The 2003 Miami Pen Show

Another successful show is over: three days full of activity and fun.

Craig Bozort's efforts in organizing the Miami show paid off: attendance was good and business brisk.
Most tables had modern pens, with a large selection offered by Bertram's Inkwell and Total Office Products, among others. Great deals and good prices for the most desireable modern pens.
There were about a dozen vintage dealers, with a good array of american pens. Paolo came from Italy and brought an incredible amount of splendid rare Italian pens, some of which had never been seen in an American show, including a pen called "The King" (which in spite of its name was made in Settimo and had an innovative filling system: a Vacumatic suction filler that used a piston in place of the perishable rubber diaphagm; also several Ancora pens from the 30s and 40s, Columbus (rare lever filler models); rare Auroras (including a superb early safety large-size R-4 model), various Selene models (New Old Stock from 1939); OMAS (including a rare Extra Lucens in a gold cracked Ice pattern, oversize!); a Surgens from Settimo; a MontBlanc Rouge et Noir size 6 safety; and many overlay safety pens of impeccable quality.

His pen display became the focal point of the vintage pen lovers at the show. Our friend David Isaacson was impressed by a Webber Saratoga vac-styled pen that included in the original box an advert for Parker Quink ink!!!

It was most of all a fun show: everyone seemed to be having fun and business was good, particularly in new pens.
The Auction was impeccably conducted by Red, with humor and professionalism, even when he had to battle with some loud noises (music?? Not to my ears!) coming from a party in the next meeting room.

Pentrace stickers were distributed to all the Pentracers in attendance and our supply was quickly exhausted. A lot of interest was generated by Len's Parker Spitfire posters and many visitors received a free copy of the illustrative leaflet that outlines the history of this interestin fighter. It was great to meet Pentracers whom I did not know and to see again friends that I had met before.

The following notes are from a posting on Zoss by Craig Bozorth:

PCA Raffle Pen and the winner is.....
Hey, never being shy of patting myself on the back...Lisa and I had 1100 plus attendees at the show and when you see Weakley buying knives in the aisle and bidding on them in the auction, you know you have the power of conversion in you. With a total of 103 tables over 70% pens and the rest divided between knives and watches you saw a tremendous crossover between dealers.

The Saturday night auction was a rollicking success with Dr. Issaccson in company with Paul Erano and Wm. Weakley and a whole host of others, fresh from 'Happy Hour' ready to bid on 100 items. The Parker Duofold display case sold immediately and then a few knives. While at the DC show, ask Bill to see the one he bought for 1k!

New pen dealers had a field day. The distributors made a bundle too. One watches while the dealer goes over to buy from the distributor and then make a sale to an attendee..Then the 'close-out' items sold briskly. Omas, Aurora, Sheaffer, Parker, and Weakley with thousands (literally) of Namiki's...All closed out at 50% off and the public carting off their bargains in PWI shopping bags. PWI was kind enough to give away a dozen subscriptions, some lifetime.

Bertram's Inkwell gave away 1k in pens as well as cash $ to do the show advertising. Then Saturday at show close, those lucky dealers and some of their cronies received a 'Havana' to puff on. Sunday was no exception with the crowd spending money again. Hey, if you were there and feel you need to correct me on any point, feel free. I never bite cause I live where the pens are!

Oh, I almost forgot...Remember I said we had knife dealers too and it only took a day to bring them 'around' to pens.

So congradulations to Steve Corn of Fort Lauderdale. His table was strictly knives with a couple of token Montblanc's and as soon as he fondled the PCA LE, he was hooked and bought $20. in tickets. He won the PCA pen, then went on to buy other pens..Hey, it was like being a missionary!
Thanks to everybody that participated in the PCA raffle, had a table and attended.

Craig and Lisa

A great show, lots of fun and some great pen deals!
Thanks Len and Pentrace for all the goodies you provided!
Hope to see you all there next year!

Giovanni