Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Notebook Inflation?

My post "On Keeping a Lot of Notebooks" brought a lot of fellow Moleskine fans out of the woodwork, and also led me to some interesting blogs about notebooks. The unfortunate effect of this is that my old notebook lust has been kind of reawakened and I keep finding myself wanting to buy new ones now! I have a hardcover Moleskine and a softcover Moleskine currently going, as well as another little sketchbook that I keep wanting to start, but it's so pristine and gorgeous, I almost can't bear to put a mark in it. I'd like to make each page of it into some beautiful little drawing but I know I'll end up doing something that doesn't turn out right and looks ugly, and then I'll feel like I've spoiled it. So this makes me want to have an identical brand new sketchbook still in the wrapper so I can try again!

So, since I was just passing by anyway(!), I went back into the store where I most recently bought some notebooks. They seemed to have sold out of the sketchbook I wanted. And I was appalled to discover that they'd raised the price on their Moleskines from $12 to $15! That seemed like quite a hike given that I'd only been in there a few weeks ago. I also noticed that they seemed to have redecorated and rearranged the whole store, and thought "well, gee, maybe this renovation has cost them a lot of money and they need to raise prices... but damn, these things are going up in price even faster than gas is!" I kept puzzling over it when I got back to my office, when I finally realized that I was actually confusing two very similar stationery stores that happen to be right near each other! Whoops! They may be $15 at Store A but I'm sure Store B still has the $12 price. (And of course Amazon has them for even less.)

So there's a good tip for you when it comes to getting the best price: first make sure you're in the right store!!

2 comments:

Edwin said...

Hi,
I have the same experience her ein the Neterlands. Now that Moleskines are so popular the price is rising here and there. Fortunately there are also good online shops available with free shipping within NL.
http://www.moleskines.nl is one such example.
Cheers, Andy

WhiteStone said...

Confusion over two stores! Made me feel less silly about my own confusions. LOL. Thanks for sharing that. (said with a giggle)