True Writer Pen Collection - So Far

[lantanagal]

56 minutes ago, Misfit said:

I bid on and won by $1 another True Writer Kyoto, this time with a F nib. The seller called it Kyoto Fire. I’m not sure if that is a correct color name. The pen has a lighter cap, so I figured it was worth the risk of getting the same pen twice. 
 

Should we keep bugging Levenger to restore the History of the True Writer?  You’d think they would do that for their own flagship pen. 

Was that from gerobi-3160 by chance?

 

 

[lantanagal]

4 hours ago, donnweinberg said:

I have tried also, as you can see from some of my comments earlier.  I received a message that they were working on restoring it as a blog of theirs, but nothing has come of it for several months since then.  

Yes, I did see that, Don.  I reached out to Steve Leveen on Facebook today but he doesn't appear to be very active on there so I'm not all that hopeful.  And I emailed Levenger Customer Service referencing an earlier exchange of emails and asking if there were any updates about reinstating the pages.  I'll post here any replies.  Steve has an X account but I don't.

[Misfit]

1 hour ago, lantanagal said:

Was that from gerobi-3160 by chance?

 

 

Yes, that’s the seller for the Kyoto. There were two, and both sold for $56.  I’m hoping I didn’t beat you out by $1. 

[Carguy]

I’m betting that Steve Leveen is mostly retired now with this new CEO they have. Their customer service has become atrocious and high shipping prices for some of the SLOWEST shipping ever! I’ve been a Levenger fan for years, they are giving me repeated reasons to not be a fan any longer .

[Misfit]

And the price of their ink! When did it go up to $25.20?  It’s on sale for $17 currently. 

[kazoolaw]

Go to the Wayback Machine site, plug in Levenger.com, go back a couple years and look at the Levenger site, go to the True Writer on Steve’s blog, copy-and-paste.  A little self-help.

 

 

[Misfit]

Thank you very much pen pal. 

[donnweinberg]

20 hours ago, kazoolaw said:

Go to the Wayback Machine site, plug in Levenger.com, go back a couple years and look at the Levenger site, go to the True Writer on Steve’s blog, copy-and-paste.  A little self-help.

 

Thanks so much, kazoolaw.  I was unaware of that site, and it is very helpful.

[lantanagal]

On 6/14/2024 at 5:45 PM, Misfit said:

Yes, that’s the seller for the Kyoto. There were two, and both sold for $56.  I’m hoping I didn’t beat you out by $1. 

Yes, you did 😉 I thought it was too much of a coincidence lol.  I also bought the bundle of 7 rollerballs from that seller, hoping to make up sets with the colors I don't intend to keep.  Let me know if you'd like either of the matching rollerballs.  I got a good deal on them so I can pass that on.  Elaine

[lantanagal]

On 6/15/2024 at 12:21 PM, kazoolaw said:

Go to the Wayback Machine site, plug in Levenger.com, go back a couple years and look at the Levenger site, go to the True Writer on Steve’s blog, copy-and-paste.  A little self-help.

 

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.   For anyone else looking for it, here's the link I bookmarked which should take you straight to it. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20230925195709/https://www.levenger.com/pages/true-writer-history

Or this page for the timeline https://web.archive.org/web/20220702171046/https://www.levenger.com/true-writer-history-797.aspx

 

 

[Misfit]

Thank you so much for the links. 

[donnweinberg]

I went to Wayback Machine and was able to download a few versions.  It seems that the July, 2022 version is the last one I was able to find with the history.  However, for many of the more recent pen colors (recent in relation to July, 2022), the photo doesn’t appear (a ? does).  Has anyone else seen the same thing, or have you been able to see all the photos?

[lantanagal]

58 minutes ago, donnweinberg said:

I went to Wayback Machine and was able to download a few versions.  It seems that the July, 2022 version is the last one I was able to find with the history.  However, for many of the more recent pen colors (recent in relation to July, 2022), the photo doesn’t appear (a ? does).  Has anyone else seen the same thing, or have you been able to see all the photos?

Yes, I had the same experience, and no, I was not able to see *all* the photos.  I was so excited I'd been able to find at least *some* of my pens, I went ahead and posted the link.  I think it might be because those pens were still available at that time, so instead of a 'static' picture which we might still be able to see, there was some sort of link that product's catalog/sales page, which we can't now see.  Or something like that, I'm no expert 😉 Maybe between us we can pool our information and produce a catalog that could be kept on here?  Start with a shared spreadsheet, maybe?

[Misfit]

I had the same experience as well. I have the Turquoise version that isn’t shown. The name of one was not the name I thought it had. The version I thought was Spring Bouquet is shown as Spring Inspired Rose. 

[donnweinberg]

23 hours ago, lantanagal said:

Maybe between us we can pool our information and produce a catalog that could be kept on here?  Start with a shared spreadsheet, maybe?

 

Great idea.  I’ve been working on this idea for some time, and now, with the Wayback Machine information, we can update the history here as best as can be done.  As it turned out, some of the dates I had for a pen issue were off from 1 - several months.

[Misfit]

Does anyone have the True Writer Sapphire pen? If so, are the colors obvious or muted?  Is it attractive?

[Misfit]

@donnweinberg have you bought the True Writer Carrara and/or Northern Lights fountain pens?  If so, what are your thoughts on them?  One review of the Carrara is that it is more gray than the photos. I’m also curious about the Northern Lights. Does it have depth in the material?

[Misfit]

Well, I thought I was done buying pens without stub or italic nibs. But I couldn’t not buy the Purple Majesty True Writer fountain pen that Speerbob had for sale on eBay. So I bought it.

[Sailor Kenshin]

On 6/14/2024 at 9:18 PM, Carguy said:

I’m betting that Steve Leveen is mostly retired now with this new CEO they have. Their customer service has become atrocious and high shipping prices for some of the SLOWEST shipping ever! I’ve been a Levenger fan for years, they are giving me repeated reasons to not be a fan any longer .

I've found the same for many other sellers I used to be a fan of…

[donnweinberg]

On 9/5/2024 at 4:00 AM, Misfit said:

@donnweinberg have you bought the True Writer Carrara and/or Northern Lights fountain pens?  If so, what are your thoughts on them?  One review of the Carrara is that it is more gray than the photos. I’m also curious about the Northern Lights. Does it have depth in the material?

 

Hi, Misfit.  I have each of the ones you mentioned, plus more.  Levenger has been issuing new models almost exclusively (at least at first) as either RB or BP, but almost no FP.  I’m guessing that their market for fountain pens has shrunk, and that’s why they don’t offer them on most new models.  When I get a chance, I’ll update my photo collection to include what I’ve obtained over the past few years.  I find that some of the new model colors are very similar to their others, with only subtle variations.  Or, they use the same pattern structure but with different coloring.  In other words, there are very few truly new designs.