2016 LA Pen Show Report

[AltecGreen]

LA Pen Show Wednesday


The 2016 LA Pen Show will certainly go down as one of the more memorable shows in recent history. The reason will become clear when I get to Thursday morning. The show started well enough for me although I seem to be busier and busier with pen stuff ahead of LA with each passing year. This year I was hauling inventory for Straits Pens from Singapore that they left with us after the SF show as well as stuff for the PCA and Farmboy. He occupied the front seat.

The last few years I have made it a habit to go down to the show early on Wednesday. The reason I go down so early is that a lot of deals are made before the show even begins. I had already made arrangements to buy a collection of pens at LA in December. Farm boy’s phone kept going off all morning as we were driving down. He was making deals with his partners and the Syndicate. It was all going well until we were about the exit the grapevine. A big rig had flipped over and blocked off the two right hand lanes in the middle of the night and it was still on its side ten hours later. Our luck ran out when Cal Trans decided to close all lanes to turn the truck over. It did not work. We spent an hour parked walking around while I was trying to prevent Farmboy from stealing road signs.

Fortunately, after a little detour to Pasadena, we arrived at the hotel. The weather was fantastic. Here was the view from my room.





While I was standing in line to register at the hotel, dealers were already approaching me to look at pens. This was 2:30 pm on Wednesday. This is why I come on Wednesday. After hauling all of the stuff I was carrying in my car and retrieving all of the stuff that was sent directly to me at the hotel, it was time to buy pens.


I went downstairs and found Laurence Prenton and Ray looking at pens. I sat down and Laurence handed me a pile of pens and a price list and I proceeded to shop. Soon after, Luis Leite stopped by and joined the action. I ended up buying seven pens and a box of nibs.


Pen Dealing




The first five pens I bought at the show



It was a good start to the show. I ended up eating dinner alone because everyone was scattered. But we all returned to hangout in the lobby in the evening. One thing I did notice was that around 11 pm, the normal outside tables had not yet been set up. This was strange. I went upstairs for the evening and checked the show schedule. It was an interesting read and had a bad feeling, but I one to bed because it was too late to worry about it.