If you live in the UK you might like this: I noticed that The Pen Shop in Manchester (Trafford Centre) offers a 30% discount on Pelikan pens. The discounts are even better for Graf von Faber-Castell pens: they are 1/3 off. There is a good chance that other stores of this chain offer similar discounts. The Pen Shop is not cheap in the first place – which means that many of their Pelikan pens are not really cheaper than in some online shops. Some of their Graf von Faber-Castell pens are however real bargains I haven’t seen that “well priced” before (I don’t want to call them cheap). Unfortunately they didn’t have the GvFC mechanical pencil I am interested in.
These discounts seem to be across the range, i.e. including mechanical pencils, fountain pens, etc. Some of the (not so exciting) Pelikan discounts are available online, too, but the GvFC discount are unfortunately not available online.
The information I was given by the employee implied that the discounts would last until they sold these pens/brands off, but I don’t believe this as I was told something similar in the same shop in December 2009, but back then the discount were only for a short period of time.
While I don’t live in the UK, I’m sure others will appreciate this information.
Is the pencil you are seeking by any chance the Elemento? It appears that it is being offered only as part of a four piece (fountain pen, ballpoint pen, rollerball pen, mechanical pencil) set. Very odd for a company with roots as a pencil maker.
The Elemento series is certainly very nice! …and I didn’t even know there is a mechanical pencil. Thanks you for letting me know. The one I was interested in is less expensive, but has nevertheless a price tag that holds me back: I was interested in the mechanical pencil from the Classic series (The platinised version is nice, the sterling silver one would be even nicer as it would “age”). It is very similar to your Yard-O-Led Edwardian pencil, which is also very tempting. I am quite sure that reading your blog entry about the Edwardian pencil started this desire 8^). If have never seen the GvFC Classic or the YoL Edwardian on offer, though. …tried to get one of them cheap on eBay for a while, but gave up after a few weeks.