2017 Philadelphia Pen Show

January 18, 2017

I attended the show on Sunday with three friends. This was my first time at the Westin since I missed last year's show due to bad weather. I had a great time and so did my friends. It seemed pretty busy for a Sunday. We got there around 12:30 and stayed until the closing at 4:00. The ballroom was quite full the entire time. I did noticed that the show seemed smaller than in years past. When it was at the Sheraton it used to fill two rooms, but there was just the main room and some vendors out in the hall. Some may have gone home as I know not all the vendors will stay all three days.

One of my friends bought his first fountain pen and a bottle of ink (a no-name piston demo and a bottle of black Pelikan 4001), so it was fun showing him how to fill it and how it works. I hope he ends up enjoying it. Another friend bought a pen from Susan Wirth, who gave her a free bottle of Waterman ink with it, and my other friend bought a gold Parker 180 from Paul Erano. I also ended up making my pen show purchase from Paul. I bought a striated Marine Green Sheaffer Balance from him and I ended up becoming a member of the Black Pen Society

In addition, I had the nib of a Parker Duofold worked on by JJ Lax. I've never used him before but he did a great job at a reasonable price and the best part was that I didn't have to wait at all (I guess that's the benefit of going on a Sunday). All in all it was a wonderful show and I'm looking forward to next year's.

Wow, sounds like you all did really well. I had fun just reading it.

January 20, 2017

Sorry, but you're doing it wrong. We almost never stay at a show hotel. Look at the Club Quarters hotel, literally around the corner from the Westin - $60 less per night, you park at the parking ramp on 16th, which is the same ramp the Westin uses, AND they validate your parking for 35% off - We paid $111 for four days. The Marathon Diner three blocks down the street has an amazing menu for very reasonable prices, I think we paid $35 including tip for a nice dinner for two. Sure, the hotel is convenient, but $60 for breakfast buffet is outrageous when you can go to the Four Seasons around the corner (two or three stores down from Club Quarters Hotel) and grab breakfast for under $10. It's all in scouting out the alternatives and not being picky.

I realize this is all after the fact, but consider this for next year. If you ever need suggestions for pen show hotels and dining, feel free to ask us. While I'm not doing McDonalds for dinner, I'm not paying luxury dining prices either. Show hotels even with "Pen Show Rates" are almost always more expensive than something else, and we never go more than five minutes drive out. I'm there to sleep, not have an experience.

I completely agree with Brian.

I'm not a dealer, so I stayed at a Day's Inn on Race Street at $70/night and walked about 8 blocks to/from the Westin every day. I came in from the Washington DC area via Greyhound ($18 round trip), breakfast was free at my hotel (cereal, bagels, coffee, juice), lunch was at the highly-rated Steve's King of Cheesesteak around the corner from the Westin on 16th ($14 - I *wanted* to OD on cheesesteak in Philly), dinner was at various (cheap) random places (Panera, an upscale burger place, etc.- heck, one night it was hot dogs from 7-11).

If you're that concerned about expense, you need to invest a little more time in shopping around for best price for the tradeoffs you want to make. Since I don't have three tables at the show, I can obviously make far greater tradeoffs than Brian and Lisa can, but I'm a cheapskate when it comes to peripheral things - the payoff for me is the show, and the people at the show.

January 31, 2017

I also got my Bexley Simplicity stubbed by Joshua Lax (of J.J. Lax Pen Co.). He did a lovely job. I'd originally purchased the pen from Richard Binder, so it's only fitting that one of Mr. Binder's students did the stub work.

I am glad you are so pleased with it!

January 31, 2017

I completely agree with Brian.

I'm not a dealer, so I stayed at a Day's Inn on Race Street at $70/night and walked about 8 blocks to/from the Westin every day. I came in from the Washington DC area via Greyhound ($18 round trip), breakfast was free at my hotel (cereal, bagels, coffee, juice), lunch was at the highly-rated Steve's King of Cheesesteak around the corner from the Westin on 16th ($14 - I *wanted* to OD on cheesesteak in Philly), dinner was at various (cheap) random places (Panera, an upscale burger place, etc.- heck, one night it was hot dogs from 7-11).

If you're that concerned about expense, you need to invest a little more time in shopping around for best price for the tradeoffs you want to make. Since I don't have three tables at the show, I can obviously make far greater tradeoffs than Brian and Lisa can, but I'm a cheapskate when it comes to peripheral things - the payoff for me is the show, and the people at the show.

Agreed. I haven't been to the Philly show, but that's what I do for the Ohio Pen Show in November, and what I did last summer for the Triangle Pen Show (in fact, I think for Raleigh I was about 15 minutes away, door to door). My hotel was near the airport, but I ended being a room on the back of the building so I didn't really hear any planes taking off or landing. I didn't get to go in the pool because of the weather (there were thunderstorms -- bad ones in particular on the drive down); but I wouldn't have wanted to be in the pool at the show site hotel, either -- for the same reason.

I didn't do it for the times I went to DCSS, simply because of the hassle of trying to drive around the DC area (especially on the Beltway -- in fact two summers ago, when I talked my husband into going, we took this somewhat convoluted route down because he did NOT want to be anywhere NEAR the Beltway... especially since we were driving down in the afternoon). Plus, *nothing* in DC is really cheap.... For the time I went to the Commonwealth Show, I kinda cheated -- my mother-in-law wanted us to come visit anyway (she's about 30 miles SW of Boston). So I drove up to the show (which is small) on Sunday morning, and was home well before dinner.