You probably saw Stationery Traffic’s blog post about an article on the Guardian web site. Last week another stationery-related article by the same author, Steven Poole, made it onto the Guardian web site – looking at how the Leuchtturm1917 notebooks compare to Moleskine notebooks.
PencilWrap has a Peanuts Molskine Giveaway! Just leave a comment at their Peanuts Moleskine Giveaway blog post before 23:59 Pacific Time on 2nd December and you have the chance to win a sealed copy of the large Peanuts 60th Anniversary Limited Edition Ruled Notebook. PencilWrap is even shipping internationally.
As I mentioned earlier there are new limited edition Moleskines available to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Schulz’s Peanuts. I first read about the Pac-Man edition in Office Supply Geek’s newsletter which in turn lead me to the Peanuts edition.
This is my first Moleskine. I have used similar notebooks in the past, but somehow I have never bought one from Moleskine Srl / Modo & Modo Spa. My first surprise came when I saw that Moleskines are made in China. I assumed they are made in Italy, but (as Lexikaliker would write it) a quick google search extensive research has shown that they are made in China since 2006. Contrary to the popular believe, I come across quite often, made in China does not equal inferior quality: I have seen many items of extremely high quality that are made in China …but without going into too much details about currency exchange rates etc, I would like to say that I was quite surprised to see Moleskines are made there because similar notebooks made in “high wage countries” are not more expensive than Moleskines (limited edition or not) – I just assumed Moleskines were made in Italy because of the high price …but of course I cannot blame Moleskine Srl or its parent company for trying to milk the cash cow by increasing their profit margin. In the end they are a company and want to make profit.
I ordered this Moleskine from WHSmith’s online store – they were the cheapest shop I could find. This A6 Moleskine was £7.43 ($11.93; €8.56). I have not yet been able to find the limited editions on the high street or in shopping centres (Paperchase, WHSmith, John Lewis, …). It feels nice and well made, though I have seen similar notebooks where the workmanship seems to be better. The coating above the spine feels a bit loose but should be able to cope with daily use.
Thanks to the Office Supply Geek newsletter and to Woodclinched I just discovered that there is a Pac Man Moleskine Limited Edition available. There are altogether four different notebooks and one set with a Pac-Man theme. Another limited edition, to be released between next week and November (depending on where you live) has a Snoopy / Peanuts theme. I have not had any ‘real’ Moleskines before …but since the Pac Man and Snoopy editions remind me of my childhood I might buy my one of these.