Sunday, February 3, 2013

Buying Fountain Pen Inks in Manila

SAMSUNG
(Waterman inks photo by Cesar Salazar.)

More and more people are growing interested in using fountain pens here in Manila, as evidenced by the growing membership in our pen group Fountain Pen Network-Philippines.  For a long time Parker, Waterman, Cross and Montblanc were the only brands readily available in the local fountain pen market.  Now there are new brands available:  Lamy, Pelikan, Sailor, to name a few.  Waterman,Aurora, Cross and Rotring are now no longer being sold here, while Sheaffer recently reintroduced itself.  The local Pilot distributor sells only school pens, not the fine writing instruments, nor the ink.

I've compiled a list of stores that sell fountain pen inks, in bottles and cartridges as of 2013: (click on links to see directory info)

National Bookstore branches
- Parker, Lamy, Sheaffer, Inoxcrom (cartridges)

Montblanc branches - Makati (632) 813-3739, Powerplant Mall (632) 898-2347, Shangri-la Mall (632) 633-4636, Manila (632) 521-1140, Robinsons Place (632) 551-2095, Ayala Town Center (632) 850-5532

Scribe Writing Essentials - 3/F Eastwood Mall, QC.  (632) 900-0053.
- Herbin, Lamy, Sailor, Pelikan (4001 and Edelstein)

Cutting Edge (Greenbelt 5)
- Waterman

Times Trading
- Lamy

As of this time, there are no local distributors yet for Noodler's, Diamine, Rohrer & Klingner, Aurora, Visconti, De Atramentis, Pilot (regular and Iroshizuku), Platinum and other popular brands of ink.  For these, we resort to buying from eBay or online stores based overseas.

Monday, September 1, 2008

National Bookstore Mid-Year Book Sale

Last weekend Tristan, Joy and I decided to have lunch in Galleria and visit Bestsellers, National Bookstore's "books only, no school supplies" outlet. Joy was hunting for those Japanese magazines with the cute crochet and crafting designs. On an earlier foray to the National side of the mall, she saw the magazines went for PhP 85 each. At Bestsellers, they were also PhP 85 each, only some had further discounts if you looked really closely. Then the very helpful staff there suggested that we look for stuff we wanted because when the Mid-Year Book Sale started, trade books would be from 20-40% off! She also said we could RESERVE books and get them the first morning of the sale (ie., Aug. 28, Thursday). Now isn't that just great.

We returned to Bestsellers as promised Thursday morning, when Galleria was still clear of shoppers. The discounts were amazing! Joy got the Japanese magazines at PhP 65 each, and I got a couple of hardcover trade books for 40% off! So we decided to visit National's main branch in Gateway (near the Bread Talk entrance) yesterday. The entire top floor was 50% off!!! Some trade books I got were priced at PhP 300 and lower!!! Some books marked "POB" were marked PhP 100 and even then were scanned in at PhP 50!!! Okay, that's a lot of exclamation points, and I meant every bit of them.

I think it'll run till Sept. 15 weekend. You know what that means :) More muscles from weightlifting, and a lighter wallet...

Sunday, October 23, 2005

I Could Not Resist

Earlier this week a friend alerted me via email to the Powerbooks Warehouse Sale (126 Pioneer St., Mandaluyong). I ended up going to the sale two days in a row (yesterday was the last day). Actually most of it was spent panic buying for discounted office supplies at another room in the same building, but I did manage to score the ff. (everything less 20%):

1) Some beautifully illustrated hardbound children's books (Hans Christian Andersen, Arabian Nights and Grimm's Fairy Tales) for PhP 388 each (from PhP 485).

2) Clive Barker's second book in the Abarat children's book series -- Days of Magic, Nights of War -- for PhP 396 (from PhP 495). My brother-in-law Tristan has the first book in the same edition (trade paperback), I'll just borrow his copy to read.

3) Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine second trilogy -- book 2 (Alexandria) and book 3 (The Morning Star), each at PhP 772 (from PhP 965). A steal for collectible hardbound books still in their shrinkwrap!

Now I will definitely NOT be buying any more books for some time... Good thing I've already done my Christmas shopping (including packaging!). I don't want to suffer all the Yuletide last-minute stress and delirium.