Making the Right Point About Ritepoints

Well ahoy there everyone, and thank you for reading this latest blog entry about my experience with bidding on a beautiful lot of vintage Ritepoint ballpoint pens via eBay.

I discovered my first ever Ritepoint ballpoint pen at an estate sale where while digging through a coffee can of old pens and pencils (which by the way had been ignored by everyone else who was rooting about in the 1980's era office of that home), I discovered a ballpoint pen that possessed the sort of style and elegance that many current day consumer level ballpoint pens cannot hold a candle to.  It was a Ritepoint brand advertising pen for a realtor in Berkeley, California from the 60’s, and I was in love.

From the deep mossy green color, to the classy brass band which adorned the top...to the angled slope of the tip of the pen body from which the ink refill emerged…everything about this pen was so refreshing to look at. And to hold this pen felt as though one was transported to another, simpler time. 

The original nearly light blue-black refill was still going strong, and the delivery of the ink was smooth and appeared to be a fine versus medium tip, which for me was another plus given my deep appreciation and fondness of the .38/needlepoint refill world.  I then stored this great find away for at least one year, and then rediscovered it during a recent pen inventory.

Last week, there I was minding my own business, tooling around on eBay while looking for some brand new international pens to adore, and lo and behold, there it was -- an auction for a lot of fifteen of these Ritepiont beauties, which opened at the very reasonable price of $8.95.  And so I bid $20.00 thinking that it was a slam-dunk win because no one else was going to outbid me at that number.  Who was I kidding?  Of course someone else joined in the competition to bring these glorious historical writing utensils into their lives. 

Imagine my absolute joy and delight when two days later, I walked away with that gorgeous lot of vintage Ritepoint pens for the extremely reasonable price of $44.00.  I figured at $2.93 per pen, a $44.00 dollar investment remained a steal, especially since I had located the modern day refill for these pens and could use them effectively forever. (These pens can use the Papermate Lubriglide refills which come in fine and medium point).  By the way, if after reading this post your curiousity is piqued (like Jack the cat's in the photo below), do run a search for "ritepoint ballpoint" within eBay to pick up some of these wonderful pens for your collection. 

The moral of this story is that although nothing beats the discovery of a new modern day writing utensil, one should not forget about all of the venerable treasures which are buried at garage and estate sales, or within the homes of your best friend's parents and grandparents, often in a neglected coffee can left in the study, office or garage.  Go to those sales, and build those

relationships so that you, too, can broaden your vintage writing implement horizon (at a bargain price), and ultimately perhaps further enhance your joy of writing.

Praytell, when was the last time you found a pen that you were super stoked about, and which one was it?

Yours Faithfully,

The Lady Quiller