaf paper, Target for the pencils and erasers. Academy Sports for backpacks. They are all in the same strip mall so it is convenient. We get the large bulk of sale items locally then odds and ends from my personal stash sourced mainly through the Goulet's and Jetpens.

Mags
August 31st, 2013, 09:11 AM
We use Staples, Walmart and now we have Tar Jay as we call Targets that bought the Zellers stores. Frankly, my son commented that there was better selection taking what he wanted from my desk this year than he saw at Target...lol.

Mags sent from my blackberry playbook using tapatalks

imjustmea
August 31st, 2013, 11:32 AM
If you are ever in Montreal, check out a little place called Papeterie Nota Bene (3416, ave du Parc near Sherbrooke St). It has a wonderful selection of notebooks, agendas, pens, fountain pens, and other writing paraphernalia, from all over the world. You can find stuff for every day use but it is also the place to find that special journal or nice writing paper. I love the place but I don't go often because I end up spending too much.

For more regular stuff, I usually go to Staples (Bureau en gros here in Quebec). I love going during their back to school sales.

Maria Elena (imjustmea)

ndw76
August 31st, 2013, 11:20 PM
I get my school supplies from a supply cabinet at school. The last time I had a look through one cabinet I found some forty to fifty year old typing paper. Works fantastic with fountain pens but is useless for the students. It has no lines. I don't know what I'm going to do for letter writing paper after this stash is depleted.

AndyT
September 1st, 2013, 03:25 AM
For those in the UK, I can't recommend Bureau Direct (http://www.bureaudirect.co.uk/) highly enough. Really good for Exaclair products (including the Séyès exercise books by Clairefontaine which aren't easy to find elsewhere), plus an interesting range of jazzy stationery items. Prices are attractive and postage is free over £5.

No affiliation, just a happy repeat customer.

thagbert
July 23rd, 2014, 12:14 PM
It's that time of year when retailers put out school supplies.

Where are your favorite places to find cool supplies and paper that are fountain pen friendly?

What cool stuff have you found?

My favorite are composition books and index cards. Haven't checked on FP compatibility yet. What are your results?

(Tell your kids; Resistance is futile!)

Yes, that's right, I bumped my own post! But it's that time of year again. School supplies are being set out in stores! (kids wail and scream)

(Contrary to popular rumors, I was not killed in that car crash!)

VertOlive
July 23rd, 2014, 01:49 PM
Well,my soon-to-be 8 yr old gets all his stuff from Walmart. No fountain pens for him yet, he presses so hard with his pencil, I have spelling words carved into my pine table...

Austin_Malone
July 23rd, 2014, 02:49 PM
I need some affordable notebooks or looseleaf paper. My FP collection has doubled and all my nibs ar M, B, Italics, or Stubs. Not at all friendly with the cheapo High School Paper. I like Rhodia and Clairefontaine but they are relatively expensive, and not really that accessible.

mtnbiker62
July 23rd, 2014, 02:53 PM
Order the Sustainable Earth notebooks and copy paper from Staples online. I've had good luck with those.

Plume145
July 25th, 2014, 04:43 PM
Jetpens is #1, by some distance. It's like my go-to - like having a good stationery shop in your neighborhood or something. I love it to bits, theirs is the only logo sticker/pin I would ever consider using. Heck if they made a pin I'd put it on my bag haha.

Bureau Direct is a recent find, so far so great, the site's super quick and lovely, light 'n' airy, their aftersales response rocks, the shipping costs makes you feel like they respect your hard earned cash, and they seem to be building inventory pretty steadily.

Cultpens is nice too, they redid the site lately. But watch out because for non-UK orders they only deliver to the billing address - could be a problem if you like to have stuff delivered at work or use a PO box.

I used to use the Journal shop years ago because it has some more of the kinds of things jetpens have but they seem to be slow about bringing in new things of late. hope they are doing ok.

I wish I could use Goulet Pens, mainly for the large variety of samples, but their international shipping is still unacceptably high (maybe it's all that packaging they are famed for using, lol).

Snargle
July 25th, 2014, 06:16 PM
For inexpensive and decent-quality composition books, the Norcom Composition books from Walmart are an excellent deal. Just be sure you get the ones that are made in Brazil. The ones from other countries have lousy paper. I stocked up last year when they were on sale for 50 cents!

ac12
July 26th, 2014, 10:17 PM
Staples
BRAZIL single subject spiral notebooks, 17 cents each, max 30.
I bought 20, should keep me going to next Dec.

FayeV
July 28th, 2014, 02:51 AM
Well,my soon-to-be 8 yr old gets all his stuff from Walmart. No fountain pens for him yet, he presses so hard with his pencil, I have spelling words carved into my pine table...

My table is probably a twin of your table; It has suffered since kindergarten. My 9 yr old can still write hard, however, she's pretty good about writing gently with her fountain pen. I got her a Lamy Safari in Neon Coral (her choice) earlier this year and she fills it with J. Herbin Rose Cyclamen. She took it to school and was very diligent about keeping it upright (even though I told her it'd be fine otherwise; I only made a huge deal out of it when we were on the plane taking off.).


Staples
BRAZIL single subject spiral notebooks, 17 cents each, max 30.
I bought 20, should keep me going to next Dec.

Déjà vu! :wave:
I picked up 28 total of the BRAZIL spiral notebooks.
They also have BRAZIL college rule filler paper for 82 cents. (The wide rule filler paper is made in Egypt)

Shimmershadow
July 29th, 2014, 07:40 PM
So far, I've been using Staples for the greater part of my desk bits and bobs as well as keeping a big stock if their Arc (Circa knockoff) stuff. They even have an Arc student calendar planner, which is awesome since I originally and accidentally bought a student planner that was most definitely NOT FP-friendly. (This goes way beyond First World problems...it's FP problems!!) I have a stash of Rhodia spirals and staplebounds for various other uses, such as when I will be needing graph paper later this week, and those along with the majority of my pens and ink come from Goulet Pens. I just placed an order with Jetpens for some pen cases and a few other little things--they seem to have a lot of Japanese papers and tchotchkes that I can't get from the other two sources, so there's that, as well as a bigger selection of pencils and drawing implements than either Staples or Goulet's. Staples is close by and reasonably priced for my ultra-basics, Goulet Pens is my go-to to indulge my taste for finer notebooks and my pens and inks (especially for their bulk discounts), Jetpens is for my fun stuff and toolkit, and the occasional stuff I may desperately need but can't get from Goulet's. (Edit: Bloody effing USPS. Jet pens shipping may not be my super fave, but this order's confusion seems to be stemming from the post's disinclination to scan and actually track things.)