(Kimberly (she/her) took the express train down the fountain pen/stationery rabbit hole and doesn't want to be rescued. She can be found on Instagram @allthehobbies because there really are many, many hobbies!.)
I attended the 2022 Los Angeles Pen Show this past weekend and wow, what a whirlwind.
As you may recall, I recently came up with a Report Card for Pen Shows to make it easier for me AND you to compare pen shows against each other. I created 10 categories, each worth 10 points each, for a total possible score of 100. Keep in mind that some criteria may be more important to you than others. Who’s ready to see how the LA Pen Show does?
Size
When I first went to the LA Show in Feb 2018, it was one of the largest US shows, possibly second only to DC. It feels smaller in recent years, though it’s unclear whether it is due to the insanity of the crowds in 2019 where the show was relegated to the lower level, in a smaller ballroom with pillars throughout the whole room. I have a 1 minutes video from that show where you can see how far I was able to move on Sunday (spoiler: it was maybe 30 feet). In 2020, the show moved to the current hotel which has a big, open ballroom. Still, some vendors had already decided not to come, and this was pre-Covid. And now, we’re still in a pandemic and it feels like there were even fewer vendors than before. I was pleasantly surprised that some of the European vendors decided to come (in some cases, for the first time since the start of the pandemic). I was happy to see the return of Sarj Minhas, Ray Walters, Valerie Wallace of Flyght of Fantasy and others who came from the other side of the pond. Typically, you might also see folks from the Pacific side too, but not since the pandemic.
I can think of at least 5 vendors who did not go this year and it’s unclear to me whether it is due to the pandemic or something else. I think the show is now around “mid-size”, maybe a bit bigger and while it’s no longer one of the biggest US shows, there is still a good variety of vendors. Score - 7/10
Sarj Minhas, AKA “The One Man Pen Show”, always brings along so much eye candy!
Don’t let the serious face fool you, Ray Walters does a mean salsa and swing and when he’s not dancing, you can find his impressive collection of Omas, Pelikans, Montblancs and other fine pens.
Valerie Wallace of Flyght of Fantasy with her amazing handmade notebooks as well as Pennonia Inks and other goodies.
Stacy Hills and family with their pens, pen wraps and other goodies like.
STICKERS!!! Faith designs some awesome stickers - which are your faves?
Frank Zhang (center) and his partners from Narwhal Pens.
Special pen show edition Narwhal Nautilus!
Snagged a picture of Ian Schon and his helper Yahaira Ferreira before the feeding frenzy!
These new colors and finishes were released just for the LA pen show! Some even have a textured feel to the color swirls!
Sam Fiorella of Pendemonium always has a great assortment of inks, pens and vintage goods.
The Pleasure of Writing, formerly known as Bittner Pens, brings some amazing pens to the show!
Dale Beebe of Pentooling is your best bet for finding parts for all your pen repair needs!
Bill, Casey and Sean from Pilot USA brought their pens so you can try the various models and nib sizes, and check out their 3 new Iroshizuku inks (should be available very soon!)
Location
The show is pretty easy to get to as it is about a 30 minute drive from the LAX airport (don’t even bother with public transit, you’ll never make it anywhere). The hotel is right across from the Del Amo mall (random trivia, it was once one of the largest malls in the US until the Mall of America was built), so there are a lot of food options at the mall, as well as within a 10 minute walk. It is also a 10 minute drive from the Redondo Beach Pier for those of you needing some sun and surf time. And yes, it’s always warm enough to surf in Southern California, even in February. Score - 8/10
View from outside my hotel room - overlooking the Del Amo mall.
Hotel
The Torrance Marriott hotel is a fairly modern hotel, with a nice lobby area that has a few tables and seats for after hours meetups. There is also a roomy restaurant/bar, and when the weather is nice (as it was most of the days of this show), they open up their sliding glass doors to make it a very open space. There is also plenty of outdoor restaurant seating (with heaters). The hotel has a Starbucks which closes at 2pm (it came in handy to get the afternoon jolt of energy) - the Starbucks seating area remains open after that, as it is a way to get to the other fire pit and outdoor seating area. I liked their gym which was pretty decently sized and had a good variety of workout equipment. I ran on the treadmill for 2 of the 3 days (and got my 100th mile in February on Saturday night!). There is a paid parking lot for folks staying at the hotel, though most folks who only attend the show will often park at the mall. The show rate for the rooms was $163/night, which is on the higher end compared to most pen show hotels, which is the only reason for the score not being higher. Overall, it is a good hotel close to food and has a lot of indoor and outdoor seating options for after hour hangouts. Score - 7/10
Comfy couches, chairs and tables in the spacious lobby area all meant for hanging out or waiting for friends.
Open seating at the restaurant and bar with lots of windows for sunlight.
Just past the Starbucks exit is this roomy seating area with a great fire pit. I spent a good part of Saturday night here.
Tickets
Tickets for general admission (GA) as well as Trader or Exhibitor Registration could only be purchased in the mail, via check (really? Check? What decade are we in again?). GA tickets were $9 and only included Sunday admission from 10am-5pm (and Saturday seminars, but not Saturday show admission). So what is “Trader’s Registration”? For the price of $55 before Jan 15, or $65 after, you get one pass that allows you access to all show activities, including during show setup and early hours. You are also able to use ½ a table (not reserved), if you want to sell some stuff or meet up with potential buyers/sellers. (I will be using the terms “weekend pass” and “trader pass” interchangeably throughout this recap) As weekend passes go, the price is on the higher side, but on par with bigger shows like DC and SF. The GA ticket price is reasonable but again, only Sunday. If you are unable to attend on Sunday and could only go on Saturday, for example, you would have to pay $55/65 for one day - ouch. I’ll talk more about this later. So while the GA ticket price is inexpensive and the weekend pass price is also not too bad, the fact that there is only one public day makes this score go down a lot. Score - 4/10
Classes/Seminars
No classes were offered but a few seminars were offered on Saturday. Score - 6/10
Nib Worker Availability
There were 4 nib workers at the show - the aforementioned Gena, Matthew and Mike and also Kirk Speer of Pen Realm. This is a good number for a show of this size and I think maybe another 1-2 for Sunday might have worked out, but they probably wouldn’t have been very busy on the other days. Even Masuyama had a half empty signup sheet on Saturday and that’s unheard of! Score - 10/10
Gena working their nib magic on my Scribo which was just too broad for me.
Kirk Speer of Pen Realm working on a customer’s nib.
Matthew Chen (left) and Mike Masuyama (right) were both busy when I came by, glad I snagged a spot with Mike!
Overall sense/vibe
The show is in one large ballroom and the aisles were fairly wide. It did feel a bit crowded on Sunday. Overall tables and aisles were well-spaced out. Mask adherence was generally high, probably 85-90% all weekend, though I did not see anyone asking attendees or vendors to put their masks on if they were removed once inside the ballroom.
I was working at the Lemur Ink table on Friday. It was one of the first tables you see upon entry, so I got a good view of the flow of attendees. Since it was not a public day, there were no massive throngs to deal with, making set-up fairly low key for us and for most of the other folks setting up. So while yes, the show technically starts at 7am, the doors didn’t actually open until 8am and a majority of attendees didn’t come in until 9-10am. It was similar in energy to most pen show Fridays (except maybe DC and SF, which tend to be pretty busy).
Lots of room, decent amount of people doing their shopping too.
Saturday was a totally different story. At most shows, Saturday is the busiest day, but since Saturday was not a public day, it ends up being a really quiet day. It was easy to get spots on Masuyama’s (usually very full) waiting list on Friday and Saturday - at most shows, the nib grinders’ tables are the first ones I hit so I can get on their list. The Saturday folks were often some of the Friday folks whose wallets weren’t empty yet, lol, plus a few “Saturday-only” folks who had to pay full price to enter just for the day, minus the Friday folks who did their shopping the day before, or decided to do spend the day doing other things (like sightseeing), or were waiting for Sunday to see who else showed up.
At most pen shows, Sundays are usually the quietest day of the pen show weekend and many vendors start packing up early Sunday afternoon. Not the LA show, where Sunday ends up being a madhouse. Some vendors, like Yafa, who was also a show sponsor, only show up on Saturday to set up. Other vendors like Flax Pen to Paper or ITOYA of America (US distributor for Sailor, Penlux, etc.) arrived early on Sunday to set up just for the one day.
The line just before 10am on Sunday, the start of the public hours on the show’s only public day.
This is about ⅓ of the line. The other ⅔ of the line is behind me and around the corner all the way to the lobby.
Show Sponsor, Yafa, has an impressive number of tables, but they sat empty until Saturday afternoon.
David Oscarson always has an impressive display of stunning pens.
Local vendor Flax Pen to Paper just finished their setup.
An inkophile’s paradise! Sailor, Kobe and Bungubox inks galore!
Sailor’s Pen Show ink for 2022!
Sunday crowd, though it is still less crowded than it was pre-pandemic in 2020.
If this is the only show you’ve ever attended, you may not even realize this is kind of weird. If you have, whether as an attendee or vendor, it just feels bizarre. If you don’t like crowds or want to be able to take your time to look at stuff and not feel rushed, Sunday is not the day to go to the LA show. Sunday is the reason the score is as low as it is. More on this below. Score - 6/10
Food
As mentioned above, there is a restaurant and bar that serves food for lunch and dinner. The food was pretty good and is what you expect to pay at a California hotel restaurant (not cheap but not too outrageously priced either). Thursday, I had a late lunch at the Din Tai Fung at the mall across the street (soup dumplings, please?!?!) and Friday night, a bunch of pen friends walked a few blocks to nearby Urban Plates. I had ramen at the Mitsuwa Japanese Market on the far side of the mall on Sunday and then had dinner at the hotel with friends on Sunday night after a tiring workout. All in all, whether you only have time or budget for the food court or something nicer, this location has a lot to choose from. Score - 8/10
Soup dumplings, anyone? Yes, please!
There are lots of places to hang out at the hotel and plenty of people chitchatting after hours. The outside fire pits were a hit as were the comfy chairs in the lobby. The hotel bar/restaurant staff were friendly and served food until pretty late while the bar stayed open even later. Unlike at other shows, vendors didn’t stay up too late on Saturday night as Sunday was their big day, since it is the only public day. Score - 8/10
Other
Southern California in the middle of February typically has great weather and this year was no exception. Many vendors flock to the show to get a respite from their winter weather. Trust me, this California girl is happy not to have to worry about ice or snow at a February pen show.
Los Angeles County had a vaccination/negative test requirement as well as an indoor mask mandate but the show’s Instagram said they “hope they will expire before the start of the show”, which was disappointing to read and didn’t give me any warm fuzzies. That said, most vendors and attendees wore masks throughout the show and our vaccination cards were checked when picking up the passes. I was only there for a short time on Sunday morning, but it also looked like mask adherence was fairly high.
I didn’t make it to the show floor on Thursday but had heard that significant theft had already hit two vendors. One vendor had a tray stolen during this time, while another had a whole rollaboard suitcase of pens stolen!! I don’t believe this happened during late evening hours but in the afternoon. This is not the first time that theft has struck at the LA Pen Show, either. If memory serves me, theft has happened on the first day of this particular show the past 3 times (maybe longer since I’m still a relative pen show newbie). Another tray of pens was stolen from another vendor on Sunday. There is no overnight security and on Saturday afternoon and Sunday, there were security guards in the ballroom primarily checking for lanyards/name tags; it would be difficult for a couple of security guards to see anything happening at a table. This is not an easy problem to solve for LA or any show, so I wish all of the show organizers and vendors the best of luck as they unfortunately have to worry more and more about theft.
I spoke with several vendors who had not attended the LA Show before and they all asked me if it was normal for it to be so slow on a Saturday. I explained to them that since Sunday is the only public day, unless you already had a weekend/trader pass, very few people want to pay $65 at the door just to go on Saturday. They collectively gave me an “Ahh…” followed by “Wait, why is there only one public day”? I wish I could answer that question cuz it doesn’t make sense to me either. I’ve heard the argument that adding a public day on Saturday would reduce the number of hotel room nights that are booked through the show, or that it would reduce admission income too much. I would argue that there would be more paid admissions on Saturday and Sunday, than if they only offered one public day. In addition, it would likely cover the gap for folks who are forced to pay for a weekend pass. Though I think that gap can easily be filled if they charged $10-15 for public days instead of $9. More people, spread out over two days means a better experience for vendors AND attendees alike.
On top of all this, there’s even more madness that affects both attendees and vendors on Thursday - Saturday. As I mentioned earlier, if you got a weekend/trader pass, you are entitled to ½ of a table to sell your wares on Thursday - Saturday, which sounds all fine and good. Except those spots aren’t reserved and are first-come, first-served, which might also sound fine, except you may be in Spot 1 on Thursday afternoon, Spot 8 on Friday, and Spot 36 on Saturday - all depending on what tables are available when you come downstairs that morning and who you want or don’t want to be close to. Which is annoying as an attendee - if you were eyeing a pen from a vendor on Thursday, you’d have to go roaming the ballroom to figure out where they are on Friday and again on Saturday. And if you are a vendor, you don’t get to stay in your assigned spot the whole weekend. Yeah, that’s right, even if you paid $225 (per table), you have to pack up your stuff at the end of every day and unpack the next day, at a different spot. Sounds like fun, right? NOT!
Let’s couple that experience with the show schedule. The hours are Thursday 2pm-11pm (wait, what? 11pm? Yup, keep reading), Friday 7am-11pm, Saturday 7am-8pm, Sunday 7am-5pm. Is the show REALLY open til 11pm? No, not really, but the ballroom is. It’s open so folks can have a space to do off-hour trades. This meant that folks especially vintage dealers or those specializing in second-hand items can do their wheeling and dealing with each other when they aren’t busy selling to pen show attendees during “regular” hours. Oh and remember that part I said about no security until Sunday? It means, if you started setting up stuff for any of the days, not only do you have to pack it all up because your spot isn’t guaranteed the whole weekend, there’s no security and the ballroom doors aren’t locked until 11pm!!!
As I mentioned earlier, I worked for John Phelan of LemurInk on Friday and at the end of the day, we had to pack up the goods because of all that weird schedule and table stuff I just talked about. On Saturday, they announced over the ballroom speaker that they wanted vendors to start cleaning up by 6pm but that the doors wouldn’t be locked until 8pm. Thus advertising to everyone in the ballroom that vendors would be leaving around 6pm but the ballroom would be unlocked until 8pm. If that doesn’t give you as a vendor a warm and fuzzy feeling of security about your stuff, I don’t know what does (yes, that was sarcasm in action). If you were lucky and the stars aligned, you might find out where your Sunday tables would be and maybe even allowed to stay there the whole weekend. John lucked out and negotiated with the show organizer to stay at his location for the whole weekend. If you were most everyone else, you were told you’d find out Sunday and you had to move around all weekend.
Because the show advertises these hours, some people think they can actually show up after 6pm and expect to find a room full of vendors, when in reality, what greets them is a largely empty ballroom since most of them have already packed up and left for the day. This actually happened to John on Friday. Also, I want to add that I have John’s permission to share his experiences from this show because he wants people to know just how oddly run this show is.
It’s hard not mentioning the Sunday only public day thing again because it is really what makes this show kind of insane. One public day = big crowds. Adding onto this, many vendors had to re-setup for Sunday because they likely weren’t in their permanent spots all weekend, and add all of the Sunday-only vendors that also need to set up and you can see why it is quite the cluster on Sunday, especially in the morning. Score - 4/10
Report Card 0-50 Oof, do not attend
51-70 Show is alright
70-80 Show is solid
80-90 Show is pretty darned good!
91-100 REALLY good show and not to be missed
The LA Pen Show scored 68/100, which sounds about right to me. It is not a bad show, in fact, it wouldn’t take much for it to be a solid show (like adding classes) or a pretty darned good one (more than one public day, vendors staying in place, etc.).
So why do vendors and attendees keep coming back to this show? Well, there are a lot of folks who have traditionally made a lot of money at this show, or spent a lot of money, or both. And you’re probably wondering if I would come back to this show and the answer is yes. There are a lot of great vendors who go to very few shows, and this is one of them. LA is a great destination in the middle of winter. It is the only other west coast pen show (the other one being SF at the end of August) and there are a lot of pen people in the LA area (some of whom I only get to see at this show). And I never leave empty handed.
Pen Show Haul - I got the newest TWSBI Swipe from LemurInk, the Esterbrook JR Fantasia, a pin from Stacy Hills, 4 pens worked on by Gena Salorino and Mike Masuyama, a Sherpa Sharpie holder, stickers from Faith Hills and a bottle of the 2022 Sailor Pen Show Ink.
As I said before and hope I can stop saying soon, the pandemic is still out there and continues to affect pen shows differently. All I know is that, pandemic aside, this show has some work cut out for them if they want to become one of the pre-eminent pen shows again, but I think they can do it. Until the next pen show, stay safe and stay inky!
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