Price Increases – TWSBI & Sailor

Bad news is coming, I’m afraid…

I know price increases are not popular, but unfortunately, the Canadian dollar continues to plummet. It is currently at 1.32 USD to CAD, and when we purchase from the US, we are really getting hit hard.

Most of our TWSBI products are being increased by a few dollars, but here are the important ones:

TWSBI 580 from $60 CAD to $65
TWSBI 580-AL from $72 CAD to $78
TWSBI Vac700 from $78 CAD to $85

We haven’t raised prices on Sailor so far, but the time has come.

Sailor Reglus – from $133 CAD to $145
Sailor Professional Gear Slim – from $185 CAD to $205
Sailor Professional Gear/1911L – from $295 CAD to $325

Sailor Jentle Inks – from $15.50 CAD to $16.50
Sailor Four Seasons Inks – from $22 CAD to $24
Sailor Kiwa-Guro/Sei-Boku – from $25.50 CAD to $30

I’m really sorry to have to keep announcing these price increases – I know every time I blog about this I talk about the exchange rates, but these are literally the same prices as US retailers except in Canadian dollars. We are continuing to absorb the cost of increased international shipping, duties & custom taxes.

We have had a few folks from the US comment that our prices end up being really terrific for them because their dollar buys more here than if they would be buying from US stores. While we love our American visitors, our current Canadian pricing is a disadvantage for both our US retailer friends but also for us to continue to stay in business. We had hoped our Canadian dollar would strengthen and perk up a bit, but with fluctuations mostly downward, this is unfortunately out of our control.

Thanks so much for your understanding and support. We really, really appreciate it when folks in store comment about the exchange rate, knowing that our already slim margins in importing goods because even slimmer. It can sometimes seem like our prices are “higher” than getting it from other independent retailers, but in reality, with the exchange rate, we are still committed to as fair and as competitive prices as we can afford to offer you.

These new prices will take effect Monday, August 17th. If you have any questions, please let me know. Unfortunately, we cannot hold old prices for products that are out of stock up to and as of August 17th, although we are going to be trying our best to get TWSBI and Sailor in over the next two weeks.

Don’t Feed the Animals

As I’m sure you know if you’ve followed the blog for any length of time at all, Super was the centre of our lives long before the arrival of the human pup.

Super is a pretty terrible dog most of the time; he barks at everyone and everything, even himself when he wakes himself with his own barking in his sleep. He’s had more than a few trips to the emergency vet, mostly because he’s so smart, he’s like a raccoon, but so dumb at the same time. He once had to have his stomach pumped for eating a box of raisins followed by a a giant bar of pure chocolate, and the vet’s first comment after that was, “okay, so that was a lot of raisins…” This was alright when he was, you know, the sun around which all other planets rotated.

We were a little worried about what would happen when we brought the baby home, but actually we’ve been pleasantly surprised! I guess that’s what happens when you have low expectations. They hang out together basically the entire day, and it alternates between Caleb watching the dog do something he’s not supposed to do, or the dog watching Caleb do something he’s not supposed to do.

Their latest thing is Caleb feeding Super. We have this “rule” where Super is only allowed to eat when food is given from the hand, not random scraps of food he finds on the floor – a rule that’s basically only followed when someone (adult) is watching. Super has learned pretty quickly that the best way to get free treats is to hang around the baby as much as possible.

At meal time, Super has to sit at least two or three feet away from Caleb in his high chair, since Caleb will pass over one pasta bowtie at a time over the side if we’re not watching. Super will inch closer and closer until his nose will just barely touch Caleb’s finger tips. When Super’s too far away, Caleb will casually drop some broccoli on the floor and look at the dog. The dog looks from the broccoli on the floor up to us, staring in quiet desperation. Life is tough sometimes, don’t we all know it.

But Cheerios, I guess, are made for sharing.

Caleb is currently operating on a three-for-me-one-for-you ratio.

 

And just for fun, this hilarious picture of the baby…

No more pictures! Neither of us are wearing pants!

 

 

INKdoc Giveaway Winner!

Thanks so much to everyone who watch the INK film and left a comment! It was great for me to read through them, and I had to laugh at a few of them 🙂 But many of you also left very thoughtful and meaningful comments about how handwriting and writing can be such a wonderful thing.

It was very exciting to see that so many of you know the importance of handwriting – but of course no surprise 😉

Ryan selected the #INKdoc winner at random, and it is B. Brittain Marshall!

A bottle of Noodler’s Black, Noodler’s Raven Black and a DVD copy of the feature film SNOW will be in the mail! Please send us an e-mail at info@wonderpens.ca within three days.

Tanja has a brief cameo in it 🙂

Here are a few words from Ryan Couldrey:

When I first approached Tanja Tiziana about filming this short doc, neither of us had any idea what the end result would be, and we really had no idea that it would end up resonating with literally tens of thousands of people (30,000+ plays and counting!). It means the world to us that our little film actually made an impact in the lives of so many, even if only for a few minutes.

While we don’t have plans for something feature-length, there is more to Ink than the 7 minute doc itself. On the official page, www.ryancouldrey.com/ink there are four more videos featuring (mostly) unedited footage of Tanja speaking on different subjects. They’re bonus clips, and as they’re unedited you might hear her drop an f-bomb or two.

We’re also planning to shoot a quick follow up where Tanja shows us her writing instruments of choice. If you follow my Vimeo account (www.vimeo.com/ryancouldrey) you’ll be able to watch it as soon as it’s posted. Following us on twitter (@RyTron and @TanjaTiziana) is another way to keep tabs on that.

Thanks again to Liz and Jon and the Wonderpens community for watching and sharing our film.

PS. Many inquired about the nib Tanja was using in the close up when it got caught in the paper – it was a Hunt Imperial O.

In case you missed it: